Permanent Tourist - A personal website by Mark Howells-Mead

After a twelve year wait, I finally get a decent photograph of Blair Castle, near Pitlochry in Scotland.

Wall of sound

I remember seeing Oasis early in their career when they played a Sunday afternoon slot on the subsidiary NME stage at Glastonbury Festival in 1994. The indelible memory is the sheer wall of sound coming from the stage, even then, before they released Definitely Maybe. Two years later, they played two legendary sets at Knebworth. […]

In which I tell a short tale about cannibals.

Bern band Choo Choo in 2010

Long-time visitors to the site may vaguely remember that I used to collaborate photographically with Bern pop band Choo Choo.

A text posted as a Twitter thread yesterday by user Tin Doom. I felt that it deserved a blog post, as this kind of thing is what blogs are for.

Axalp in the snow

Walking in the snowy landscape of Axalp, high above Lake Brienz in the Swiss Bernese Oberland.

Drone photograph of Loch Glascarnoch in summer

Aerial views of a flooded glen in the wilds of northern Scotland, with low water levels exposing the old road.

WordPress expert Mark Howells-Mead

Improving the addition of specific WordPress core heading blocks using just the keyboard.

WordPress expert Mark Howells-Mead

How I update my local development environment from a live site with a single command.

Microspikes on the way to Suggiture

I should’ve tried out my hiking microspikes before. They’re great for hiking when it’s icy.

All good things come to an end, and it’s time to say farewell to my trusty Avant.

WordPress expert Mark Howells-Mead

The next stage of WordPress’ development is the ability to edit any part of a site – from post to navigation and footer – using nothing but the Block Editor.

Catching the first train from Zermatt onto the mountain and photographing the most well-known peak in Switzerland.

With so much to do and so many beautiful places to visit, the choice can sometimes be overwhelming.

Slipper Chapel, The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham

Cable cars emerging from a cloud inversion at Grindelwald

How to help a viewer to better understand the scale of a scene.

There is a light that never goes out

Marr’s rendition shows what a joyful song this is, despite the superficial conclusion which many (or most) people draw from the chorus. It’s not about death, but the incredibly deep love felt by the protagonist. I think this didn’t come across in Morrissey’s renditions, because his style emphasised misery instead of joy.

Close-up of seaweed on Lunan Bay beach

Living in a land-locked, mountainous country can be hard when you love the seaside, beaches, caves and coastal nature. Luckily, Scotland abounds in such things, and we took the opportunity to spend a couple of hours at Lunan Bay when we visited Angus in July.

Grand Canal, Venice, photographed from the Ponte dell'Accademia

We took advantage of a much-reduced number of tourists in July to visit Venice. I came away with an unexpected number of good and unique photographs.

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