Too small for a swim but would be lovely on a hot day to dip your feet in. Maybe more, maybe it’s a portal to another world, put your toes in and you are transported to a time when the great Caledonian forests were rich and verdant. What if its peaty waters are a magical elixir, those who drink of this will possess the gift / curse of eternal life. Possibly it’s a fairie pool and on the nights of the full moon they come out to dance and swim. It could be it’s just a pool, it’s source in the majestic mountains feeding it, and feeding my imagination too.
(Credit for Flights of Fancy, certainly mine, all photographic credit to Frank Heumann)
A typically west coast of Scotland scene, the heavy clouds moving in and just one place illuminated by a beam of sunlight. Now you know why so many of the houses are painted white. It is not always cloud and meagre light, when the sun shines this startling lady bestows her smile and all is illuminated. This is Applecross playing with the light.
From the website for Applecross, they say it so well. Click on the link: www.applecross.uk.com for more information.
“Between the mainland mountain masses and the Island of Skye lies the Applecross Peninsula. Home to just 238 people, and accessed by only two roads, this is a haven from the noise and clutter of modern life. The Gaelic name for the area, ‘a Chomraich’, means ‘The Sanctuary’. Its not the easiest place to get to but you’ll never forget the journey or the time you spend here, however brief. Over the 2053’ road called the Bealach na Ba, if the cloud has lifted, you’ll see the kind of views normally reserved only for sweaty mountaineers. Panoramas to the Outer Hebrides and South to the Kintail mountains will keep you gazing until you need to descend to the village for warmth and sustenance. We could wax lyrical about the fantastic beaches, the calm waters of the Inner Sound and the gentle hills above the crofting townships, the food, the music, the sunsets and more. But we’ll let you read on and discover for yourself…”
(All credit to Frank Heumann, madly afflicted with love for the very feminine west coast of Scotland)
How about this one as my day draws in. I’m still sitting at the computer writing, looking at the grey-blue early evening sky and my thoughts are far away in Broadford Bay. If I could rise to see that, I don’t think I’d mind getting up early at all.
(Broadford Bay, Isle of Skye - all credit to Frank Heumann who must have gotten up at the crack of dawn to get there and capture this.)
I’m looking out my window at the rain, the rain that never seems to end. We’ve had weeks of it and then two days of oppressive weather. The air pressure climbed and I felt like something out of a science fiction movie, clutching my head and complaining about the air. I’m happy to see the rain but I’d rather send it to Skye right now, they need it, their whisky needs it! Even better, I’d like to collect all that rain and send it down a Venetian canal, with me in a gondola drifting on the top of it. I know everyone uses powerboats there now, that’s fine, they can have them. I’ll be in my gondola, my gondolier saying incomprehensible but utterly charming things to me in Italian. Next to me will sit an Italian gentleman, much like the one in “Under the Tuscan Sun,” telling me, “if you don’t stop looking so sad, I’ll be forced to make love to you.” No wonder some people can become addicted to a certain kind of sadness! I will sip my wine and marvel at the light of Venice at night.
I love light; light streaming in the windows, a home with lots of natural light and the first thing I do every morning is fling open my curtains. This gorgeous photo is a perfect example of the beauty of obscured light, diffuse in places, creating darkness and shadows. What a lovely contrast, one of the yin and yang things I adore about the Scottish Highlands. This one was taken in Glencoe, on the first day north heading for the Isle of Skye. I don’t think the weather up there is too brilliant just now but it’s not deterring one photographer from taking exceptional photos. Light and shadow - a perfect combination.
(All credit for photos to Frank Heumann, click on link to see more.)
