I've Moved!

From today you'll find my daily photo posting in a new, bigger, better and more beautiful place!

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See you all there. . .

Euphorbia palustris

Continuing with flowers one of the many Euphorbias and in this case a bug which I think is a soldier beetle.

Common Broom, Cystisus scoparius

The broom is a fantastic colour at this time of the year and even although half of this one died in the winter the half that survived has managed a super show of flowers.

Euphorbia griffithii 'Fireglow'

Another beautiful evening that makes it a pleasure to be in the garden. This plant was true to it's name it literally glowed in the late evening sun.

Azalea

A stunning night, the light was fantastic and it was warm with hardly a breeze, often fantastic light in Scotland but it is usually quite cool by 19.30 and normally a definite breeze if not a gale blowing.

I only had time to grab my small camera which was to hand before the light changed.

Hawaii in the Outer Hebrides

We did not see any one on this stunning beach on Harris, how different they would be if the weather was like the South of England never mind Hawaii. We were priviledged that day!

Fulmar, St Kilda

Related to the albatross these birds looked great in flight but I was too much of a wimp and didn't like hanging over the cliff, so never got a decent shot.

Guillimots, Outer Hebrides

More pictures from the Stacs this time guillimots, the noise and smell is unbelievable. One girl on the boat learnt the very hard way that one should always keep ones mouth shut when looking up at the birds!

Gannets on St Kilda

From Harris we took the most amazing trip to St Kilda, four small islands in the Atlantic. Off the main St Kilda island is Boreray and huge rock pillars known as the Stacs teaming with bird colonies, a twitchers paradise.

Having a Bad Hair Day!

Continuing with Harris and an animal theme, I just loved this highland cow

Island Sheep

Just had a lovely week on Harris in the Outer Hebrides. Loads of photo opportunities and yes I have loads of photos of sheep!

Lobelia

An amazing trailing plant which manages to grow in the smallest crevice

A Newt

Our pond is full of newts but they are really camera shy and would not play ball. I got a lot of shots of just a tail. I will try for better photographs another day, patience!

Water Bug

Our pond is full of frog spawn and tadpoles which are just little black bits with no legs at this stage, you can see billions of them underneath the bug. I love the way the way these bugs skim across the water, I thought they were called water boatman but have discovered they are not so now on the quest to discover what they are.

Path To Heaven

Not "Three Steps to Heaven" as in the song by Eddie Cochran, which reached number one in the charts a month after he died......info courtesy of Mr H, but a path to heaven.

Field Fare

I found this bird alive but obviously distressed after a very cold wintry night the other morning, I picked it up and put it in our green house with food and water but unfortunately about ten minutes later it was dead. Mr H and I didn't know what it was, thought it might be a cuckoo that had arrived early and had suffered in the winter conditions. The bird book told us it was a field fare.

The Lammermuirs

Hopefully this is the last of the snow ! I wonder who built this dry stone dyke it seems to go on for miles.

Easter Lambs

I took these photos out of the car window, if I had got out the lambs would have run away. They can only be two days old at the most and will have been put out into the field today. Their little plastic rain macs will hopefully keep them dry over the next few days.

Exmoor Ponies

Walking with my friend on Exmoor we came across these lovely ponies. Even although we had the dogs with us they didn't move away. My friend who knows about horses and has bred them herself reckoned the foul was about a week to ten days old.

Iris reticulata -Dwarf Iris

I think this particular dwarf Iris is called Harmony. After all the snow and ice we have had they suddenly appeared with their wonderful blue colour such a welcome change, from months of nothing but white.

Wet Nose

They say a dog is healthy when it has a cold wet nose!

Worth It or Not?

I really wanted a picture of this young bull, unfortunately the bull didn't want his photo taken, I didn't even get my camera adjusted before he came at me down the side of the fence. One very flimsy fence, one hasty retreat to the solid car!
I wanted to practice some shots so chose the safe little snowdrop instead.

Galanthus-Snowdrop

This is a most amazing little flower regardless of the weather up it comes every year and this has certainly been one of the worst winters we have experienced since we moving to the Scottish Borders. The ice and snow seems to have been with as forever, not unusual for this time of the year but certainly unusual to have been hanging around since before Christmas with temperatures as low as -15 C

It's Back!

A beautiful day today, very still and we could feel the heat of the sun, but fortunately this lot of snow is melting and won't be around for long.

Strictly Come Dancing Live

We were fortunate to have tickets to see the touring Strictly Come Dancing Live show. We were only allowed to use a camera before the show started and not during the show so the photograph of the dancers is from last year and the stage this year! We had great seats and enjoyed a colourful evening with lots of laughs from the repartee of the judges on this occassion only three, Len Goodman, Craig Revel Horwood and Bruno Tonioli all three were very funny.

The Moon

I think it was Friday I heard on the news the moon would be the brightest that night for a year, it certainly was creating moon shadows and quite a blue light. This morning Mr H took me into the hills to practice with my tripod and hopefully get a few shots of the sunrise. It was freezing -6 when we passed this sign with the moon dissappearing in the background. Not taken with a tripod but from the car with the heated seat on!

Pub and Hotel Signs

Still in Berwick-Upon-Tweed I just couldn't resist taking a photo of this sign.

Berwick-Upon-Tweed

I was in Berwick-Upon-Tweed today, there was no snow and the sun was shining, lovely. I had my little digital in my bag and took this just where I parked the car.

Sheep

I took this just before Christmas and meant to post it earlier, the farmer had gathered them in to check them over. It has been tough here in the hills for the farmers struggling to get food and water to their animals, thank goodness for tractors.

Barn Owls & Winter

I am very concerned about our Barn owls this winter. They need four mice a day and in this prolonged cold weather with the ground covered in snow for weeks, they will be struggling to find any mice or the like at all. We haven't seen the adult which usually roosts underneath our barn, it has more chance than the two juveniles that hatched in our box this year, they have not had a chance to develop their hunting skills to cope with this weather. This was a picture of one of the owlets before it fledged when we were ringing it, if you lay them on their backs they play dead.

Icicles

I can't remember when I last saw icicles as long and thick as these. I do remember being fascinated by them as a child but how long they were, I don't know.

The Road to Duns

We are six miles from Duns, we drove there to day and it was six miles of stunning snow scenes. We could only stop once or twice as the road was down to one lane and Mr H did not want to cause any vehicle to break unnecessarily.

Enjoying The Snow

At least Skye is enjoying the snow!

Fort Augustus Canal

More snow photos of Fort Augustus