The Farm
Category: Landscape
The Frozen Lake
Photographs, Video and Stuff
The Scottish Village
Photographs, Video and Stuff
Inspired by John’s image here with a bit of Photoshop skullduggery added in…
A gathering of chickens on a Scottish island
Looking down from the mountains in Crete towards the southern shore of this wonderful island.
Playing around with Photoshop’s new Neural Filter…
The Neural Filter – Richard Broom Photography
More images of Portsoy here.
If you look carefully, you can see, on the horizon, the mountains on the other side of the Moray Firth – and the odd boat! Read about Portsoy here.
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.
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…
Grantown-on-Spey in the Cairngorms.
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…
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…
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…
We have arrived at our new home in Banff, Scotland and I am back in business!!
A walk towards the darkness…..
The Night Walk
Amsterdam; the city of canals and bridges…
On a warm summer’s day, the Hortus Botanicus (Botanical Gardens) Amsterdam is such an oasis of peace and tranquility. Somewhere to catch your breath…
Just caught the sun as it was going down…
Eagle-eyed readers will spot something strange here…
The big house where most of us don’t live. Most of us live up the hill a bit!
A little bit more of Derbyshire, a few more dry stone walls and the rolling countryside…
A little bit of Derbyshire
Plenty of these in Amsterdam and the Netherlands…
They don’t, sadly, make lampposts like they used to…
Amsterdam is not the largest city in the world but it is forever explorable. There always seems to be an undiscovered and enchanting backstreet somewhere…..
What better way to see Amsterdam…
Freetown, Sierra Leone
Ps: look out for the cable car…
Oh dear….wet feet…..
The Post Horn Hotel in Monnickendam. As Dutch and as charming as a hotel in the Netherlands can get. Food excellent. Michelin star restaurant. More on TripAdvisor here.
Monnickendam (one of the best kept secrets in the Netherlands).
Monnickendam street market (every Saturday)
Here is a very rare site in Holland, a marina without any boats.
The reason is the marina here at Hemmeland (Monnickendam) is being dredged to make the water deeper for the boats that are normally here. All the boats that are normally parked here have been moved out of the way so the dredger can do its work.
The quayside in Monnickendam town harbour is being extended. This means that more people will be able to sit and enjoy food, drink and ice cream during the summer.
The winter sunset over the Netherlands today. For some reason the image came out a bit like a J M W Turner painting. A hint of The Fighting Temaraire (minus a boat or two!).
Another image of the lighthouse at Jachthaven Hemmeland.
This is Marken which used to be an island but it is now connected to the Dutch mainland by a causeway. A beautiful place to visit.
