Well, I hope you have all had an agreeable Christmas and can just about find the energy to galvanise yourself for one more binge of food and alcohol before spending January increasingly depressed as you tick off the list of resolutions you have failed keep.

My Christmas has been a little different this year as having a dog makes you realise that you will pay a heavy price for drinking too much; a dog you see, has no respect for a hangover and it will place the same daily demands upon you, regardless of your suffering.

My only over-indulging worthy of early morning nausea was when my girlfriend plied me with Rum on Christmas Eve, a drink that I soon discovered, is temporarily pleasant on the palette but ultimately, cruel on the head and stomach, which it turns into a washing machine.

So, much of my time was spent out in the countryside burning off a small percentage of the calories that come with chocolates and cheese. Enjoyable it has been too, taking a few photographs and visiting new places where without a dog you wouldn’t visit. This has been complimented by weather that has seen daffodils and snowdrops popping out of the ground like embarrassed guests turning up early to a party.

Of course, a highlight for any narcissist is to get noticed and I was well chuffed to discover that the BBC have used one of my photographs from Danebury Hillfort on their weather website page; a moment of glory I shared on Facebook with relish, leaving my followers in awe of yet another string to my over-used bow.

My photograph that was shown on the BBC website

Of course, the BBC could not show-piece my talents without my say so and it would be easy for one to assume that I sent this picture to them with an outside hope of getting on the television or the internet. Remarkably, this was not the case and the fact is my tenuous link to having five seconds of fame is even sadder than that.

If you look on the BBC weather homepage (where you can still see my photo) you will see on the right hand side that there is a link that says BBC ‘Weather Watchers’. Yes, that’s right, I am one of them, going through the daily process of recording the temperature, precipitation and wind speed, along with a picture to back up my data.

That’s right, along with my dog, I plough a lonely furrow through the countryside of Hampshire collecting weather data and taking photographs, and do you know what, I can’t get enough of it, as it seems to unleash all the happy cells in my brain, although I can’t quite understand why such a mundane activity would do so.

An added bonus is a picture published on a national website, because as a man of many hobbies but a dearth of discernible talent with regards to any of them, one smidgen of recognition is enough to keep me going, at least for a while.

As for the photograph, it was taken with an iPhone 6 and proof of a conversation I once had with a photographer who worked for the press agency Reuters. His theory, a correct one, is that you no matter how expensive your camera is, a good photograph can only be taken with a good eye, and a good landscape will only work by using the ‘rule of thirds.‘

Have a good New Year!