The last day of my visit to Loch Awe was a washout. The strong tail wind and wobbly waves along with the heavy rain made it rather hard to take a snap of Kilchurn Castle from a canoe on the Loch.
Though even if this photo is not pin sharp, this panorama really shows off how dramatically the castle, the Loch and Scotland can be.
Woke up bright a early and just had to enjoy the peace and clam before the rest of the world, well the birds had beaten me, woke up.
If you fancy you can listen to the sound there, over on soundscapes@woollypigs
More commonly known as the Holy island, just off the coast from Lamlash on Isle of Arran. I took this after midnight in the middle of Storm Brendan, which gave the island go old battering, while we visited. Even on a small but sturdy tripod, that I was holding firmly, the long exposure got some motion blur. But I think it works well on this image, where we can see the light (glow) from the mainland and even at night the sky is blue when lit up by the fool moon.
Had a very windswept walk on Kildonan beach, got the cobwebs well and truly blown away. Could have spend many more hours walking here, will be back one day. As I can just stare at the waves for hours on end. On the way back the light and clouds changed and we got this rather cool looking light.
In the background behind Pladda you can just make out Ailsa Craig, where you can find the blue hone granite that has long been quarried to make curling stones
View from Lochranza on Isle of Arran, towards the Kintyre peninsula. This is the tail end of the shower that gave us a good “wash”. When the weather forecast says showers, do be prepared wrap up fast, as you will get a soaking double fast at random times. As you can see on the other photo, the shower had on higher grounds brought some snow with it.
Lochranza Distillery, jolly good wee dram. There used to be about fifty distilleries on the island, but most of them were “moonlight” or illegal distilleries, those where the days, eh 🙂
Had a few days on Isle of Arran. This snap was taken from the ferry as we left, the mountain had a wee dusting of snow doing the night.
Bonus shot of Goatfell, with added castle:
We are coming up to 6 years with this mutt. And I’m sorry for being such a bad owner/companion, I mean I haven’t shared many photos of her here. Though, head over to instagram for more 🙂
For once this dragonfly sat still long enough for me to change lens, focus and snap.
This bench have seen a fair few things. Sadly by the look of it not many people have stopped to watch time go by on it.
I know they are often seen as a weed, but I do like the look of them and always reminds me of New Zealand.
Funny things these, never really heard about or seen these before. Now nearly every time we go to a bit of wood where there is a fallen tree, we find one.
Not much to say just a grand day out to a corner of Scotland we haven’t been to before.
We “fell” over this castle on our last trip out and about. Didn’t even know about it until we drove past it, changed our plans and spend a morning walking the grounds and visited the great cafe, erm, yes there was cake.
There is a interesting story to this – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowther_Castle
This is our new pet, well he thinks so. Comes to our door about once a day, like he owns the place.
It’s out neighbours cat, whom our dog have utterly fallen for. When she hears his bell, she goes spare and demands to be let out into the garden to greet him. Archie isn’t much fuzzed about Tilley’s dancing and downward dog “I wanna play” stands. He tries to head bud her and rub up against her, but this she don’t understand what that means and then tries to do more downward dog playing. To which he “hit” her in a play like manner with his paws, which causes Tilley to walk backwards with her front paws up one at the time trying to pad him.
She even took one of her toys out to him to show/play with. Archie just gave it a light pad with his paws and wandered off to lay in another spot.
This friendship have taught our mutt that cats are great. Sadly not all cats have read that memo. So we still need to keep her on tight control, as she runs up to any cat in the neighbourhood.
I don’t see winter in Meteorological vs astronomical terms, I see it in how much snow we get.
Meteorological: This corresponds to the months of December, January and February in the Northern Hemisphere
Astronomical: The determines the seasons due to the 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth’s rotational axis in relation to its orbit around the sun. Also in the Northern Hemisphere, depending on the year, this corresponds to the period between 21 or 22 December and 19, 20 or 21 March.
And in 2013 we had over six feet of snow on the 22nd of March, which according to the above is spring. Where as in “winter” we had less snow, well a mere dusting.
But do head over to wiki and make your own mind up 🙂
The Leeds and Liverpool Canal is always busy but at the same time also one of the best places to go for walk.
Looking down the Roman Roan and next years meals for the worms.
Well it is the season, so I will bore you with a few snaps now.
Hiking up the Roman road out of town. Which takes you up to the moor with a view over town.
Day Six: “Solitude”
The state of being alone, or a lonely and uninhabited place.
I need to find the correct quote. A French explore/sailor wrote a book, years ago, where one part he talked about being alone. He said that, he felt more alone on the Metro in the Paris rush hour. Compared to being on his boat alone in the middle of the ocean.
This I can totally relate to. The more remote I am, the more I feel at peace, relaxed and funny enough feel like I’m with my friends. Like here walking all alone, ok Peli is with me, on the Farewell Spit on the South Island of NZ.
Day Five: “Connect”
In this age of social media, we hear the word connect often, don’t we?
The “old” fashioned way to connect with each other, IRL aka In Real Live. Take a train, ride your bike or heck even walk over to your friends and family and then have a cuppa and a natter.
Day Three: “Water” — Image Orientation
A few days late with this one, sorry chaps. Was a bit busy with life and also split on what do do with this challenge.
I started to click through my old photos for ideas and found this one of a water tower in Portland, OR. So thinking out of the box and not following Today’s tip, oops.
Photography: Developing Your Eye I
On what I call the road to nowhere, I cycled past this little bouquet right in the middle of the road.
On Uig bay on Isle of Lewis you are spoiled with stunning sunsets.
This lone post was standing by the sea and was well weathered. Sadly you can’t count how many years it has stood there.
I have tried for three years to find Mangersta Bothy, aka Eagle’s Nest. The first two years I just went from memory and old maps, mainly no clue of where it would be other than in the Uig area or there about.
This year I found a blog post with a better description of where it would be. Looked on the map and narrowed it further down, and off we went.
I had led us in the right direction and just as I said to Peli I think it should be in this vicinity. She said – there it is! She had spotted the skylight window.
Just of the road on Isle of Lewis, near Uig Bay, there is this little gallery.
I understood that all the plastic used it this artwork was found on the beach.
