Landscape | Richard Broom Photography

The Test of Time

Houses in Scotland….built to last. The Romans couldn’t take on Scotland and win and nor, it seems, can the weather. This house as solid as a rock (well, more than a few rocks in fact).

Bounding up this street in Banff with vigour is out of the question these days. A slow, up-hill crawl, in low gear, with frequent rest stops is a better strategy and the ‘slo-mo’ approach is easier on the creaky old knees! Going ‘down the way’ (as they say here in Scotland) is much easier.

The 'out of puff' street - Richard Broom Photography — The ‘out of puff’ street – Richard Broom Photography

The Beach Walker

The Farm

The Dying Trees

We’ve noticed quite a few trees up here in the Cairngorms that appear to be dying. Disease? Polution? We’re not sure but a pity to see trees dying off…

The Town

Grantown-on-Spey in the Cairngorms.

The Cairngorms (1)

The Old Railway Track…

Until Dr Beeching came along, Banff was connected to the rest of the United Kingdom by a railway line. The railway line to Banff finally closed in 1968. A pity. Given the general state of the roads in the UK (overcrowded and often in disrepair) and the need for us to reach climate targets, perhaps greater use of modern railway trains might have helped us in the longer term. But then, UK governments (especially the so-called Government we have in place now), can’t seem to plan beyond the end of the next week, let alone a year or more’s time. Long term planning? Forget it!!!

Where there were once railway tracks, there are now walking/jogging paths. Every cloud has a silver lining…

The Old Railway Track... — The Old Railway Track – Richard Broom Photography

The High-rise

Twice a day the sea rolls in and covers these rocks which, it turns out, are high-rise blocks for marine wildlife. Also, something of a smorgasbord for the local sea birds when the tide rolls out…

The Coastal Defences (2)

It takes more a little more than a King Canute type approach to hold back the tides and the sometime furious seas here in Banff, Scotland. Ironically, we have a number of politicians about us these days who think they have supernatural powers – but, it turns out, like Canute – they do not!! It is quiet clear (especially from the image below) that, thankfully, our coastal defences are more effective and in much better shape than the grubby crop of duplicitous politicians we have to put up with these days…