More Good Scottish Fences...

We have improved somewhat in the snow removal process.  This photo was taken looking out our kitchen door on February 21:

And here we are now on April 2:

I see bare ground!  Yay!  But as you can see, we are still under a bit of snow.  The bottom line is that I haven't gone out yet in search of new fences, so I am going to post more Scottish fences.

My blogger friend Debbie from It's All About Purple had something to say the last time I posted some fences from Scotland.  She said, "How can you share so many fences in one post.  I would have to split this up, I could get a good month out of these!!!! and a lot of comfort, knowing I have them!!!"  It made me laugh because clearly Debbie can't see just how many photos I have stored on my hard drive.  AND I loved Scotland so much that I took at least a gazillion photos when we were there, many of which I haven't even thought about  touching with my editing yet.

Here are a few that I found that have not seen the light of day for quite a while:

I want this house!!

This is the beautiful town of Oban, Scotland.  Not only is the town beautiful, they also make quite a beautiful whisky there.

I love how these two are perfect in step.

Linking to The Run*A*Round Ranch's Good Fences!

Good Glasgow Fences...

The snow is melting around here, but not fast enough for me to get out and get any new fence photos, so I am setting the controls of my WABAC machine for June 19, 2010 and heading for Glasgow, Scotland.

Here are some Glasgow fences.

Tell me what this means, Mr. Peabody?  I sure don't know.  This was taken at the Glasgow Science Centre.

The Glasgow Armadillo (The Clyde Auditorium) is reflected in the BBC Scotland building on the River Clyde.

The Doulton Fountain, Glasgow:

The sun shining brightly in Glasgow.  I want to go back!

The Clyde Arc aka The Squinty Bridge:

Linking up with The Run*A*Round Ranch's

Good Fences. Thanks, Theresa!

Door to Door...

“I’m a door-to-door salesman. I sell doors. If I can’t knock on yours, because you don’t have a door to knock on, I know you’ll be interested in what I’m selling.” ~Jarod Kintz

Last week, when I went out to Northampton, Massachusetts, to visit my daughter Carrie, I took some pictures of doors.  Here are a couple I particularly liked.

Looking at these photos made me wonder in my mind where the best place I’ve ever been for photographing doors.  As way leads on to way inside my brain, it made me start thinking about Scotland and the doors I saw there.  So I went back in time and stepped through the portal into my computer’s memory and found that I had, indeed, taken a lot of pictures of doors when we were in Scotland.

  Here are a few.

Of course, we humans often use open doors as metaphors for choices we make in life or, when the door is closed, being blocked from those choices.  Alexander Graham Bell said, “Sometimes we stare so long at a door that is closing that we see too late the one that is open.”  I think he was probably right.  But that didn’t keep me from spending a lot of time staring at my old photos of doors in Scotland, when there are probably hundreds of doors right here in Sturbridge that are waiting for me to turn the knob.

Having to make hard choices, part 2…

You can see that I don't take many pictures of people.  But here's one I really like.  This picture of friends Sean and Ellen was taken last October on our trip to Italy.  We stayed in a beautiful villa along the Amalfi Coast.   And though it was a little cool for me, Sean braved the infinity pool, which is where he is standing in this photo.  I like the mood of this because it reminds me of how beautiful, calm and relaxing the villa was.  I also like that Sean has his hat on.

This photo was taken along the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia.  What a wonderful drive!  We were there in the winter so there wasn’t much traffic, which allowed us to stop when we saw something that I wanted to take a picture of.  I like this photo a lot and spent some time on it getting it aligned properly.

Here’s another one from our travels.  This photo was taken in 2010 on a trip we made to Scotland.  These boats are on the Isle of Mull.  I think they leave them there for photographers like me to ooh and aah over.  I love Scotland.

Sunflowers are probably my favorite flower and I love them in all their phases.  To me, this one looks like it is just waking up from a long nap.

And finally, here’s a photo I took at Three Sisters Sanctuary in Goshen, Massachusetts, on one of the field trips Carrie and I took.  This is a great place to wander around with a camera.  I highly recommend it if you are in the area.  In this photo, I love the juxtaposition of the wild vines and other natural growth against the relative fineness of the stained glass window.  The Unexpected…

Are these my ten “best” photos?  Probably not.  Well, maybe…  Photography is very personal and very subjective.  I suspect that to me, these are the best because they all invoke wonderful things and good times in my mind.  But maybe I will change my mind tomorrow when new things happen in my life.

By the way, we are still waiting for the snow to start in earnest.  We are supposed to get 8 plus inches.  Here’s hoping that they misread this storm and it will all blow out to sea.

Skyfall and Scotland...

We went to see the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, this week and enjoyed it very much.  It made me forget about my aching knee for a couple hours for which I was grateful.  Maybe one of the new medical protocols for knee replacement surgery should be Bond movie marathons.  I may bring this up to my doctor when I see him next.

I enjoyed the movie a lot but I left wishing I could go back to Scotland, which to me, is a very enchanted place full of natural beauty and friendly, generous people.  At least that was the experience we had when we visited a couple years ago.    Not like the last few scenes in the movie, I can insure you of that.

I decided to go back through my many photos and see if there were some that I didn't get a chance to edit or look at thoroughly.  Well, there are way more than I expected.  I picked out a few and will post them today.  Hope you enjoy a little taste of Scotland.  Most people tell me that as long as haggis isn't involved, they are good with it.

Castle Stalker

These seals were in the Oban Harbor.  

Catch the moments as they fly…

I got up a little early today to take some butter out of the fridge.  It has to soften so that I can make the shortbread cookies I am taking to the Burns Supper Greg and I are attending tonight.  In case you aren’t familiar with the tradition, this time of year Burns Suppers are held to honor Robert Burns, Scottish bard.  These can be raucous affairs with their haggis, whisky and poetry.  We are lucky that some friends of ours from our church sponsor the one we are attending tonight.  Thanks, Jodi and David!

Anyway, it made me start thinking about Scotland, a land that I am completely and utterly in love with since we visited in 2010.  We visited the Highlands, the Isles of Skye and Mull, and the Speyside area, which is where most of that liquid heaven we Americans call Scotch is made.  It is the best trip I have ever taken in my life bar none.  And I can still close my eyes and hold pictures in my head of the Scotland we saw during that two weeks.  What a beautiful place!  I would go back in a heartbeat.

So I will leave you today with a few pictures from that trip and my favorite lines from Robbie Burns.

  And tonight I will tip a cup of kindness to you all for auld lang syne!

“Then catch the moments as they fly,

And use them as ye ought, man:

Believe me, happiness is shy,

And comes not aye when sought, man.”

Sunset colors an old boat in Oban Harbor.

On the Isle of Skye.

Part of the Tomnaverie Stone Circle, a mystical place.

The Mash Tun in Aberlour, Scotland.  A restaurant with rooms.

The Water of Life.