Rowan Tree

We were spoilt for blippertunities today. The morning began with a rainbow over Loch Etive, and a wake up call from my mother's gardener/handyman and his mate. How I wish I'd taken a photo before they started! The front garden has now had a severe haircut.

Around lunchtime CleanSteve and I went out to a pub by the side of Loch Creran, which reopened last year after a few years of uncertainty. The Creagan Inn is a place where, four years ago, we enjoyed the sight of otters gambolling on the shore at dusk. When we asked the young guy who works there if there'd been any sightings of late, he said he'd seen two lying on their backs in the loch last night, but that was the very first time he'd ever seen otters in his life!

On to Appin we went, and Castle Stalker, where we stalked the castle in the bay, along with a lot of other rubberneckers. I felt like a proper tourist. I got some fun shots using my reflection/ fisheye/pop art filters, and a few good ones, but I am leaving the castle to CleanSteve.

Castle Stalker is the privately owned residence of the Stewart family. It was the ancient seat of the Stewarts of Appin, but was put on sale in the 1960s, following a tragedy in the Stewart line, when "Mr Stewart" was assasinated in his post as Governor of the Bahamas. His son, who had no children, already had a big house, (which we rented, briefly, in the 1970s) so the castle was surplus to requirements. Coincidentally, it was bought by a family called Stewart, who lived in London, and who used to fly up at weekends to do a bit of DIY castle restoration! It took them about twenty years of weekending to get the castle fit to live in. I went on a tour of the castle, many years ago, and it was there I heard parts of the story. It also involved one of the renovators, Jimmy, having invented a famous Scottish country dance while in a Prisoner of War Camp during world war II!

After Castle Stalker, we went on to Port Appin, to see the Lismore ferry depart. After a brief disaster involving my being locked into the car while CleanSteve went blipabout, we walked around Clach Thoull, the headland, which has a magnificent rocky outcrop at its heart. There are no cars here, just a footpath, and marvellous views over Loch Linnhe and Lismore. CleanSteve saw some finches, but otherwise there was no bird life that we could observe. The silence is beautiful.

I had a bit of a love affair with some peaty puddles, which reflected the sky, but decided they would make better drinks coasters than blips, being mainly abstract. In the end it's the plant life that wins. There was architecturally interesting cow parsley; heather; and of course rowan berries to choose from. I've gone for the rowan because I've been trying to blip a rowan tree for a few days now. They are everywhere!

My brother can play the song tune on the pipes, as can my uncle. It is usually played at family funerals, so for me it has sad associations. I thought about trying to make a short video of my brother playing it, but he was making kedgeree at the time, so it seemed a shame to distract him. It seems hard to find on youtube any Scottish pipe bands from "actual Scotland" playing it.

Speckled coast has a good rowan blip, that got me reinterested after failing to get a good shot the other day.