A 90-metre drawing of a fox on the frozen Pitkajarvi lake north of Helsinki, Finland, created by an architect-designer who hopes it will "make people happy and encourage them to go out to hike in a beautiful nature”
PASI WIDGREN/AP
The waxing moon over the Old College at Edinburgh University on a cool night. Scotland will be rainy today with fog elsewhere
JANE BARLOW/PA WIRE
The Scottish Goldsmiths Trust and Ethical Metalsmiths, working with art colleges, want people to “mine” their jewellery boxes for unwanted items as part of the Radical Jewellery Makeover Project. Here Edinburgh College of Art jewellery students Ramsay Pagett and Honor Dodd survey a selection of donated items
COLIN HATTERSLEY
Indian security personnel pay tribute to victims of 2001 terror attack on Indian parliament in New Delhi
MANISH SWARUP/AP
More than 11,000 shares have been sold in the world’s rarest stamp, the 1c Magenta, printed in British Guiana in 1856. The philately company Stanley Gibbons, which bought the stamp for more than £6m, is selling 51 per cent of it through fractional ownership, with 80,000 shares each costing £100
Spectacular patterns in an ice cave system that runs through Langjokull, Iceland’s second largest glacier, and can be explored only with a guide
LIOR YAAKOB/SOLENT NEWS
Dave Newman, a wildlife photographer, got a perfectly timed image of a kingfisher carrying away a tasty snack in Lincolnshire
SWNS
Lance Sergeant Jimmy Pickersgill-Jones beat five comrades from the Welsh Guards to have his moustache crowned best on parade by the public. The men took part in the face-off to raise money for charity
WELSH GUARDS/WALES NEWS SERVICE
A climate researcher tracking birds in the drought-hit Kalahari desert in South Africa checks weaver bird nests, which lesser kestrels use to raise chicks
KRISTIN PALITZA/AVALON
An actor puts his feet up during rehearsals for the Wintershall nativity play, which has been performed annually since 1990
HOLLIE ADAMS/GETTY
This world’s largest Christmas tree in Gubbio, Italy, has held the world record since 1991. It is 750 metres tall and 450 metres wide
CICO/ROPI VIA ZUMA/EYEVINE
Lucas Chianca Chumbo of Brazil rides a big wave at the Tudor Nazare Tow Surfing Challenge at Praia do Norte in Portugal
OCTAVIO PASSOS/GETTY IMAGES
Zookeepers across Europe have nominated their best photographs of 2021, including this one of Luka the smooth coated otter taken by Nicky Judd, a keeper at Yorkshire Wildlife Park
SWNS
Jacqueline Parsley, 84, June Hicks, 86, and Doreen King, 91, with humboldt penguins Charlie and Pringle during a visit to the Orders of Saint John Care Trust’s Spencer Court care home in Oxfordshire
DES DUBBER/OSJCT/PA
Chocolatier Dawn Jenks adds the finishing touches to the Christmas elf creation at Cadbury World in Bournville. The elf weighs 8kg, the equivalent of 178 standard bars of Cadbury Dairy Milk, and stands at 50cm tall
JACOB KING/PA
The Chessington World of Adventures Zoo has welcomed the birth of three critically endangered Colombian spider monkeys, including a set of male-female twins. The team have named the twins Brussel and Sprout and the other male baby Cranberry
PINPEP
Christmas shoppers wearing face masks while on Oxford Street in central London
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD POHLE
An elephant splashes around in the Chobe river in Botswana
ANDREW AVELEY/SOLENT NEWS
Alexandra Harg and her seven-month-old daughter Hazel are welcomed to Brisbane by parents Maja and Rob Fyfe after she arrived on the first flight from Sydney into Brisbane's domestic terminal since border restrictions eased overnight on Sunday
DAN PELED/GETTY IMAGES
For more pictures from The Times follow us on Instagram.
