Loch Lomond. Light rain, 10C.

Last weekend, Gary and I had some photo-shy guests staying with us (I know - such a shame). We went on the obligatory tourist trips, and it was back to a few familiar places for me. Loch Lomond. Stirling. Alas, we had a dose of very typical Scottish weather... And my camera battery died soon after arriving in Stirling. I blame the misty weather - the autofocus went into absolute overdrive!

The "view" from Conic Hill near Balmaha, Loch Lomond. I think we were actually inside the cloud!

Bluebells and ferns...



This makes me think about a giant salad. Plenty of chives for the dressing.

Greenbank Gardens : Glasgow

After visiting Greenbank Gardens, I suggested having a cup of tea in the visitor centre. We sat outside in the sunshine and it was one of those days when you just enjoy the moment, and don't think about anything. We talked about this and that, holidays and plans for our garden, nothing important and it was fantastic. When we arrived back home, I felt a little tired (getting up at the crack of dawn all week!) so I went for a nap. Fair to say, it was a very relaxing day ;)

Gary woke me later and commented that I was increasingly behaving like an OAP - visiting gardens, having cups of teas and going for a sleep in the afternoon :) Maybe he's right, but what a great way for re-charging the batteries for the week ahead!

On a more technical note - I've finally made the change to RAW with this batch of photos! If this doesn't mean anything to you (and it certainly didn't mean anything to me a short while ago!) I'm talking about a different file format when taking photos. I cannot believe that I has taken me so long so do this as there are so many benefits to using RAW over jpeg. For starters, you can adjust the White Balance. It's like magic. If you have a DSLR (and Photoshop) you should try it. I cannot see myself ever going back to jpeg now...

The obligatory photos of Gary (aka he was forced to model yet again ;)





Gary was also taking some photos under my supervision :)


More flowers, ponds and sunshine... I love Spring!











Finishing off with a shadow-picture...

Greenbank Gardens : Preview

On Sunday, I took a sudden fancy to having a picnic. I had this very romantic idea of sitting on a picnic blanket in the grass with Gary, in beautiful surroundings, in the sunshine, with birds singing and getting tuck into delicious food. Well. When we arrived at the Deli to stock up on food supplies, rain set in. Since we were already there, we made the most of the situation by eating IN the Deli. This kind of defeated the purpose, but by the time we were finished, the weather had improved immensely and we were back on track. So, we went to Greenbank Gardens near Glasgow, sat on a bench, in the sunshine, in beautiful surroundings, and the birds were singing.
And I almost forgot - the food in the Deli was delicious.

I suppose you could say, everything went to plan ;)

More pictures to follow later this week...

Saturday Art

I was going to write something about the weather. Yet again. I don't know why I am talking so much about it recently! But it definitely started with moving to Scotland. It must be a cultural thing, and it's easy short talk-material for the office. How was your weekend? The weather was great, wasn't it? Looks like it will be good summer this year. Etc. Etc.

Let's just say, today was a surprisingly nice day ;) While Gary was watching yet another crucial and decisive football game on TV (and there are plenty of those in May), I enjoyed the sunshine by going for a walkabout with a polaroid camera. The photos are all from within a 50 yard radius of our house. I love the old fashioned feel of polaroids, they are just classy and a bit different...