What a great holiday! But no time for blogging...

No, I'm not dead; nor have I given up blogging; there has just been no time for it.

You will understand that better if I say that since beginning my holiday travels in Sussex on 1st April (25 days ago), I have driven 2,750 miles - 1,200 of them towing my caravan from the south coast of England to the northernmost part of the Scottish mainland, and halfway back again. The remainder - 1,550 miles - represents all my daily outings while 'on site', some of them very long and tiring. I haven't become brain-dead from fatigue; but bear in mind that I'm nearly 67, and there is a limit to what I can accomplish without feeling somewhat stretched. Nevertheless, almost every night I've cooked myself a proper, delicious evening meal - and done the washing-up - before settling down to the necessary hours of photo-editing.

And how many photos? Very nearly 3,000 in those 25 days. Why so many? Well, the weather has been remarkably good so far, sunshine and blue skies being the rule rather than the exception. Fine weather is always a spur to photography, even if it's often been chilly despite the sunshine. Scotland, with its magnificent range of scenery, and things historic, is definitely a photographer's paradise: and even in normal times, I need no excuses to blast away, recording everything of interest.

I'm also conscious that - at least so far as the most northerly bits of Scotland are concerned - this could be my last-ever visit. I can only get there by caravan, a tour using hotels being way too expensive, and I do wonder whether in (say) five years' time this trip can be duplicated. By then, the rising cost of diesel might make it too costly an undertaking; or I might need the money more urgently for buying my next car. Since I plan to buy an all-electric car next time round, there will be range and charging issues that will affect how easy it will be to tow my caravan long distances, and to which destinations. I'm all for 'going green' on my personal transport, but an electric car may not let me go so far from urban areas where fast-charge points might abound. I still expect to reach Scottish places like Fife, but remote Sutherland and Caithness may be out of reach.

Apart from range problems, will a 72 year old Lucy Melford be up for relentless day-after-day travel? I'd like to say a big yes to that, but you never know.

There you have it: a couple of reasons why I went to some places on this year's oddyssey with a sense of possibly never returning. Not because I wouldn't want to, but because I might not be able to.

So I blitzed them. Those places were well and truly photographed. And I got some excellent shots! But my goodness, all the hours that were needed, in order to process them all. For I've kept a high proportion of what I took.

You must imagine me sitting in front of the laptop, listening to Smooth Classics on Classic Fm till gone midnight, nearly every night. Which is actually a good way of passing my evenings: it's an interesting and creative activity, and it's really quite a pleasant task in a comfortable and well-heated caravan, with a break every now and then for tea or coffee. The evening hours fly by, and it's in no way a chore. And as I complete each batch and back it up, I feel that another set of experiences has been captured and preserved for later enjoyment. Truly a labour of love.

Some of the shots will be published to the world on Flickr; a different selection will find their way into future blog posts, tailored to a narrative meant for a more select readership.

But with so much time devoted to my holiday snaps, there was no slot available for any posts, not after the first couple of days. In fact for most of the time I've been anything up to five days behind on my processing, such has been the volume of pictures. Getting on top of that has been the priority. Now that I'm out of Scotland, and shooting less, I'm catching up.

And tonight I found time for this post. There may not be another for a few days, but once home I want to write several posts in quick succession. It's been a great holiday, and I want to share it.