Strathearn Sunset

My sense of the geography of Strathearn has not really fitted together until quite recently. There have been a few locations, isolated points and a few lines: the A822 from Gilmerton up past Monzie to the Sma’ Glen; The Hosh at the foot to access Glen Turret; a small B-road between the two; a hill […]

Around Glen Affric: water

I had a short holiday at the start of last November, a few days spent in Glen Affric. There are several aspects why it’s my favourite part of the planet, but for the purposes of this post, we consider the role of water in shaping a landscape, eroding its way through rocks to form river, […]

Glen Affric: Caledonian Forest

From wikipedia: The Caledonian Forest is the name given to the former (ancient old-growth) temperate rainforest of Scotland. The  known extent of the Roman occupation suggests that it was north of the Clyde and west of the Tay. The Scots pines of the Caledonian Forest are directly descended from the first pines to arrive in Scotland […]

Sunlit Snow

A classic Trossachs view – sunlight on snow-capped mountains (Sron Armailte, Ben Vane and part of Ben Ledi), from the Duke’s Pass.

Squaring the Spheres

A few weeks ago I ordered a pair of extension tubes for the Sony NEX-7; today I got around to experimenting with them for the first time. It’s quite scary seeing so much dust on the live-view LCD panel and realising it’s actually on the front of the lens. Two tangerines and an apple.

Noctilucent Clouds

Noctilucent (“night-shining”) clouds are a rare phenomenon: the highest clouds in the atmosphere, at altitudes between 47-53 miles, consisting of tiny crystals of water ice about 100nm in diameter and requiring very cold temperatures to form. Not fully understood, they are a recently discovered meterological phenomenon with no record of their observation before 1885. They also […]

Flame On!

A couple of days ago the shed door started coming off its hinges altogether in ordinary use – the wood underlying the screws had rotten away. This afternoon, we burned the whole thing – and a great bonfire it made, too, with the roofing felt melting, burning, exuding a thick black smoke (fortunately not for […]