My trip south

Events surrounding our lovely Basil very much took over our life for all the time since my return from Devon, so I haven't had a chance to put any pictures on here. Now, however, time and events are moving on., and although Basil remains frequently in our thoughts, there'll be some new doggy news here shortly...

Meanwhile, here is a little from my week away...

At home, and when I travel, I take photos for my Geograph collection - For the uninitiated, it's not easy to explain, but here's a link to the Geograph website: http://www.geograph.org.uk and my own profile page is here: http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/20032/

In a nutshell, I take pictures of what is there - pretty, ugly, town, country. It's good to spot things that others might not notice. It's very interesting to research my images to provide some information to go with them when they are on the Geograph website. Travelling gives me the opportunity to visit places where I haven't been before with my camera. Here's a tiny sample of the couple of hundred pictures I took during my trip -

On the way south, I paused a while near Dalkeith -

and photographed a tiny takeaway in Newtongrange.

 I stayed overnight in Hawick -

While in Torquay, I wandered the local streets - 

While with my Sister, we had a walk in the Devon lanes -

On the way back, I paused again in Wybunbury, Cheshire - 

It's a good thing digital photography is virtually cost-free!

TRIBUTE TO BASIL

The loss of our wonderful Basil on Burns Night this year has left a huge black hole in our lives.  We got him as 'rescue dog' from Bobbing Kennels in Kent back in 1996 and throughout his long life with us he proved to be a hugely loyal, faithful and loving four legged friend. His presence with us for those 14 great years have been much recorded on camera  and here are just a few shots as a Remembrance Gallery of his life with both of us!

For ten of those fourteen years he also had our other dog, Bentley, as a companion. Below are both of them taken when we on a weeks holiday at Kinlochewe, Highlands, in 2003.

Basil was always our constant shadow wherever we went and loved spending  time with us whilst we were working in our gardens up on Skye when we moved here.

Below is a shot of Basil and I in the garden at Aird View back in June 2008. Somehow he never quite got the hang of weeding!

  

Basil was also very keen on playing with his toys! He just loved his ragger and was loathe to part with it so many tugs of war ensued....

... and then there was the sunbathing!  He loved it... Whilst we were working in the garden, Basil usually lay there soaking up the sun.......typical! It's a dog's life eh?!

In his day he was also a great walker and loved to come out with us. He was still relatively active when we first arrived on Skye and accompanied both Richard and I on all our local jaunts and beyond until quite recently..... Below is a shot of  him on the road down to Greep about 1.5 miles from Roskhill  on a bright and hot summer's day.

However, much as Basil was an outdoor dog he also loved  being at home. I just love this shot of him asleep on his favourite blanket....

... but possibly even better is this one both him and Richard in September 2010, in our lounge at home.  They both adored each other!

Finally, we all managed to get together for this last photograph which was taken during Sue and John's visit back in October 2010 on a beautiful autumn day with lots of bright sunshine.  

* * * * * * * * *

DEAREST  BASIL  WE  MISS  YOU 

BUT  YOU  WILL  NEVER  BE  FAR  FROM  OUR  HEARTS.

Basil

Old age comes to us all, and sadly our pets don't have the life expectancy of us humans. So old age came all too soon to Basil. Yesterday, at the age of 15, he was helped to go to a more comfortable place. Sue and I brought him home and he is now laid to rest in a corner of the garden, where he will continue to be with us for ever. Sue is going to put together a few photographs for this blog. as a memorial to Basil,  in a day or two.

Richard's trip south

Today I am preparing the van, and packing my bag in preparation for a trip to Devon in the south of England. I set off early tomorrow morning, and will have a pause on my journey to satisfy my hobby of taking photos for Geopgraph. My profile is at:  http://www.geograph.org.uk/profile/20032 . I will then have a night in a B&B in Hawick, in the Scottish borders, before travelling on to Devon on Friday. I'll post a photo or two and occasional reports from the deep south during my week away.

... BACK AT LAST - SUE HERE AGAIN WITH SOME RECENT SNOW PICS

Forgive my absence from this blog!  The last few photographs that I posted were autumnal views and since then we've had a LOT of snow.   I finally got my act together last week and hey presto, last Saturday morning there was new world outside - a white one - with every surface covered with a layer of either ice or snow particles!!  It was stunning....   These photographs below were taken during a brief walk around Roskhill with the new camera!   

Below is dead vegetation embalmed in the 'white stuff' - looking like very long frozen sausages!

Similarly trees and grasses alike were all caked in the snow ........

The sun was really bright and I just couldn't resist this view of sunlight piercing the morning mist!

Below is one of Roskhill's garden benches with a mound of dead, snow covered, montbretia vegetation with a view of the mountains beyond and a very wintry looking sky...... Brrrrrrr !

.... and finally, a view looking across Pool Roag towards Herebost with Healabhal Mhor looming out above the morning mist!  

What a beautiful world!

Even more snow...

This time it was the fluffy stuff which sticks to everything. It fell overnight, and the morning was all swirling mist...

(The top picture is taken from our living room, using a bit of 'zoom'.  The second is a crop from a picture taken by Sue looking from Roskhill over Roag to a mist shrouded Healabhal Mhor. The third is a view from just down the road, taken by Sue). (Throughout this blog - click on any picture to see it full size).

No new photos from Sue yet...

In my last post, I suggested that there should be some new photos coming here imminently - this was because I knew that Father Christmas was dropping a new camera down the chimney for Sue.

The camera survive the fall OK, but Sue is yet to have the chance to get out in decent enough weather to take some photos - there's also new and different knobs and buttons to get used to.

So we'll just have to wait a little longer for Sue's next photo post.

Meanwhile - Sue sent me out for a walk... Perhaps she had noticed my gradually expanding waistline? I made it up a hill above Portree, where a waterfall is visible from the road, but access looked difficult. (It was...)

Here's a distant view of the falls over the hillside I was crossing. Look! A stile in the fence...!! That's really unusual to find. I'm glad there's never anyone around to see my wobbly attempts at teetering over the wire fences that seem to be placed in all manner of unnecessary places just to make life more difficult for walkers. And sometimes they are deer fences, which are six feet tall....!!!!

Looking back down the hill to Loch Portree. Low cloud is hiding the hill tops and mist envelops the island of Raasay, which lies out to sea beyond the mouth of the loch.

The falls from above. I've now found an easier route to get there, so will hopefully pop back in better weather in the spring when the moorland will be green instead of brown and wild flowers will be in bloom.