Just a few days after sharing a post in which I mentioned that I photograph a lot of subjects that are not icons… here is a photograph of an icon! This scene in the town of Portree, Isle of Skye is definitely in that category. I’m pretty sure that this scene will show up if you search (or as I hear I should now say, “search up”) “Portree.” It is an attractive row of colorful buildings, and their reflection in the water adds to the effect.
Continue reading Colorful Buildings, Portree, Scotland
For a hiker like me, with a lifetime of wilderness hiking and backpacking behind him, a “Cotswolds walk” is a new and different experience. I am used to single-person-width trails, usually rocky, and sometimes ascending to quite high elevations. On multi-day trips I have carried everything on my back. But here the trails are gentle, often passing between and through fields and pastures. And you carry only a few supplies for the day’s walk — you simply stop at a grocery or a pub in a small town at lunch time and buy something to eat.
Continue reading Cotswold Trail, Clouds
I have written before that we (or at least I) don’t always know everything ahead of time about places we visit. While it isn’t good to be completely ignorant, I think that this allows for surprises and “discoveries” and sometimes takes you to places and experiences you might otherwise miss. Anyway, that is my excuse for arriving here, on the drive from Inverness to the Isle of Skye, unaware of the remarkable Eilean Donan Castle.
Continue reading Eilean Donan Castle, Inner Sea
I live in a place (San Francisco Bay Area of California) that isn’t exactly a desert, but it also is not particularly wet. Virtually all of our rainfall comes during a mostly-winter rainy season that lasts just a few months, and the rest of the years is generally dry. In fact, by this time of the year many of our hills and valleys have dried to a “California golden”color. So Scotland was quite a contrast for us! It rained at least a little on virtually every day we were there, and water — in rivers, streams, lochs, and the ocean — is everywhere.
Continue reading A Highlands Cascade