Hebridean Scenes

I've got a number of posts in the pipeline for you on a few aspects of Hebridean life and nature as illustrated by pictures from our recent holiday... but in the meantime, while I get myself organised enough to write all the things I want to write (while trying desperately to finish writing/editing the first draft of my novel!), here are some scenes which don't really seem to fit in anywhere else.

This is one of my favourite "completely random" shots - I love the contrast between the rugged natural stone in the background and the nautical junk piled up in the foreground:

If you know Britian, you know that shrines to the Virgin Mary are not a common roadside occurrence on the mainland. But things are different up here - the Uists are Catholic islands, and Mary is watching you wherever you travel:

Otters are also far from commonplace in most of the UK; sadly none of these ones fancied posing for a photo so you'll have to make do with the sign that made me giggle:

This is a fairly ordinary picture of a house, but there was just something pleasing and slightly bleak about the way it perches on top of the hill against a flat grey sky. The washing flapping on the line just sets it off nicely:

This path is clearly an artificial construct, designed to wiggle pleasingly through the trees - note that the whole forest is also a recent plantation, there are very few old trees in the Hebrides:

Look at these ear tags! No, really, there isn't much else to say - except that I spent quite a while trying to encourage him to pose for the camera and this unimpressed expression was the best I got:

The Hebrides are scattered with old houses in various states of disrepair, from "occasional holes in the roof" to "barely a stone left". One common configuration is for the two end walls to have survived, while the sides and roof have gone. It doesn't seem to bother the sheep, who still manage to find refuge in the fireplace:

A pleasant stone beach; one of those pictures where you have to get down on your knees to get the angle you want:

And finally, some of the white-sand beaches for which these islands are so rightly famed: