Postcards from Skye

sunrise

2009-01-14T20:55:00.002Z

sunrise, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

On the way to work this morning, a lovely sunrise, just had to stop for a shot. One of my favourite sunrise locations.

Loch Cluanie

2009-01-02T20:19:00.002Z

Loch Cluanie, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

A return trip to Loch Cluanie, where I had spotted the potential for some good photos when driving home on Monday. The loch was still partly frozen with some great reflections.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T16:11:00.002Z

Happy New Year, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

A gorgeous day here on Skye, with new years resolutions firmly in place I took a walk from my new house, along the Elgol road, over to Corry and back to Broadford.

branches

2007-12-02T21:03:00.001Z

branches, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

First good day in a while, so an opportunity for a walk. My camera should been making its way back to me, it has been in for repair for 6 weeks. So have reverted back to using my wee Olympus.

Leitir Fura is an abandoned village, only accessible by a forest track. Usually a good walk, as it was today, marred only by the mountain bikers who kept passing me. The forest track is great for bikes, but the path is a wee bit narrow.

Lots of people out today, more than I've met in previous visits, that's what some sunshine does.

I loved the wavy clouds, almost like extensions of the branches of the tree. I had to compose so that the low sun was hidden by the tree trunk.

sunrise

2007-02-12T13:10:00.001Z

then it froze, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

A stunning sunrise and time to take some photos, it was hard to know where to look!

Knock Bay

2007-02-02T16:16:00.000Z

No shortage of locations in Sleat to choose for a lunchtime photoshoot, just have to ask - where's the sun (usually hiding behind a cloud!), how high is the tide...

Lovely day on Friday so we headed for Knock Bay, tide out, sun to south, nice castle to north, hills across the water...

As the tide was out we could walk a fair distance and the rocks and mussel beds were exposed.

This photo of mussels prompted some recipe ideas over on Flickr, being vegetarian I wouldn't touch them!

Interviewing on Skye

2007-01-22T21:23:00.001Z

sunrise, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

Another sunrise from Friday. Busy day at work today, interviewing for a senior developer . It always seems to be a lovely day when we interview, today was no exception - we tell candidates that it is always like this!

sunrise

2007-01-21T12:14:00.001Z

sunrise, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

Sunrise, high tide and calm water - all coincided this morning to drag me out of bed early and into my wellies to take some photos. I'm really going to miss these reflections when I move out of fossil cottage.

sunrise

2007-01-19T21:03:00.001Z

sunrise, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

Gorgeous on the way to work this morning, this is a great spot for sunrise photos, looking towards Isle oronsay. Met my colleague Rachel in the layby as she stopped for some photos too.

Unfortunately the great weather didn't last and by lunchtime it was pouring wet.

Glen Brittle, Isle of Skye

2007-01-02T22:01:00.000Z

Robin, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

Better weather today, just as well as it is back to work tomorrow. My first trip to Glen Brittle since moving to Skye. This lovely robin was obviously on the look out for some crumbs as I parked the car. The tide was way out so I walked right to the edge of the water. I had the whole beach to myself even though it was a lovely day.

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T23:28:00.000Z

Ashaig Panorama, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

Celebrated the New Year with neighbours from Lower Breakish, many of whom I hadn't met before.

New Year's day weather was pretty changeable, did head along to Ashaig beach, just a wee bit too late as the tide was coming in. This is a panorama of 3 phots and shows all the different types of weather!

Sunrise

2006-11-22T19:47:00.000Z

A beautiful sunrise this morning coincided with high tide and no wind, the colours in the sky were well reflected in the sea.

Shortly after, as the clouds turned white the sun lit up the local hills, giving a beautiful glow,

At lunchtime we went across to Achnacroish to have a quick photo session, the tide was out but the Cuillin were clear. A great spot and only 10 minutes from work.

A Google Bomb

2006-11-21T22:38:00.000Z

Got this from a few posts, but here's the original

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Martin Luther King

Air Splaoid!

2006-11-19T10:48:00.000Z

Air Splaoid!, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

This is Dwelly, a mythological one eyed, one legged, one armed, west highland monster. He's going to help people learn Gaelic during 2007.

This is the project that I've been working on since I came to Skye. It is designed to promote Gaelic and help people learn some of the language. Check out our website www.airsplaoid.co.uk

Book Review - as it is written

2006-10-25T21:06:00.000+01:00

My day job is in IT, managing software development, and I've decided to add to the blog stuff that I've found out to do with technology, if I manage to keep it up I might start another blog, but no point at the moment.

I've been reading a book by Charles Leadbetter called 'We Think' - you can download it here. It's unusual - the author and his publisher have put it online as it is being written so that people can read it and comment on it.

The book itself is about mass creativity, wikipedia, flickr, youtube etc.

I've just started it but the first few chapters have been interesting, starting with ideas from the barefoot movement in India.

Half of a sunset

2006-10-23T18:59:00.000+01:00

Half of a sunset, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

It's amazing how far south the sunset has gone since I moved here 2 months ago. Tonight the orange rays were in one half of the sky, took this at a wide angle. The right hand side stayed grey-blue.

Lower Breakish

2006-10-18T12:44:00.000+01:00

Lower Breakish, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

Lower Breakish, with the tide in, taken from the Ardnish peninsula on a beautiful Skye day.

Beinn na Callich

2006-09-14T21:13:00.000+01:00

The hill overlooking Broadford is called Beinn na Callich and I wanted it to be the first that I climbed on Skye since my move here. I picked up a couple of friends and drove the couple of miles to Old Corry where we started the walk, less than 5 minutes to drive – fantastic!

Colleagues had advised stick to the left, so that is what we did, crossing the boggy moorland then tackling the scree, keeping to the left. The rock was rough – this is Skye – and great for scrambling over. In T-shirts for the ascent, although the wind was blowing fairly strongly. The slope eased as we reached the summit, where the shelter round the trig point was welcome as the wind was now a wee bit chilly.

After some discussion we decided to continue around the horseshoe , first down and up to Beinn Dearg Mhor, then down a horrible steep scree slope – I think I’ve lost my sense of balance, had to take it slowly. Once at the bealach it was an easy ascent to Beinn Dearg Bheag, great views of Blaven.

A path followed the winding ridge back towards Old Corry, the sting in the tail was an extremely boggy descent to the moor, difficult with tired legs! A short stop by the river which we then followed back to the car. Just over 6 tiring hours but only 5 minutes to home and a cuppa!

Suffered from tender muscles for the next two days… I must walk more hills and take less photos!!!

Dreich

2006-09-06T08:59:00.000+01:00

A dreich day today, no sign of the sun and no sunset visible. So the photo above is another from last nights fantastic sunset.

The tide was fully in when I arrived home. I watched a couple of herring gulls: an adult and youngster. The adult flew in with the youngster following behind. The youngster landed on a rock and started calling to it mother (?) who was not interested and kept hopping away to another rock. The young one kept whining, mum just didn't want to know and kept hopping away. This must've gone on for about 10 minutes, before mum swam off leaving her hungry chick behind.

Sunsets

2006-09-04T21:51:00.000+01:00

Another beautiful sunset tonight, unfortunately the midgies thought so to and I’ve managed to aquire lots of bites. I thought that as the tide times changed it would be difficult to get good shots, but I seem to have been lucky in the two weeks that I’ve been here and there’s always been enough water in the inlet for a good reflection. I use EasyTide to keep an eye on the tide times.

Ardnish

2006-09-04T19:07:00.000+01:00

Opposite my house is the peninsula of Ardnish, I wanted to explore it and take some photos of the cottage from the other side – with the tide in. To get there I walked west along the Lower Breakish road, at the end of the road there is a path which goes to Waterloo, which has a bridge across the river. On the other side there are lots of possible paths, I followed the inlet back east, damp underfoot – we’ve had a fair bit of rain recently, with the tide right in. A few birds around, hooded crows, heron, ducks, geese… must improve my identification skills.

One of the bays on the peninsula has lots of fossils, I saw a couple embedded in the rocks.

On the north side of the inlet, lots of seals lay on rocks, just out to sea. Looked like there were both baby seals and adults. Found a good path along the top of the peninsula but left it to walk around the coast. Great views to the Red Cuillin which seemed to be constantly in a shower cloud.

Spotted this clump of seaweed, thought that the colour was absolutely gorgeous.

Isle of Skye

2006-09-03T21:56:00.000+01:00

Sunset, originally uploaded by ShirleyGrant.

Returned from my travels, I’m back in Scotland and back at work. I’ve moved to the Isle of Skye where I’ve rented a cottage for the winter. It’s in Lower Breakish which is a small village, the houses sit by the side of a tidal inlet called Ob Breakish. My living room window is close to the water and this evening as the tide goes out I’ve seen oystercatchers feeding in the seaweed, herons watching for fish, curlews with their long beaks, some ducks which I think are mallards, but all female – unless the males are in moult. I also watched an otter, swimming up the middle of the inlet and diving – for crabs/fish…? Further away are the Red Cullin with clouds on their summits, no sunset tonight but in the month that I’ve been on Skye I’ve seen lots.

In this blog I plan to put up some photos and write about the natural history of the area and the places I visit.