Eggs

Finally, I got round to doing a challenge from the Wet Canvas site.

 This month's Spotlight challenge was to look at shadows. I found the shadows more difficult to do than the eggs themselves which surprised me.

Gairloch, Wester Ross, Scotland

We have just had three days of heavy rain and gales. If you will visit Scotland in January, what else would you expect.
However, today dawned bright and crisp, so off to Inverewe Gardens we went.

We were sitting on the rocks near the jetty when this fellow hopped out of the sea near us. He did have a look at us but was not alarmed and kept us company for a while.

I loved his expression. Cormorants are comical.

Every time we go up to Poolewe, we look out for otters and are always unsuccessful. We have seen one in the distance but never had a "good" sighting. Until today, when we saw 2 large otters feeding in the seaweed at low tide. Didn't get any pictures so you will just have to take my word for it!

There is some art on the way as I have used the bad weather to get some painting done. More of that later.

D-I-Y Greetings

In a rebellion against the commercial feel of Christmas, I decided to paint my own cards this year. I hadn't done any painting for months and with only 4 weeks before the big day, I had to do a fairly simple subject.

Holly seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

I also found that you can buy ready cut and scored blank water colour paper cards with envelopes to fit. That made life a lot easier.

I bought a double quantity of the blanks so I have the basis for next year's cards ready and waiting. 

New Year !

I wonder how many people start blogs (or restart in my case!) in January.  I have been thinking for many months that my blog must be feeling very neglected.

There must be abandoned and neglected blogs lying all over the ether, without fear of being burned or torn to pieces and put in landfill. So it is preferable to be a blog page to than a diary page. My diary isn't treated any better than this blog, by the way.  I did manage to record things until July this year before it was reduced to a single line on each page at most.

I am not going to promise anything I may not be able fulfill but hopefully I can be a bit more dedicated to communicating with the world this year.

The Strand - Islay

In the meantime, above is a picture taken on a recent visit to Islay. For anyone with a love of wild places, wildlife and whisky, it is a wonderful place to spend a holiday.