POTD

The Waiting Game
Cullen, Scotland
2015

The Same, Only Different
Portsoy, Scotland
2015

On a walk this morning (they don’t “hike” in the UK, they “walk”) I was struck by how similar the view in front of me was to walking back in the U.S. I might see this same kind of view in parts of Montana, and certainly back in Kansas where I grew up. But of course a single photo doesn’t tell the whole story of the landscape. In Montana there would probably be a view a a mountain range behind me. In Kansas there would be a view behind me of, well, the same thing as in front of me. Here outside of Portsoy, about 150 feet to the right of me the terrain dropped off a cliff into crashing ocean waves. And a couple of miles down the track I was here:

Sandsend, Scotland
2015

Jack Needs a Sweater
Portsoy, Scotland
2015

He looks cold, and his gesture suggests he’s none too happy about me documenting his predicament.

Stormy Tuesday
Portsoy, Scotland
2015

I took this shot a short but rainy and windy walk from our place in Portsoy this morning. I used a long exposure to blur the waves hitting the rocks, giving the scene the foggy look. This is a rather trendy method of shooting seas and skies these days, but can produce some interesting images. This one certainly reflects the feeling I got being out in the weather along the North Sea coast today.

Tuckered
Portsoy, Scotland
2015

The Fashion Queen taking a quick snooze on a break during a coastal hike.

Iona Nunnery
Iona, Scotland
2015

An austere ruin dating from the 14th century on the austerely beautiful island of Iona.

Moy Castle
Lochbuie, Scotland
2015

A compact little castle a short coastal walk from sleepy Lochbuie where the old post office (a small rock building about 10’x12′ in size) at the parking area is now a self-serve snack and meat shop–take what you want, put your money in the lock-box slot (the tray of coins next to it is for change if you’re due).

Dog Home Fund
Tobermory, Scotland
2015

Acting in his own self-interest no doubt, this dog was posing on top of the wall to draw attention to the donation bucket. Down the street, an van belonging to the Tobermory Otter Fund was parked. There was a slot in the side of the van where you could drop donation money. To draw attention to it, they had a fake otter hanging off the side of the van. It did draw attention, but not to the extent the  live dog model did. One of the biggest issues they have with the otters on Mull is the number that get run over in the roads every year. Perhaps they should have put that stuffed otter under the wheel of the van. That would have certainly drawn more attention.

The Narrow Road
Isle of Mull, Scotland
2015

The good news is that most, if not all, of the major roads on Mull are paved. The bad news is that this is how wide many of them are. And they’re two way roads, and there are often bushes on both sides, and blind hills and corners, and ditch drop-offs or walls right at the edge of the pavement. I think the roads are so narrow here that if you collected all the asphalt into one place it would hardly be enough to pave they typical Walmart Super Center parking lot in the U.S.

There are little pull-outs scattered along the roads where one car can pull over to let another pass. If you see one between you and an oncoming car then either you or they pull in and let the other pass. If you meet someone between pull-outs, then one of you has to back up to one.

This all works surprisingly efficiently unless there is too much traffic. Our landlady told us that once a garbage truck meet up with a camper van in a steep area and neither wanted to back up to a pull-out for fear of backing off the road. So they had a standoff while traffic began to back up on both sides of them exacerbating the problem. The police finally arrived and spent several hours unraveling everything and getting folks on their way again.

A Universe of Bubbles
Tobermory, Scotland
2015

A celestial-looking swirl of bubbles in an eddy below a cascade in a stream in Aros Park.