The Green Isle of the Great Deep

The Hercules, originally uploaded by ccgd.

24 hours in San Francisco, so I had to take a photo of Alcatraz.

Its bright and sunny here, although there is a cold westerly wind. Quite like Easter Ross on a sunny Autumn day.

Couple of things though :-

-I know know the way to San Jose
-I've seen no-one with flowers in their hair

I had about 2 hours between business meetings so I took a cable car ride over the hill to Fisherman's Wharf, and looked at Alcatraz and the golden gate bridge.

Gosh the Americans do tourist tat in a big way. The most cheesy bits of Boston were high society to the tourist centre of San Francisco. Its all done very tongue in cheek though, and tourists are everywhere so its not that bad.

The city reminds me of Lisbon more and more though.

Seattle later today.

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments

Greenland, originally uploaded by ccgd.

BA 287 London to San Francisco

Nunatak's poke their way through the icecap.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunatak

Its now 6:30 local time here in SF, landed at 4:30, was through immigration and picked up my bag by 5:10, and was in my hotel by 5:30.

Not bad.

Trouble is my body thinks it is 2:30 in the morning.

San Jose tomorrow......

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 1:30 AM | Permalink | Comments

Fins, originally uploaded by ccgd.

T5 Heathrow.

Arriving on a flight from Edinburgh about an hour ago. Posted through the free wifi network from those nice people who run BA lounges.

I had a boss many years ago who when asked where he and his wife were going on Holiday, replied "the West Coast".

Oh Oban's very nice at this time of year was the reply.

No he said - San Francisco.

And thats where this set is from - a trip to San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle.

Work. San Francisco/San Jose to meet some folk from our West Coast USA office (and by our I mean the people of Scotland), and then on to Seattle to spend a couple of days with Microsoft, and the good people of Seattle.

Prof Jim Hunter always said that the Highlands could emulate the success of the Pacific NW of the USA and Canada.

So lets see how its done.

(and I've just realised that you have to be Scottish to get the joke........)

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments

Good morning Cromarty, originally uploaded by ccgd.

Colours over the Sutor.

7:01 Thursday the 25th September.

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 5:46 AM | Permalink | Comments

you play the melody on the chanter, originally uploaded by ccgd.

The title as a tribute to the late great Martyn Bennet, and his amazing final album - Grit.

The Hands of Angus Binnie - a very fine young piper.

Photo taken in a new year session in the Cromarty Arms a couple of years ago.

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 7:11 AM | Permalink | Comments

Tuning up, originally uploaded by ccgd.

Another oldie from the archives - August 2005

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 9:39 PM | Permalink | Comments

Kai's tree, originally uploaded by ccgd.

We interred Kai's ashes at Coldbackie back in August, the first time that the whole family could get together at the croft house almost 14 months after his death. His kids then planted a tree - a rather nice red bitter sweet crab apple (sums up Kai I suppose) - over his final resting place.

A funny/sad/happy/difficult/cool sort of occasion. But it worked.

Oh and have a look at the Kai Davidson Trust website - its all good stuff.

www.kaidavidsontrust.com/

And he made the dead rock stars website. Now that is funny.

Midges were hellish though........

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 8:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

The QE2, originally uploaded by ccgd.

Leaves the Cromarty Firth back in 2005.

From the archives

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments

Windfalls, originally uploaded by ccgd.

Windfall apples on a stone bench outside our kitchen door. The bench is made from an old Marriage Stone - from the union of Donald Junor (DJ) and Katherine Galdie (KG) in 1713.

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 7:52 PM | Permalink | Comments

The tun - reflected, originally uploaded by ccgd.

Next to the Scottish Parliament, the Tun is where we have our Edinburgh offices, as do the BBC.

I was in there first thing this morning doing a live Radio piece for Good Morning Scotland, just as the sun came over the top of Arthur's Seat.

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 8:47 PM | Permalink | Comments

Calum and Magnus, originally uploaded by ccgd.

Magnus and his pal and team mate Calum have a quiet laugh before the race.

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 9:54 PM | Permalink | Comments

nordland house, originally uploaded by ccgd.

A Copenhagen corridor.

Nordland house is the home of all the "Northern" consulates, embassies and directorates (Faeroe, Greenland, Iceland etc) in Copenhagen.

An old warehouse, retrofitted as offices, its pretty neat, in a very Scandinavian way.

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 9:51 PM | Permalink | Comments

The marine, originally uploaded by ccgd.

My Grand-fathers old pub, looking rather sad as it undergoes renovation. Its been empty and shut up for years now, still has the Marine Inn, Thurso sign up though....

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 2:53 PM | Permalink | Comments

Quilt of light, originally uploaded by ccgd.

Now that we are at the end of summer, the mornings are cooler, and we get some spectacular cloud formations over the Sutors.

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments

A line of orange, originally uploaded by ccgd.

In Sornoway Harbour.

Posted by Flickr Scotland at 6:12 AM | Permalink | Comments