Taexalia

wild.life

Meeting The Standing Stones of Stenness

It's a while since we journeyed to Orkney, but it's never too late to share snippets from the journey... Travelling along the main road (which by the by is two lanes - one in each direction) we saw a howe (hillock or knoll) in the middle of a field, and we stopped in by to make arrangements. Further along the road we saw the Barnhouse Stone, protected by fencing in the middle of farmland. As we travelled towards a narrow causeway between the Loch of Harray and the Loch of Stenness, we could ... read more

Scottish Landscape Gallery

I'm fiddling with my image plugins and trying to discover the coolest way to display a whole gallery of my images... So here's the NextGen Smooth Gallery with some of my landscape and scenery photos taken in Scotland. ... read more

Sandwood Bay

I have wanted to visit Sandwood Bay for quite a while. In March 2008 we found ourselves at the top of the track in an unexpected and un-planned stop but the lateness of the hour meant we could not undertake the four and a half mile walk to the beach (and the four and a half mile walk back).When I created my Day Zero Project, it was an easy and obvious goal to add to the list - and a quite stunning goal to mark "complete". That said, I want to make the trip ... read more

Stones of Note

Inverness Museum and Art Gallery is a treasure trove of heritage. The displays are presented in an accessible and interesting way, which made us wish we had a little more time. I did have time to indulge in making colourful rubbings of the replicas of the Pictish Art which formed my favourite part of the exhibition. Above is the Wolf Stone which is an incised Class I Pictish Stone. This wonderful throwback to our ancestors of 2000 years ago was found embedded in a wall in 1903. It's hard ... read more

Slioch

As we travelled towards home, hoping to reach Garve before the sun slipped below the horizon, we were caught by the beauty of this beast rising out of the waters. The Male Parental Unit interpreted my clicking camera followed by small sighs of exasperation as a tree would swing into my lens just at the point of capture... followed by the winding down of the window and the influx of freezing air to mean I needed a photo op stop. He obliged. High fences and decrepit signs warned against ... read more

A Goal in Gairloch

You may have noticed my Day Zero linky in the top bar - the page that lists my 101 in 1001. This is an experiment in goal setting, and also a bypass of New Year's Resolutions - instead giving myself 1001 days to complete the list and, quite probably, also embrace failure ;-) I found writing the list an interesting challenge - despite all the To Do lists floating around in my brain I had to really get creative to make it to 101. On Sunday I was taken on a surprise trip to Poolewe and ... read more

Destroying Scotland SNP Style

SNP Government approves Donald Trump's plans to annihilate SSSI dunes at Menie Links I am thus far speechless despite having suspected for a long time that Alex Salmond would sell out to the high bidder. I fear for what this means to all the other SSSI's and how other "developers" will be able to wrangle their way to planning permission in sensitive ... read more

Peaceful Birthday

My single secret birthday wish was for a day of guaranteed peace and quiet... @ delivered that and so much more with a surprise trip to Mallaig... More to tell soon but here is a snippet as the ferry returned from ... read more

Oily Thorn

"It's Scotland's oil." This has long been a call to arms for nationalists in Scotland. I have even been known to mutter about the fact that Scotland is oft referred to as the only nation in the world to have struck oil and become poorer. I remember seeing graffiti as a youngster, I think it was on that railway bridge on the A96 that now has traffic lights (ye ken the een that has the 45 degree blin corner and sometimes a neddie in the field on the richt heading North?) - the graffiti said ... read more

Zero Tolerance for Mike Tyson

News today is that a planned corporate event in Glasgow has been cancelled after politicians and groups like Rape Crisis spoke out against the appearance of Mike Tyson. The general message appears to be that showcasing, honouring or otherwise lining the pockets of a convicted rapist is not welcome in Scotland. I'm right there with them.Mike Tyson was convicted of rape in February 1992 and sentenced to 6 years imprisonment. He was released in 1995 after serving 3 years of that sentence.One might ... read more

Fife and the Firth

Today we caught a train from Edinburgh to Aberdour with the intention of finding a new beach to explore. Neither of us have ever been to Aberdour other than when the Aberdeen train whizzes past going North, so it was all new :)We left the train and followed the signs to the Fife Coastal Path:The path is flanked by the railway line and it's a peaceful haven of leafy trees, wildflowers and plants. Some folk seem to have missed the fact that leaving their dog poop behind is against the law - ... read more

Glimpsing Spring

I've covered a fare bit of ground over the past week really. My folks took us over to Lomond Shores which is basically a shopping centre at one end of Loch Lomond. It wasn't as awful as it might sound, but since I'm not a stuff buying addict I was more interested in the scenery. I'm also still trying to forget the cloying stench of perfume that permeated the air - I hate perfume and can't see the attraction of a) perfume shops and b) walking around with a chemical cloud for an aura. We ... read more

Interesting

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7358315.stm"Plans to construct one of Europe's largest onshore wind farms has been refused by the Scottish Government... It said Lewis Wind Power's (LWP) 181-turbines for Lewis on the Western Isles did not comply with European law protecting sensitive environments... The scheme had the backing of the local authority and business, but attracted almost 11,000 objections...."So the Scottish Government has stepped in to protect an SPA ... read more