Ardmore on your right and heading West for Loch Laxford. We nearly ran aground...the tide was very high and we hit some rocks with the propeller.....booom!. Very spectactular...dont want to do that again.....ever.

I looked for the life vests and found one....."Its mine I shouted!"....there were no women or children aboard...I was very tempted to make Johnnie walk the plank but he is bigger than me and he was the Skipper.....Needless to say we survived......Once more. What I must say is that Ardmore is truly a magical place....the Vikings and our ancestors would have sailed into these sheltered bays taking refuge from the gales from the Atlantic.

John Ross has a mussel farm not far from here.........the mussels are....the best I have ever tasted....keep up the good work John.

This was a perfectly good colour photograph until I decided to muck about with it.................................In hind sight I really like it........................... so here it is!

oZTralia

I was travelling between Cairns and Mt Isa.......This was the road. Mile after mile of red dusty hard ground.
By the side of the road (not captured on film) were thousands of empty beer cans....The aboriginals would get it together to collect these cans for the aluminium. Just occasionally I would spot a coke can and think "my god there's been a teetotaler along this way".

When I eventually arrived in Darwin....I found out that Territorians dont use Kilometers or Miles as a measure of distance.....they use the unit "Carton". A "Carton" consists of 24 cans of beer.....Therefore a trip from Darwin to Kathrine for example would be a 3 Carton trip, 150kms, or 72 cans of beer. This of course depended on how many people were travelling!.
If you asked how far it was from Darwin to Alice Springs????....Unknown................ because no one ever returned from Alice Springs to tell the tale............

Morags Mirrors

Morags mirrors look to the South. The window reflects the soft winter light and warmth of the peat fire.

Each mirror reflects different shades of light, the original photograph was taken in black and white...I added the colour and created the water colour effect using photoshop.





















Most images that I look at these days evokes music. This one especially so.
I took this photograph of my cousin Ali whilst fishing near The Witterings .......The sun was just right, no fish though.

Delbert McClinton - "ShotgunRider"

Fleece on a Bramble

Just occasionally, well perhaps everyday, perhaps more than once a day, perhaps every second, I see something that takes my breath away. That special moment, that precious time that should not be forgotten, that lingers in my mind. Maybe it should be called "now" time.
"Fleece on a bramble."
I saw this whilst walking the hill, why should it resemble a fleece?
Special moments, that you know cannot be repeated will be and should be engrained in the memory. How can nature "grab" a lump of fleece and "dump" it on a thorn but still leave a piece of beauty?.
"To pick a rose you ask your hands to bleed" 10,000 maniacs..............Eden.








"Tigerlilly** Natalie Merchant---Where I go"

Wabi Sabi

What is Wabi Sabi??The "celebration of imperfection" seems far too simplistic. Do we have a similiar outlook?, after all we live on an island, just like Japan. We find it possible to laugh at ourselves, mostly.
Look at "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy"......."Dads Army".....
Personally, I think anything that can make you cry is probably pretty close to Wabi Sabi.....

There again this sounds more like it.....
“Each today, well-lived, makes yesterday a dream of happiness and each tomorrow a vision of hope. Look, therefore, to this one day, for it and it alone is life,” Sanskrit Poem.

Or maybe this?
When visiting Bali, Indonesia I was walking through a small wooded area and I saw some flowers and a lit candle placed by the side of the path. This puzzled me, who would have thought of doing such a beautiful thing and why?.

Once back at my beach hut I asked a local why such things are done....His reply was "because they wanted to".....................

This must be the answer....I was sitting in the pub with a very good friend of mine, Martin Smith, and I related a story about the time I was staying in a Croft house in Sutherland. This is the story.

"I started to gaze into the fire and visions appeared, a grey mist started to creep around me, all time seemed to stand still"

"Oh!" said Martin "that happens to me everyday".........."Its called day dreaming"

Being Watched

I feed my sheep twice a day, not sure why. I guess its instinct. They must be hungry so I feed them.
They should receive about 1lb of hard feed per day + roughage ie hay.
The hardest thing to get used to is 40 very hungry animals looking at you at the same time....all a bit unnerving.

Once I'm out and about they will start to communicate their hunger....a baaa here and a baaa there.

After they have been fed I feel their unrest, they have to go for a wander. They travel down to the lower field and scavange what they can. Mostly mosses and old grass, if the sun is shining they will cruise the upper fields searching for that elusive blade of green grass. After such a long hard winter its hard not to feel an empathy with them, when the wind and rain approaches out of the south west it sends a shiver down my spine.

Yesterday was particularly bad, horizontal rain with a biting wind. The latest on the news was climate change.....hmmmmm they should visit Sutherland.
Not sure if you can see the Suffolk Cross (black face) the other side of the gate, well she was very lame since last Tuesday she's my best ewe, strong and full of character...today she is walking just fine, all she needed was a bit of a rest and some warmer weather..........Just like me.

The Land Of Grey and Pink

One of my favourite albums....I seem to remember seeing "Caravan" at Kingston Poly around about 1972'ish not sure....anyway it is an album that made a huge impression on me.

"Sounds of a distant melody"...."funny how it's clear now you're close to me.....dreams are always ending too soon"......

We survived..........................."just".........................If you were there, "The Land of Grey and Pink".

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PkODJyXHak&list=PLjemnZCovsewQQTUfEGXEMa_PfPfgEOy3

Trunk Monkey

Where we live "road rage" is uncommon. However from personal experience living in London or probably any major City, the "Trunk Monkey" is needed.

Please contact InuitCharlie for further details.

Make sure your speakers are turned down....this starts pretty loud!!

Gertrude

I caught Gertrude with a severe hangover yesterday. I think she had been celebrating the early spring arrival of Bill & Belle, two transient Oyster Catchers. This arrival usually indicates warmer and dare I say it?, drier weather. Watch this space.

Gertrude is due to have her lamb (yes she got scanned back in January) any time after 15th April.....