Solitary Pine, Monadliath mountains, near Aviemore An old gnarled pine, an outlier above the natural tree-line, on the moorland of the Monadliath mountains. I love these ‘natural bonsai’ pines, shaped by the ferocious weather conditions. As ever, adverse conditions are character-forming, our suffering can become beauty when viewed from a different perspective… “It’s like you […]
Sun and snow at midwinter, Aviemore No, it hasn’t snowed… the days have been warm, mild and rather gloomy, and I’ve not been out with the camera, so here is an image from midwinter three years ago. I really appreciate snow, when it comes, for brightening up our dark winter days. This week’s quote – […]
Rothiemurchus and the Cairngorm Mountains A view over Rothiemurchus, with the curve of the River Spey in the foreground, towards the wintry Cairngorm Mountains. Loch an Eilein is just visible in the middle, nestling in the hills. It has been stormy, but for us its been a far milder and less snowy winter than in […]
Frosted Cotoneaster Leaf Aren’t the colours in this perfectly seasonal? The Solstice has passed and the darkest days are behind us, both in the cycle of 2012 and in the greater cycle of the Mayan calendar. 2012 has been an intense year in many ways, with many energetic shifts on our beautiful planet. These are, […]
Loch an Eilein, on a sunny winter’s afternoon. I didn’t expect to have an image from this week – its been well below freezing for most of the week, but very grey and dark. Today dawned clear and sunny though, which was most welcome! This photo is at Loch an Eilein, taken at 3pm with […]
Icicle Frost Spray After days of hard frost, the grasses and mosses along the banks of the cascade were coated in layers of frozen spray. A long time exposure contrasted the flow against the static icicles. “Emotion, because it brings feeling and connects you to feeling, allows you to recognise different states of conciousness. The […]
Golden mist, Linn of White Cart, Glasgow A suitably wintry image after this week’s frost and ice. The last rays of the afternoon sun shining through the mist rising from the cascade, giving a glowing golden effect above the water. “When you don’t play roles, it means there is no self (ego) in what you […]
Patterns of light and shadow, looking over Strathspey from Ord Ban Ord Ban is a steep climb, but the view is worth it. This is the view looking south-west over the Strathspey woodlands, to the Monadhliath Mountains behind. Winter is definitely here, with snow on the hills and days of freezing mist, like yesterday, when […]
Snowy Cairngorms across misty Strathspey Looking across the mist-filled valley to the snowy Cairngorms, from Craig Na Gower, near Aviemore, on a perfect late autumn day. I don’t know how many more of these we will have before winter sets in for real… “We can live without religion and meditation, but we cannot survive without […]
Mist streaming over the ridge, Craigellachie, Aviemore The sun kept coming and going through the edge of the mist-bank on Craigellachie. For just a few minutes there was an amazing effect as mist flowed through the trees on top of the ridge. “There is a story of a woman running away from tigers. She runs […]
Misty Birch at Craigellachie Lochan After a week of grey mist, rain and general dull weather, Thursday was a gem. With the village in thick freezing mist, I walked up through the Birch wood a short way into a startling deep blue sky, through wreaths of mist coming and going. The Birch glowed golden in […]
Golden ‘Silver Birch’, Craigellachie National Nature Reserve, Aviemore For about three hours on tuesday afternoon the heavens turned blue, and the autumn birch wood shone with 100 shades of gold. There was no wind, and for a while it was t-shirt weather. In the Highlands one has to be quick – shortly before sunset the […]
