Highland Light

from afternoon darkness, to brightness at midnight

some spring, this is



This was yesterday, about twenty past two in the afternoon, in Glencoe. Waterfalls blown upwards, or dashed aside on the rocks, beneath a dark, wintery sky, and with winds close to hurricane force

Glencoe - darkness shortly after noon


Then tonight, about ten days overdue, our first bright midnight sky of 2011

Fort William's First Bright Midnight of 2011

Note the Pole Star shining.
More rain forecast for tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.
Ho-hum...
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back to the beach at sunset

it’s the eve of our 10th Wedding Anniversary



and here we are back at our old honeymoon haunts - and chasing again the sunset down to the beach at Traigh, by Arisaig. This time, though, there’s snow on the beach, right down to the high tide mark

Midwinter Sunset at Traigh 2010
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comment is free, again

you’ll notice that after a gap of a few months, witter-n-grunt.com now has comments available again on the Blog pages




Comments are now working via Disqus, and you’ll be invited to sign up to Disqus when you post a comment on the witter-n-grunt.com Blog. You don’t need to sign up, though, just click the “Guest” button and your comment will get through.

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...and this...



Loch Lochy, as seen by Jim’s Leica M8, March 2010. B&W conversion and tweaks in Lightroom 2.
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spring, and the Hills are Burning

long evenings, now. This shot taken tonight from our driveway



about 8.45pm, with a fine sunset glow in the wispy cirrus, and fires still alight where the annual heather-burn is underway.

You can see flames near the top of Meall an’t Slamain, and more smoke rising out of the glen to the left.

Fire! Fire on the Mountain!

Not a bad view, we have here!!
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www3

www3? that's Winter Wonderland Week 3



And here were we, out by the bottom of the Glencoe ski run, by the Black Rock Cottage and looking towards the frozen slopes of the Buachaille Etive Mor (great herdsman of Etive)

One of the defining images of the Scottish highlands. Jim took this shot today with his Epson R-D1 and CV 25mm f4 lens.

Ruth was driving, but slowly and gently enough to allow a fairly sharp foreground



Forecast says we may have another two weeks of this wonderland still ahead of us. Can't be bad! There was a little rain today, though, for the first time in weeks, and the temperature leapt to a basking -1ºC in Fort William just as darkness fell. So could be the thaw is at hand, or not....

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voyage to the northern perimeter

between Saturday the 9th and Thursday the 14th of May



we took a trip up round the very north of Scotland - you'll see our route in Multimap form here - with overnight stops in Dornoch, Thurso, Tongue and Lochinver, and passing through - inter alia - Wick, John O'Groats, Assynt and Ullapool.

On the way out we stopped at Inverness Airport to pick up Peter Wareham who wanted to come along for the ride.

First night we stayed in Dornoch. Most famed in recent times for hosting Madonna's wedding the day before we got married in Morar (we owe her one for distracting the paparazzi from our nuptials). But as well as its cathedral Dornoch has a rather fantastic beach where we watched terns and diving gannetts



in the long-evening light.

We'll post a full gallery of pics as soon as other things allow - it's off to Yorkshire next weekend, and Ruth's computer screen's gone blank - but for now, here's a shot of John O'Groats (not nearly as crass and commercialised as people tell you)


and one of Thurso beach - which according to the Rough Guide doesn't exist!! - but which does, and to prove it hosts surfing championships (BRRR!!!)

Thurso, though, is a nice wee working town, and rightfully qualifies as Scotland's "Best Kept Secret".



One of the great surprises was Tongue - a genuinely pretty little village in Sutherland, and one with a dramatic setting, beneath Ben Loyal. Here is the view of the Ben from the village at sunset:



Come back soon for more pics from the far north!!

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