Two posts in one day, most unusual, but I am at home all this week, and enjoying the serious winter weather that has descended on the the Northern Highlands.
Took this at 7:50 this morning - different composition than usual, but the muted blue colours are quite special.
Poor forecast for tomorrow, and back down to Aviemore. Early start so no early photos I'm afraid.
Flying back from Edinburgh last week, the weather was pretty dull in the south, bit cleared as we flew North. We arrived over Inverness just as the sun was setting, and then circled over the airfield for a final approach. Just then the sun broke through the clouds, and I snapped this shot......
On a late February evening flight from Inverness to Glasgow - 16,000 feet over the Trossachs, looking west to towards Jura, the Mountains of North Argyll and Inveraray.
The reflections of the sunset on Loch Fyne are quite remarkable, IMHO....
The hills of East Sutherland and the Ord of Caithness from Nairn - looking across the Moray Firth. Digital Zoom shot photo-shopped to bring out the layers of colours...
Tarbert Ness Lighthouse on the left.
Been at home for a few days - yes I know, most unusual - and what a weird, quiet and unusual week it was. Hamish passed his driving test, Magnus was away in France skiing, and Charlie was back to Uni. I was busy trying to re-decorate a number of rooms (modern speak for painting them in exactly the same colours they were before) but somewhat hampered by the fact that I had no specialist paint (ordered Monday and arrived Thursday) and the Rayburn was still playing up, over three weeks since it was serviced. A spooky co-incidence and once that may cause a few tears yet.
Working in the sitting room, painting and varnishing, as one does, I was playing music on my PC - in the adjacent study. I have the computer set up to show all the photos in My Pictures as a Screen saver, but am rarely around much to see them. This time, however, was different, and I saw series of snaps from 2, 3 and four years ago that I had forgotten existed.
This is a panorama from 2002, from our last holiday in Asturias. I remember taking three shots for a merge photo walking back to our car - parked at Poo beach (titter ye not missus) from the nearby, yet quite remote "Surfing Beach" named after a local saint.
It was our third year staying at the same house at Parres - just under these mountains - and our sixth year in Northern Spain. Great holidays, great memories, and great mountains....
"The Cleopatra as she swept past the town of Cromarty was greeted with three cheers by crowds of the inhabitants and the emigrants returned the salute but mingled with the dash of the waves and the murmurs of the breeze their faint huzzas seemed rather sounds of wailing and lamentation rather than a congratulatory farewell."
Erected in 2002, to celebrate the birth of Hugh Miller, whose prose is recorded above, and the 25 ships that left Cromarty, carrying people evicted from their homes, bound for the New World.
I took this photo about a year ago, and always liked it, think it one of my better of the East Church. Before Christmas Ruth was reading the Ross-shire Journal and noticed that the Church of Scotland website was hosting a photo competition, and suggested that I enter.
So I e-mailed them this snap, and in early January found that it had been published in the Ross-shire, as it was one the entries chosen to be voted on.
