LIFE PART FIVE

Seabirds at Bow Fiddle Rock

While on my travels these past few months, not only have I been taking thousands of images, but I’ve also been recording snippets of sound when I’ve heard something that particularly surprised or delighted me. I’ve just realised that I can include these sounds here on my blog posts so this is my first attempt!…

Arbroath to Aberdeen via the Cairngorms – photo story

After our visit to the St Andrews Highland Games in late July we decided to follow the coast up through Dundee and round to the small town of Arbroath. Abroath looked like a town that had once seen better days but the tiny streets around the harbour were fascinating, heavy with the ghosts of the…

Ullapool to Kylesku – photo story

When we returned from the Outer Hebrides in late June we had a couple of days to explore a little further north along the A835 which now forms part of the fiercely trendy NC500 route. For me, the north west Highlands of Scotland have been the most spectacular in terms of landscape. It is beautiful,…

The Scottish Borders

Our two weeks in Edinburgh are over and we are back on the road, meandering this time through the Scottish Borders. The weather is still hot and sunny and it feels like a fine time to be a nomad. The road stretches enticingly ahead and the landscape is a shimmer of gold and green against…

Islay and Jura – photo story

Images from our time on the magical islands of Islay and Jura in the Inner Hebrides. For more about Islay, please see my recent blog post.

Islay, Queen of the Hebrides

This week brings a welcome pause in our nomadic existence with a long weekend in London, then two weeks camped just east of Edinburgh, near the picturesque village of Aberlady. The London trip was mostly about seeing far flung friends and life admin, but the sheer luxury of our flat after two months on the…

Isle of Harris

We have been travelling for over seven weeks now, winding through the craggy peaks and heather wrapped slopes of the Highlands and the Inner Hebrides. My eye has become so accustomed to the wide open skies and the lonely mountain vistas of this land that memories of my London home seem distant in the extreme.…

Glencoe to Eilean Donan castle

We continue to travel north and west this week into a landscape which becomes steadily wilder and more dramatic. The mountain peaks hunch ever higher into a lowering grey sky which brings squalls of rain and colder temperatures. The bluebells of spring have given way to fuschia spikes of native foxgloves and great drifts of…

Isle of Mull, Kerrera, Staffa and Iona

My favourite images from the Inner Hebrides. Take a look at my blog post to read more about what we did while we were there.

Isle of Mull

Has it been a week already? Surely a year, or a day? I’m not sure. Travel does that it seems. Last Sunday seems like a distant island in my memory, but maybe only moments have passed. These last few days have mostly been spent on the Isle of Mull. We boarded the CalMac ferry from…

The Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies

Wednesday, half way through the working week and what I’ve decided is going to be my catch up day. Nine months on the road gives you a lot of material to work with! So here’s one from May this year… If you’re ever passing between Glasgow and Edinburgh you would be wise to take a…

The English Lakes – photo story

Images from our time in the Lakes, May 2017. Click on an image to see a larger version.

The Lake District

Inspiration to artists and writers for centuries, the Lakes are somewhere I’ve been trying to return to for many years. Many of my childhood holidays were spent here and the dramatic landscape made a lasting impression on my young mind. Even saying the place names aloud stirs a whisper of excitement in the soul, the…

The Great American Eclipse

By: lifepartfive Jun 2, 2018Jun 26, 2018

America, photographyAmerica, eclipse, farm, friends, Locations, Missouri, photography, solar, totality, Travel, USALeave a Comment

In August 2017 we travelled with a group of friends to Missouri to watch the total solar eclipse. A few years previously we had spotted that the parents of an old friend lived on a farm, right in the path of totality. Right there and then we made a plan, and thanks to the generosity…

Bluebells

By: lifepartfive May 29, 2018Jun 3, 2018

Northern England, Scotland, Writingbluebells, England, Locations, Loch Lomond, nature, Scotland, spring, Travel, WritingLeave a Comment

We have followed the bluebells towards the midnight sun. The journey started, tentatively, in Sussex. Since then we have migrated north, quickly at first through familiar territory, then more slowly as we broke free of the urban tangle of Manchester, through the Dales, then finally leaving the M6 for the soaring peaks of the Lakes.…