Here are a selection of pictures taken (with my phone) over the past few days. Though I’ve been using the camera phone more out of necessity than anything, I have been quite enjoying seeing what I can do with it, and it is particularly useful for capturing fleeting effects of light when I’m out and about on the hill. The light – much like the weather – moves very quickly out here and there is certainly something in the oft-repeated four-seasons-in-one day Scottish stereotype. I met a Dutch couple out on the West Highland Way the other day, and, after enquiring about places to camp the woman asked me rather despondently when it was going to stop raining. I told her that this was Scotland and that it would soon shift. Sure enough, an hour or so later, the landscape was bathed in glorious sunshine.
We are slowly settling in to our new house and its lovely location. We have had our first visitors, and it has been particularly nice to be able to eat outside on these soft end-of-summer days, watching the trees start to turn on the other side of the loch, while the swallows dart about us. Upstairs, I have started decorating (my idea is to turn all of the rooms on the upper floor into one big Hammershøi-inspired interior) while downstairs has a rather temporary and disorganised feel as we await arrival of . . . the components of a new kitchen. Having very recently fitted one in the flat we’ve just left you may think we are totally bonkers to go through it all again . . . but I feel that if we don’t do it now we never shall. Plus, there will be an actual RANGE. I promise there will be pictures when it is all done.
Thankyou so much for all your good wishes and lovely comments, which have really been a joy for us both to read. Now, its time to don my boiler suit again and apply some undercoat. See you soon!
Just realised looking at your beautiful photos we are not too far away. Enjoy your new home, settling in and hope the peace and tranquility give you lots of inspiration. Love your posts, the articles in the recent Rowan magazine and the inspiration of Shetland.
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A Dutch woman remarking on the rain? You would think that when it comes to heavenly downpour nothing could surprise the Dutch. But they are really good at predicting that unpredictable weather in the Netherlands.
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The pictures are lovely. Good luck with the kitchen!
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Lovely Kate! So happy for you and your little family. Amazed how similar Scotland and Oregon look. Probably all the rain :) Our weather changes in an instant as well. Enjoy!
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What a spectacular location. I know it will provide you with years of inspiration and peace and the space to be well. Congratulations on the settling.
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How like California is Scotland !
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The view around you just takes my breath away. I have grown to love people’s phone pictures (when they’re not gratuitously filtered of course). They look soft and cozy to me, like old medium format camera prints.
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I imagine we will be seeing the colors of the bracken in some knitted object in the future!
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Oh, that end-of-summer light! Lovely. And the colors that whisper of the upcoming Autumn. Wow! The phone is photographing beautifully.
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so lovely – I do enjoy Bruce (having 2 labs of my own) such a wonderful life he has : )
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Do take care Kate and don’t overdo it. Enjoy your lovely surroundings.
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Love the photos! And do you have room for a live-in maid? Doggone, I’m on the wrong side of the pond….
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I love your photos and have enjoyed following your move. We have been in the middle of remodeling our home over the past year, just finished installing new hardwood floors, so I can sympathize with the remodeling turmoil. After remodeling our kitchen we kept moving from one room to the next, but thankfully we are now starting to run out of rooms! It’s wonderful when the projects are complete and you can enjoy your home!
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Your photos make me want to be your neighbor. They are beautiful and worthy of framing. Thank you for sharing
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My Dearest Kate,
I can’t thank you enough for posting the beautiful pictures of your new natural surroundings. I absolutely fell in love with Scotland, especially the Highlands, and am homesick for a place that I’ve only visited. Is this possible? I think it is because I felt so totally at home and at peace. There was a stillness in my soul and I carry this feeling with me daily. Many blessing to you, Tom, Bruce and Jesus!
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Will definitely look forward to seeing your choice of colors for the upper floor rooms. From Farrow and Ball perhaps? Wish they were more readily available here in the US.
Your photos are marvelous and evocative. May you have true blessings in your new home!
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Your photos are always beautiful . . . enjoy your new home!
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Beautiful, beautiful. I really can’t quite imagine waking up every day in such a beautiful place.
I’m so very happy for you! How is Jesus adapting?
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So beautiful! You made the right move I think.
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Huzzah! Glad to hear news from your new gaff. I hope the interior turmoil soon desists, and the exterior views continue to delight.
You might be interested in reading George monbiots new book ‘feral’ which has much to say about the landscapes that you show in your photos.
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Heavenly surroundings. And unlike here in Canada, you can go for walks and not have to think about predators (those pesky bears, coyotes,and wolves). How far are you from shopping (for groceries, tea, and other necessities of life)?
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Great photos with your phone!
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Your new exterior environs are heavenly. I love Hammershoi and am imagining the most heavenly, atmospheric and romantic interiors as well. Happy painting! Can’t wait to see how all of this translates into future knitting patterns…
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Thank you for all the lovely pictures! Best of luck with your kitchen, I’m sure it will be worth all the bother!
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Dear Bruce what a wonderful new home for you and your family. Do write soon and let us know your favourite places in the new neighbourhood.
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What beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing.
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Oh it takes me back.. I grew up in Stirlingshire and remember “runs” and walks out in the Trossachs.
It looks gorgeous, and isn’t eating outside in your own garden so much fun!
I love the Hammershoi idea, and it should work very well considering we are on the same latitude.
Enjoy your lovely new home!
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How lucky you are to live in those glorious surroundings! I miss hiking the West Highland Way! But I do have the woods of Vermont to romp around in. I’m sure we’re all looking forward to seeing your progress on your lovely house!!
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Wonderful pictures and new location. Thank you for sharing, I’m happy for you!
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Hi! Your blog and your fabulous pictures, makes me want to visit Scotland. And I love your crafts too. You’re a very talented woman! :-)
Best wishes from Sweden!
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I confess that I had to look up Hammershoi – then recognised them, I always love that sense of light pouring in. ( Wish I could appreciate it more in my own house, where I always start noticing the dust :-)
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Thank you for sharing those beautiful photographs with us. You are blessed to live in such a lovely place.
I hope you will share photos of the Hammershoi interiors with us as well. We had a large Hammershoi exhibition here in Munich last year and I loved it. So I’m curious to learn what your interiors will look like.
I wish all three of you all the best for your new home and many, many happy years there!
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“Soft end-of-summer days” is such a lovely phrase
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It looks so beautiful!
And i am typing these words sporting my brand new Sixareen Cape! YEAH!
Thank you Kate!
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Do they make boiler suits in your size? ( I love that British term!) I’d love to see a picture of you in yours.
I felt sad that you were leaving Edinburgh but your new location looks wonderful. Best wishes in your new home. Bruce looks like he’s found his Nirvana.
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Those knobbly hills in the first picture are itching to be conquered!
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What a beautiful place to live. You take amazing pictures with your phone!
I live in the French Alps but got married (almost 10 years ago in October) in Scotland. We enjoyed a week of glorious sunshine! All our pictures have beautiful blue skies, and highlands cows, in them.
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some of those photos could be Turners! gorgeous … sigh missing the Highlands badly right now.
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Amazing pictures! I thought you were alternating images of paintings with snapshots.
That is one beautiful place to be! Thanks,
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what a beautiful setting for your new home. I can’t wait to see some indoor pics once youre done refurbishing. Eating outside is a treat. Hope Bruce likes his new home.
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So beautiful. How wonderful to be able to live in those surroundings! Thank you for sharing your pictures. Even though they are “only” phone pictures, you’ve really captured the essence of Scotland I think.
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What beautiful views! Congratulations on the new abode. I wonder when you say range if you mean Aga – how exciting!
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What extraordinary but every day photos! The light is indeed typical Scots. the Hammershoi interior upstairs will be a wonderful backdrop for all your work. And DO have fun with your new range, send more recipes :)
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Heaven…I feel I can almost melt into your photos. Thanks so much for sharing. To me personally it means just heaps! We were to go to Scotland this coming Wednesday and have had to cancel our 30th wedding anniversary trip because my husband has suffered a massive heart attack.
It will be bittersweet to celebrate at home instead of in Scotland but a true blessing for me to have my best friend beside me still, to celebrate our 30th together.
All the best to you 3 Musketeers, in your newfound joys!
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I know how you feel – years ago we had planned a vacation with my parents at the North Sea; but then within months my father died of cancer and we never had the chance to go on vacation together again.
But as you say, it is a blessing for you to have your husband still with you – and I’m sure you will be able to go to Scotland one day when he has recovered.
All the best to you both and I hope you will be able to celebrate the 50th wedding day as well!
Michaela (from Germany)
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I am so happy for you in your new home. It is all absolutely lovely.
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Oooh, happy new home – and Bruce is looking particularly pleased with recent events.
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Lovely just lovely…..
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There just isn’t any place in the world like Scotland, the beauty of it. Yes its the best idea to get the kitchen done now. I put mine off when I moved into this old house 15 years ago and its still not done, I too can’t wait to see the range.
Carole
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The third one down looks like something Constable would have painted … And the fourth is very Turner-esque! Lovely!
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Bruce is LOVING it!
I’m just imagining the swallow flying about everywhere! Might you be able to witness a murmuration? (ever since seeing the viral you tube clip of this I have longed to see it one day).
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You will make the terrace better! Interestingly, the boards have been installed upside down, meaning they will not last as long.
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this is often done in very wet areas to provide a non-slip surface …more important than how long the boards last…..Kate enjoy, life has opened such a lovely path for you, a door closed (through your stroke) but it has led to wonderful doors that you would have been to wrapped in academia to have time for, breathe the air, soak in the stillness and let the song of the earth inspire your creations…..
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You are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful and inspiring location. I’m sure you will get your home as you want it, just keep telling yourselves it will all be worth it in the end. Can’t wait to see the Range!
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What a beautiful setting. It looks so peaceful and like dog heaven!
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I think Bruce has a different look about him. Can he believe his luck?
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Upstairs will be the studio, yes? Definitely worth the turmoil to do the kitchen now while you’re in the groove, so to speak. The range will give heart and soul to your house! Thank you for sharing your beautiful environment with us all.
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Paradise….one day, soon, I will visit. I am happy for you!
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I so enjoy your posts and look forward to the pictures (especially when they include Bruce). Your new surroundings are breathtaking! You are Scotland’s best ambassador of travel. I’m glad you are happy because you have made so many of us happy too.
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The landscape is amazing!! Where does the little stone path lead to?
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The pictures of the countryside are glorious! It makes me want to set off on a long walk in Scotland! ( A girl can dream.) ☺
Enjoy…
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What a beautiful place, you can call your home now. I wish you both a wonderful time there!
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Best wishes on your new home. You are blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the world. My grown children”s grandparents on their Father’s side came over from Scotland to the United States in their early twenties. We still hope someday to be able to visit Scotland, but in the meantime we live vicariously through your wonderful photos. Much happiness to you, Tom and of course Bruce.
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your pictures are beautiful, what a lovely place to live in, I am sure you will find inspiration every day living in that every changing environment.
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Does this mean that you’ll be flitting about downstairs in a long black dress wearing a white pinny? Please put some colour around the place.
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It looks beautiful – what a wonderful place to live!
Having had our kitchen done a few months ago, I think you are very brave to go through it twice in a year, though I can completely see why it makes sense. And having a range will be wonderful!
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It looks wonderful. Bruce must be in heaven!
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Hammershoi in Scots light – delightful idea! Looking at the beauties of your surrounds, I just hope that you are too far south for midges. All the best for a glorious Settling.
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What a wonderful landscape! I want to move there…
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It looks like you have moved to a veritable paradise. I love your pictures.
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it looks like paradise. a small copse seen from afar always moves me so strangely, and i love the one here with a curve of — vine-covered wall, is it? — further protecting the sheltering trees.
the ferns are so beautiful as is the variegated pasture and skyline. it looks like a place where bruce and both of you will be deeply, deeply happy.
thrilled to think of your northern light inspired hammershoi interiors. how do you get your puter to do that o/ thing?
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Great to hear you are settling in and Have fun with the decorating – very exciting!
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It all looks wonderful – nearly as good as the Borders!! Glad that you are getting settled in. Have fun with the decorating – having been here 7 years we are working up to slapping on some fresh paint on the bits we did first. I also want to paint the odd bits of furniture in the studio with Annie Sloan Chalk paint …….
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Very evocative photos. Lovely to see Bruce, et al, enjoying the new vistas. As much as you all love being outside, I can well imagine the outside decking area is a nice retreat on a good day. May your kitchen refit go quickly and seamlessly (with no ends to weave in, so to speak).
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I love your pictures and I so want to visit Scotland. Thank you for sharing.
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Thank you for sharing your photos! I may never get to Scotland except through your blog!
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Gorgeous pics! Thank you for sharing. I remember climbing Arthur’s Seat as a child and again as an adult!
We, too, did a complete renovation on out kitchen a couple years ago. We used the money we were saving for an overseas trip. As we are in our 50’s and the kitchen absolutely needed to be remodeled sometime in our lives, we decided to do it whilst still able to do some labor and put up with the mess and aggravation. Sooooooo worth it!
Best,
Sheila
http://sheilazachariae.blogspot.com/2013/08/baby-boom-vanilla-baktus.html
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Kate, I love the pictures you’ve taken with your phone, what a beautiful peaceful environment to live in. Would love to see photos of your kitchen before and after too if that’s not asking too much. Makes us watching from afar appreciate the transformation. Love your porch when you can sit, wine and dine and enjoy the elements.
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I’m not quite sure why, but those pictures make me feel as if I can almost smell the scent of those hills. Delighted to learn that you are indeed settling.
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You have a wonderful eye for a good landscape photograph. They are beautiful photos.
I’m glad the move went well and that you are happily settling in to your new home. I hope you have many happy years there.
Understand completely about the new kitchen. If you can afford it, do it now and enjoy living with it. I have been dreaming about my “new” kitchen for the last 10 years (literally – the tenth anniversary of the house purchase was yesterday). Got very close to it three years ago when we did the rest of the downstairs but ran out of money before work started on the kitchen so had to suspend everything. Work begins again in September and I can’t wait!
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So, so envious of you. But glad you are settled and happy.
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What a lovely spot, the light is enchanting, so painterly. Congrats on your new location. Having just remodeled a kitchen, you are correct that now is the best time. Think of all the joy you will get from it.
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You are so lucky to live in a place of such splendour and beauty!
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I’d like to frame the 3rd photo and hang it in my home. I am a rotten photographer and really appreciate the talent of someone who can compose well! All 3 of you look like you’re enjoying your new home.
Cheers and red wine, Hazel.
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So, so beautiful!
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Wonderful pictures! It’s like you’ve just moved into an art gallery.
Many thanks for sharing with us.
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Best wishes for your new home. And many, many thanks for the pictures. It’s a mini vacation to me.
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This looks so idylic….on the practical side…how far do you have o go for provisions….where is your closest shopping?
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Your pictures make me want to visit Scotland again. So glad that all has worked out in finding the right home for you.
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One of these days….
I am traveling from the U.S. to Ireland at the end of the September with my 30 Y.O. daughter. I wish we’d made plans to travel to Scotland instead. I have been following this blog for years…and one of these days I hope to see you hiking out on those beautiful trails you share with us.
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Oh Gripton, Ireland is equally as beautiful as Scotland, and its people are welcoming. You’ll have a wonderful time.
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Lovely to see you enjoying your new environment, Kate. Now get that paintbrush out.
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