Time and Weather

Struck me this morning what a huge difference weather makes to time. Not time as such, unless I start pretending I know enough about relativity to explain how to gain a tiny fraction of a second by hitching a lift on a spacecraft. No, during the winter - rain, cold, dark - I have plenty of apparent spare time. I consider what I ought to do, and then, I procrastinate by thinking of things I'd like to do.

Summer, with good weather of course, presents the opposite problem. Loads of things I could do. So I procrastinate by thinking of the things I ought to do and then have less time to do all the things I want to do.

Anyway, spent a few great, if tiring, days on Jura helping to marshal the Scottish Islands Peaks race. Great place to take a few photographs but not necessarily if you have to stay up all night waiting for yachts and runners to arrive. That was last week and since then there seems to have been too many things to do - see reasons above.  The journey to Jura is long - four hour drive, hang about, two hour ferry, hang about, ten minute ferry, and 20 minute drive to Craighouse - but it is worth it. Typical west coast weather on the way, windy, sunny and wet, all at the same time.

Not too warm but, thirty yards from the tent, I found some great mountains to photograph on the beach.

Still within the forty metre circle, and with dusk making it easier to soften the water, I found the bluebells.

 As we had arrived early for the race we had time for a leisurely meal and a pint in the Jura hotel opposite the distillery. Got chatting to a guy who was up from Edinburgh to do some work at the distillery. Turned out his firm was able to print on almost anything - toast is a particularly difficult surface. Before they assembled the cart he was able to print the advertising blurb for the tasty Prophecy. [Jura whiskies recommended.]

Being awake for what seems like most of the weekend makes it easier to get a sunset, with the Paps of Jura,  and a sunrise, over Craighouse bay - a few hours apart.

Jura is hotching with wildlife, most of which is not too bothered about humans watching. I'd been looking forward to trying to capture an otter, as last year I'd watched one for fifteen minutes while it searched for food within sixty yards of the community hall kitchen window - which made a great, comfortable vantage point. I'd hurried to the window when we arrived to have a look, only to see . . . a brand new car park. Oh, well.

These three(?) swans and their cygnets which happily munched, no matter how many camera clicks, made up for the car park annoyance a little. 

We spent hours staring out over the bay watching for yachts creeping up on us. Most of the time this little boat was bobbing about at the jetty.

 Another evening meal at the hotel let me nip outside to catch the last few remaining yachts in the race and, of course, a famous west coast palm tree.

No pedalling, due to the recent loss of a little more knee cartilage.

Young and Old

Arranged to go out with a pal to try to take some photos today. Just before he arrived, I noticed that the beech tree had decided it was warm enough to try putting out some leaves. This was the start of a theme, although I didn't realise it.

Found other leaves opening with nice shapes

Then off to Macbiehill to look at some mine workings with an old lime kiln. Turned out that the the remains weren't that photogenic.  At the lime kiln, Dave was persuaded to give the stone some interest but his heart wasn't in it. If only I'd had my other photography pal - she's a much better poser and much better looking. However, she was probably in Inverness orWick or Timbuktu.

 Hidden nearby was a bit of a rubbish dump.

Poking around the limestone rocks produced a few bit and pieces to click at.

 

The tree growing out of the limestone qualifies as young - compared to the stone.

Had to include this one as it fits the theme and has our beech tree in the background.

Finally some more local flora

Didn't have time to pedal anywhere for happiness.

Reunion

An old friend organised an office reunion yesterday. (My stint '71-78). Not exactly looking forward to it as I thought, correctly as it turned out, that I wouldn't be able to put names to all the faces. Turned out to be quite a good night despite the mild embarrassment. Got into town early and walked out from Dean village up the Water of Leith to Costorphine.  I had a shot in mind but I got lost in the dead-ends of Rothesay Mews and missed it altogether. C'est la vie. The rest of the walk below: 

No pedalling, but quite happy.

Time and Grey

Started off the day, after porridge of course, reading a message from a friend, who, desperate to escape the greyness of the east coast, announced he was off to the northwest to find sun and warmth - weird, it normally is wet and grey up there. Unable to escape the murk with an invalid to pamper, I decided to do something other than read and nurse a laptop to keep me warm. So, explore lines. Try some linear stuff with very few curves.

Soften with a little foliage

Go Techno

But what's happening? Dryness, sunshine! The imperative of survival masquerading as aerobic exercise rears it's ugly head. Must take the bike out and raise the heart rate for a while. But it only takes about 200 metres to find a reason to stop - oval lines.

Six miles further on there's a secret hillside  with diagonal lines and the sun low enough to highlight the ridges. 

The result is a teensy bit boring but there's an arty-farty option called 'posterise' in the software.

Another four miles, on the way home, there's a stone watercourse that I've only been been putting off looking at closely for 24 years. Some old signs - Scottish Water - and rusting pipes and pumps suggest . . . what? No sign of storage tanks. Must go back in a few years and look again.

Industrial waterfall

Close up . . . 

 . . .  and a coloured burble of a ripple.

Finally, cobblestones in the bed of the waterway throwing up excited drops of water

Back to pedaling for happiness.