Loch an Eilein Reflections in ice, March 2016, Cairngorms National Park

Morning Reflection

Perfect Morning Reflections, Loch an Eilein We’d been having a pattern of misty frosty nights, quickly clearing to perfect blue skies.  I love these early spring days, feeling the warm intensity in the direct sun but crisp in the shade.  With the strong light it quickly becomes too harsh and the contrast too great for […]

Bee on Dahlia

Dahlia Bee

Dahlia Bee This particular bee was either asleep, drunk on nectar, or just taking a nap, as it stayed on the flower for over 2 hours, giving the occasional lackadaisical wave of its antennae.  Even with the bee at rest it wasn’t an easy photograph – the flowers have very long stems and wave around […]

Winter Birch reflections, Craigellachie Lochan

Stillness

Calm reflections, Craigellachie lochan, Aviemore There’s been a bit of a gap in the Inspirational Image since December.  Partly down to the seemingly endless stormy weather – I haven’t been out at all with the camera in weeks – partly I’ve just had my head down!  Its been unseasonally warm (I’m using warm here in […]

sunset looking south over badenoch from Torr Alvie, Aviemore, Scotland

Badenoch from Torr Alvie

Looking south over Badenoch, from Torr Alvie, near Aviemore Torr Alvie is a wonderfully mysterious hill, rising up in the middle of the valley, covered in ancient natural forest (an open mix of birch, oak, beech, pine and juniper).  The ‘easy side’ is a long southwards slope which catches the sun, with a great view […]

Blue Anenome

Blue Anenome I love how this flower shifts colour depending on the light, from blue to purple, and I love the combination of the velvety purple with the shimmering golden stamens.  It just seems to glow with these deeply nourishing high-vibration colours.  Here’s a meditation on colour and light … focus and breathe these colours […]

Crocus

Crocus flower and leaves Its spring – the sun has shone all week and although its still very chilly at times, there has been some real warmth.  Crocus bulbs have shot up all over the garden, and the first few are in flower.  I was trying to do something a bit different from the straight […]

Wood Anenome

Wood Anenomes, Craigellachie Birch Wood, Aviemore This week, Spring happened… Here in the Highlands it was a stunning five days of constant sun with hardly the faintest puff of white cloud the whole time.  The mornings started icy, the air during the day being that clarity of simultaneously burning and freezing which we can get […]

Solstice tree

Sunset tree in a field of snow, near Drymen, Loch Lomond. Unlike the south, we have had hardly any more snow since the last load, but it is very frosty.  By my calculations it is the solstice on Tuesday 21st where we mark the turning of the year.  It seems to have absolutely raced by […]

Michaelmas Daisies

Michaelmas Daisies Michaelmas might have been a month ago (29th September), but these daisies in my garden are hanging on in there.  they’ve taken a battering with wind and rain recently, but managed to catch some (brief) morning light here. “No more words. Hear only the voice within.” – Rumi

Feshie Lochans

I hope you had as stunning  a day as we did today – it felt like the first real summer day, given how its been for most of the last month and more.  It was quite a novelty to feel the sun’s heat on my back! Maybe its the first day of an early ‘indian […]