wintery days

There is a definite change of season in the air. There have been days of rainbows . . .

. . . and days of freezing fog

. . . and nights when the northern lights shimmered and shifted above the west highland way.

This particular wintery spell has brought sub-zero temperatures and fine dry days, ideal for walking.

Bruce is pictured here fearlessly attacking a found glove, and Tom in the familiar act of taking a photograph, as well as the less-familiar one of growing a beard. He was recently invited by our friend Chris Dyer to be part of the jarl squad for Bressay’s Up Helly Aa next February. This is a very great honour – and no boat-burning jarl should be beardless. Despite the amount of time both of us have spent in Shetland, we’ve never experienced Up Helly Aa and we are really looking forward to all aspects of the celebration!

Yesterday was one of those crisp, beautiful, hard-to-ignore afternoons, and it was a complete joy to spend it outside.

Above is Loch Arklet, looking serene in the fading light, and below is the view from the head of Loch Ard, which is a favourite among local photographers.

On a day like yesterday – with a frost-covered foreground, a fine view down the loch, and the snow-covered peak of Ben Lomond in the distance you can really see why!

But of all the images of the past few wintery days, this has to be my favourite.

Robins seem to be very active in this cold weather, and this wee one at Inversnaid was completely happy to hop about in front of Tom’s camera yesterday.

In between our winter wanderings we are hard at work here. We are getting organised for the Islay club, and the publication of the Shetland Oo book is at last imminent, and we expect to be able to put it on sale next week. You’ll hear much more about that in the next post!