Red Sky In The Morning........

If you think it couldn't get any worse......ha I woke up to this the other day. Just blowing IN your mind.

Give it up to the shepherdess I reckon. Perchance to find one under the current financial crisis....Offers??

There wasn't a big storm but my scaffold took a bit of a hammering.......It moved three boards right off the scaffold.

I guess that's the least of my worries.

Look on the bright side I was offered a cat yesterday by Bridgette who lives in Blairich....I think its mentioned on the web somewhere...(Blairich...... not the cat!)....

Massive house and very lovely people.....I think the house has seven chimneys.....Oh yeah where was I?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv4Wpychxh8

Ready for the storm.......I reckon........"Quote"

SnowRush

There is a sky after all. I was beginning to doubt it. We seem to have had so much snow, grey skies. What's going on?

I love the combination of colours here, I'm trying to be optimistic and appreciate that Spring will surface eventually.

Its tantalisingly close, just like the blue sky in the background.

"SnowRush".........Slow down and observe.

West Langwell Sky Burst

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sky Burst one day over the Loch

A great big hole appeared

Would it consume us?

How did we know it was friendly?

Not the day to go fishing

Unless of course you are not scared of Sky Bursts

I'm scared of Sky Bursts

This kind of Sky Burst can mean many things

Most Sky Bursts are friendly.............

This one has that element of menace

The kind of menace that you meet on your way to the Loch

Just after lunch.

Meltdown

This is how I feel right now.

After the Xmas and New Year craziness, everywhere I go all I can see is mud.

The snow has melted, but there is still the memory of the uniformity of the snow flake embellished in the mud.

Here it is.

The memory of a snowflake in the mud....

Perhaps we should take a few moments to reflect on Haiti and all the people suffering over there, as so often happens after disasters like this, the Worlds media moves away and the focus is less and less.

I know from personal experience that this is so.

The World needs a "Heart of Gold"..........Neil Young

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eh44QPT1mPE

SnowShadows

I took this in colour on my silly little mobile phone which actually has a fairly low resolution 2megs I think. I then converted it to greyscale on paintshop pro........By adjusting the brightness its actually turned into a half decent photo.#

Oh by the way

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We had loads of snow but not many photos I'm afraid.

My neighbour, Hughie was taken ill over the New Year and I had to 'phone 999...He was being violently sick and drifting in and out of consciousness....Almost thought I would have to take his teeth out and perform mouth to mouth....Didn't relish that.

There were blizzard conditions, in fact it went "whiteout" for a while. There was no way a helicopter could land or the ambulance get through the snow drifts, so I 'phoned Mackie who has the biggest tractor in the world and snow plough.

He made it and rescued Hughie....boy was I glad to see him and the tractor steaming through the drifts. Hughie has recovered and is now back at home.....Best place for him.

"One last breath" Creed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yY1Nrznh4I

Freefallin..............

My Fire

Its December, The "Fire" becomes central to my existance.

Wake up..... get out of bed....its the first thing on my mind. Get Warm.

Everything else takes a back seat.

Late at night when its quiet and I can hear the gas escaping from the coal.....I reflect on all my tasks, my challenges. What will tomorrow bring?.

Is it a City burning?

I'm sure I can see Darth Vader in there somewhere.

Or are they just Chinese lanterns cruising around my mobile home?................The delights.

As we draw to the end of another year, I feel that as a part of this great escapade, nations and different cultures really don't understand each other. Global warming conferences in Copenhagen, whatever next?... Perhaps we will see Global caring conferences in Hollywood.

Is there actually a problem at all?. Lets get real over this. We are at the tail end of an Ice Age. The world is warming up.......Actually my feet are just starting to fall off with frost bite........So thats a load of old bollocks then.

Just found this band on spotify and now on utube....watch it in high def and pump up the volume.

"Impossible Germany".......Wilco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPAbjNT7nQY&feature=related

Magic.........

Sheep

I've been working with sheep for nearly 6 years and usually check the flock at least once a day. From late September they can more or less be left alone.......In fact most Crofters take their annual holidays around this time.

There is plenty of grass for them to graze on. Prior to my dealings with sheep I considered them to be rather stupid creatures......Not true.

They are highly aware of their environment, in fact they can be an early warning for severe weather......

If they are huddled in a group...beware.....very bad weather is approaching....

It has taken me a very long time to capture the "flock" mentality......Here it is.

I'm not too sure what they are looking at, the really amazing thing that I have found is that they can rotate their ears nearly 300 degrees..........Once you have realised this and walk quietly through the flock observing their ears.........Very wierd.

Also I have found that I can approach them and get really close by avoiding eye contact...They obviously look at my eyes being a potential predator.

This brings me to another gem:

Hem......"The Fire Thief"........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJRbhM3myEU

Wierd Skies

This bizarre sequence of photos were taken in July 2009 the weather had been doing some very strange things.

Not sure that the washing line complete with clothes pegs enhances the experience or not.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1An2pjS4mKE&feature=fvst

School of Seven Bells......... Wraps It up........"Half Asleep"

The Teleporters Wheel

Just the other week Johnny came up with the Teleporter to move some roof tiles around for me. One of the tyres blew a puncture. The tyre came off and was replaced, somehow not sure why the tyre got left here.#


One morning the sun was beaming through and...

this is what I saw.

Almost as though we are looking through a time portal provided by the Teleporters tyre....Strange.

Perhaps all Teleporters have such powers, they are very powerful beasts.

Johns

I woke up this morning and really didn't want to get out of bed. Not sure why.

Perhaps I'm doing too much. Being self employed........ if I don't get out of bed thats ok...I just dont earn any money.

I truly believe that the secret to a long life (ha! I will drop dead tomorrow now) is lack of stress. Sure I have stress with my Croft and animals...but its not that toe curling perpetual crawl around the M25 everyday.....


Anyway I got around to getting out of bed, well bits of me did..... and I suddenly had a fleeting glimpse of a previous life. Here it is....in all its glory. Two very good friends. The two Johns.

Johnny Bowen & Johnny Sheen for ever mates.

Star and Garter Hotel Kew Bridge

Currently on ebay at £0.99 what a bargain...how many of us have been in this hotel?

I was just thinking how weird it would be to go back in time and walk into the pub and order a beer. What do you think the locals would make of you?....Bearing in mind this was taken around 1905.

I'm not convinced the atmosphere in the pub would be much different than today. The pub is close to the river, which always makes things interesting. The "Outrigger" in Kingston was a river pub....

I've always been drawn to river pubs, perhaps its the sound of water or maybe its that they attract scoundrels, vagabonds and thieves..........

Its no longer an hotel....it looks as though its been converted to flats....amazingly the building has survived, two world wars, England winning the World Cup, The Miners strike, 3 day working week, Maggie, Blair, and SO FAR another coalition Government ..............check it out.

The Three Musketeers

An afternoon at Paulos. We talked and drank and talked and drank. Not sure what we talked about .......I think we drank vin rouge.

From the left......Paulo, Smithy and yours truly.

Happy days, the sun was shining, the children and women were somewhere else. Just us three.

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.