Getting on with my life and thinking about things.
Based in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Reached 200 within 72hrs
CLOSED at 2,017
APRES CLOSE: 2,021
Water problems left house on limited clean supply. Went to down to big beach past Tolsta. It started snowing. maplink
It quickly goes from this to ...
this.
But being hardy folk, kitted up for the outdoors, we just pratt around until the cold gets to us and we had to a warm car.
Mike has to dance around as he doesn't have a nice Alpkit jacket, like what I do.
Click with new camera...
Ignoring PoB references, we slip into the Tarbert harbour. Hardly a bump during the crossing. maplink
Scalpay bridge - I've never been across it. When I was last there, it was an LCT we used.
We say farewell to the isle of Skye and head across the Minch on the HMS Hebrides, 38 gun.
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The ship leaves Uig as the sun plays with the clouds and the sea. maplink
Wind factory across Loch Snizort.
In the Minch, the Shiant islands provide protection from the bad weather to the north. We had a fine crossing.
Car thermometer reads 2'c but ignores wind chill. Static caravan doesn't. Raised off the ground, the wind chills the floor. But good tv and warm fire. And the promise of a cooked breakfast. I left "out of doors" on the radio to move car into ferry queue. And i've been waylaid by some photo opportunities. Also the antics of some seaweed pecking brown birds with white breasts. Alternately huddling behind the racks of kelp on the shore and pecking into them for flies? I'll get their names later.
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The sun sets over the Uig headland.
Rift activity monitored by Torchwood Uig.
Due to bad weather, road trip diverted to Skye. Took some photos of beautiful hills on the way here, but had to focus on driving. Appropriately, "the 39 steps" is on tv, and the hero is heading across Scotland. The static caravan is rocking in the high wind. Woosh. But that's ootside the hoose.
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Stopped on A890 to take photo of snow-covered hills.
And got diverted by other things, like the juxtaposition of the light, the cloud and the bothy. I can't help it, I get all celticy and heelan'.
Cows.
A buzzard landing on a very thin branch.
The Skye Bridge. A bridge to Skye. It also comes from Skye. It's like magic. And now it is free. Only because some people refused to pay and took matters to court. Aren't Governments wonderfully democratic.
Another week, another century. 900 signatures in favour of legalising wild camping in England & Wales. It seems appropriate that it should be scored by Mr Bateman. It wouldn't be cricket otherwise.
I wrote off to a few people last night, but Scots, so why should we bother? Well, some of us would like to tour, and would like to wild camp legally. Selfish, but if you are going to be biased against one group of tourists, then who's next?
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Another couple of shots with the Canon Ixus 950 IS. After nipping up to Tescos to get a bigger SD card (ooh, play.com doing large giggage for low poundage), I stopped at the Beach Boulevard for some low light shots.
Tower blocks. F/2.8, ISO 250, 1/8seconds, hand-held.
The Beach Boulevard (maplink) - I had to wait a few minutes until I could get an 'empty' shot. F/2.8, ISO 250, 1/8seconds, hand-held.
The only image manipulation that I've done with the images has been the cropping. Everything else is straight from the camera. I've using the rule-of-thirds grid on the LCD monitor. Photos set to 'superfine' JPG quality, and 3264x2448 pixels. Image size varies from 1mb to 4mb, depending on content.
I won a competition at work for my use of the VLE and got a digital camera as a prize. It was presented by the Principal, and wasn't just "a digital camera", but a top of the range Canon Ixus 950 IS. Woo hoo. At the end of the day I took a few shots from the top of the Tower Block and then went home to read the manual.
View of the car park above John Lewis' [f/2.8, ISO 80, 6mm], and the same shot with the full zoom on, cropped to show detail [f/5.5, ISO 200, 23mm].
View westward toward North Anderson Drive. I set the scene to beach to play around with the sunlight. I like the softening effect.
Back at base, I checked my outstanding filing. Some of the students may recognise the bees from their "bee story" project with Susan.
Expect more shots during the Easter break. Possibly pushing the image stabilisation to extremes dealing with windy days on hills and low light shots indoors and outdoors.
Strange coincidence. I was at Dyce airport last Friday, waiting to fly to the Outdoors Show. They had some art on display. I was drawn to the work of one artist. I recognised the work when I caught up with last week's "Landward" BBC programme. Her name is Wendy Sutherland. Her site is here, and there's a link to the other artists on display at the airport, and here's the link to the BBC page about the outdoor artists featured in the series.
Having walked in rain, mist and low cloud, there is always something to see, hear and feel.
News of the release of the "Nr 1 Ladies Detective Agency" has been hit by the sudden death of director Anthony Minghella today. (news)
I am sure that his final work, due to screen this Easter, will be a tribute to him.
Bob got his PodZine from the Outdoors Show up on to iTunes on Sunday night. That's a rapid turnaround! Interview with AlpKit (their CoLab competition). As well as Rose's voxpops from the floor, diary and summary chat with Andy Howell.
After non-Scots were handing out leaflets at The Outdoors Show, and some stands were carrying the pro-wild camping leaflets, the petition has jumped through the 800 level to 811 (at time of posting).
We had the meeting yesterday as arranged, and we'll be following up developments over the next weeks.
Yesterday I met (in alphabetical blog order): Alan Sloman, Bearded Git!, Doodlecat (Phil), Gyrovagus (Chasrles), LondonBackPackers (George), Mick & Gayle, Must be This Way (Andy Howell), Postcard from Timperley (PhreeRunner & Nallo Lady), Sally in Norfolk and Geoff, Walkabout in the UK (John Hee), Weird Darren. Others seen, Bob and Rose (shop and The Outdoors Station) and Graham Thompson (on stage).
Aberdeen hasn't changed much since i've been away. Sky seems bluer though. I wonder if i've picked up an accent? Or a grey squirrel alien egg lurking in my pack.
