Photo slideshow of a visit to the Isle of Arran, Scotland.

This is a few of the images I took on the Isle of Arran whilst on holiday. These are just something to relax and enjoy. As always, I will not add a comment on an image if it really doesn't need one.

Goatfell, the highest peak on Arran

Sunrise at 5 am from our front room 

window, looking across Brodick Bay

Brodick bay is used as a safe harbour by small ships, even small tankers. There was a great variety of craft stopping over for one to three nights.

A three mast ship in Brodick Bay,

taken from out window again

Safe harbour Brodick Bay

Brodick castle from across the bay

Herring gull, the red spot on it's bill

is a target area for the young gulls.

They tap it with their beaks and 

the parent feeds them.

Herring gull bathing. Note the 

water running down it's back

This sad photo was taken only a few 

hundred yards from the harbour

The Waverley coming into harbour.

It's the last paddle steamer in the world.

The Caledonian Island, the bigger of the 

two ferries, in the background.

It docked in at Arran on my birthday, 

what a treat it was for me.

A Moon Jellyfish found at Whiting Bay

Sea Carrot  - Daucus carota subsp. 

Gummifer. Whiting Bay

From Lamlash looking to Holy Island 

on the left. It is now owned by Buddhist 

monks. The island is open to visitors

Now I'll show a few of the tropical palms in Brodick castle gardens. one of it's past owners collected plants from all over the world. Palm trees grow well on Arran, as it's on the Gulf Stream, and therefore has a mild climate. Palms were growing in every part of Arran we visited.

A crow in Brodick castle

Hoverfly unknown type, 

on a tropical flower in 

Brodick castle grounds

Scots Pine - castle grounds

Now for the Salmonberry - Rubus spectabilis, it's also known as the Arran Raspberry. It is cultivated in the Western Isles for its ornamental pink flowers. The plant has escaped and widely colonised the castle grounds in Stornoway. It is becoming a pest. It came from North America and the The North American Indians eat the fruit if they have eaten too much salmon. Apparently, it doesn't have a lot of flavour.

This is not a great photo but I needed to show it. I took several shots, it was in a difficult place to get to. The plant was near the roadside by Arran Aromatics. 

A salmonberry - Rubus spectabilis

Finally, I have prepared a slideshow of Arran photos, one or two are shown above. I'm sorry about that but slideshow was prepared a while ago. The video runs for about 4 minutes and 40 seconds. I hope you enjoy it. Turn your monitor speakers on. I've added some Baroque music, it is Charpentier's - Marche de Triomphe. One or two photos in it are shown above too.

A short look at Arran.

I hope some of you are inspired to visit Arran. We loved it and will be going back. 

My next post, hopefully soon, will be on some of my recent artwork.

Have fun,  

Gordon.

Art From Seaweeds

Hi everyone

A few weeks ago, we were on holiday in the beautiful isle of Arran, in Scotland. It was the first time we had visited it, but it will not be the last. One of the amazing things we discovered was that the whole island is Fairtrade, incredible, but very commendable. Arran is on the Gulf Stream, so it's a little warmer than you would expect. As a result palm trees are growing all over the place.

Arran makes a lot of their own goods on the island, beer, malt whiskey, Arran Dunlop cheese, there is a smokehouse producing excellent quality smoked meat and fish and it has a restaurant with a very high reputation, Arran Scotch Tablet is made there, it's only sold on the ferry from the mainland to the island and one or two selected shops on Arran. Scotch tablet is a kind of sweet fudge which has a crunchy texture, for those of you who do not know about it. It is my secret vice, it's a good job it is not sold where I live, I'd be diabetic!  There is a company called Arran Aromatics there too. They make cosmetic creams, shampoos, hand washing liquids etc. One of the nice things about Arran is that the shops all sell each others products, even the ferry uses the Arran Aromatics liquid soap on it ships, and sells Arran produce, as do the cafes and restaurants. I almost forgot to say that most, if not all the products made on Arran have won awards for quality and taste. Even better, everyone we met was warm, friendly and helpful, what a wonderful place.

Anyway, to carry on. Before I went, Colin, from FEET, the ecology organisation I am connected with asked me to photograph as much of the flora and fauna of the place as I could. I was then to blog it on the FEET members site, I took about 600 photos. It took me about 2 weeks to sort them out and I've posted my first blog, it was about the seaweeds I found there.

I looked at the images and decided it would be nice to try and make art from them. this post shows the results. I don't think they need any words to go with them, except the titles, so I shall just add art below.

Harvest 

 Abstract Beach

Eel Grass 

Herring Shoal

Waving

Kelpie Flow

Sea Salad

Sea Lace

Shoreline Garden

Sea Snake

Seafruit

Underwater #2 

Venetian Plus

Wave Rider

Tapestry

Illustration #1 

Moonlit Sea 

Moulded Seaweed

Sea Glass

Sea Lights

And that is it, all twenty images, inspired by the sea and it's organisms. I have my favourites as you would expect, the last image being one of them. I hope some of you have yours.

Until the next time,

Be kind to one another.

Gordon. 

Apology to my viewers.

Hi everyone

I'm very sorry for not having posted in the last 2 months. I was unwell for a short while, then my wife had an operation on her foot. It left her bed-bound for a week or two, when she she could get down stairs, she needed a lot of looking after. I didn't have much time for anything else for several weeks.

I will be posting again as soon as I can.

Just to be going on with here is a photo I took of the wonderful Flying Scotsman steam engine in York, at the National Railway Museum.

The locomotive set two world records for steam traction. It was the first steam locomotive to be officially recorded reaching 100 miles an hour (160.9 km/h) on the 30th of November 1934.

Then in 1989, it set a second world record. This time for the longest non-stop run by a steam locomotive. It travelled 422 miles (679 km) on the 8th of August in 1989, while it was visiting Australia.

The Flying Scotsman

Thanks for being patient
Gordon.

Everyday objects from unusual angles, using macro photography.

Hello.

This post is overdue. My wife had an operation on her foot about two weeks ago. She is not allowed to put any weight on it for about four weeks. She is more or less confined to the bedroom. I have been far too busy nursing her, giving her injections, taking meals to her and all the normal housework to do anything else. I'm trying to fit a little time for my blog in at the moment. (Just so that you know what the delay in my post has been).

Here in the part of Yorkshire I live in, we have more rain, high winds and fog, over the last few months, than I ever remember before. The resultant flooding has done a great deal of wide-spread damage. Because of the terrible weather, I have not been out with my cameras. As an exercise, one day I picked three objects in our house to photograph. My idea was to crate abstract images.

I shall put the images below without comments, other than the titles I gave them. For the first two articles, I'll show the abstract photos, finishing with a photograph of the whole object. It gives you chance to guess what they are. The last one should be obvious to most people.

Off we go then...

Interlocked

Geoslip

V for Victory

Print Run

Folding

Now to show you what the object is.

It is an Altered Book that one of Anne's friends 

(Hi Linda) made for Anne's 60th. birthday.

The second object:

Another World

Air Horns

Roses

Holes in Space

 Starscape

 Vent

Inverse Tubes

Volcanoes

A photo of the whole object follows...

It is a small nutmeg grater.

It's about as long as your thumb.

Here is the final subject in this post...

 #1

 #2

#3

#4

It is, of course, a birds feather. As you can see, in close-up, it

provides a nice selection of abstract images,. I think they are worthy of enlarging for wall mounting, or exhibition.

I'd like to think that some of the readers of this blog may get inspiration from this post and go hunting for things in your home, shed or garden to photograph. Have fun.

Be nice to each other.

Gordon.