Framedlight

After I had dropped Alan and Rene off in Rothesay for their trip on the Waverley and done a little shopping for the evening meal, I found my day of photography had been whittled down to half a day. I went back to Kilchattan and drove to the end of the road, where the buses turn round, and parked up. From here there is a footpath which wends round the coast to a small lighthouse at Rubh'an Eun or 'bird headland', looking across a 100m deep channel to Little Cumbrae. The weather was pretty dull and by the end of the afternoon it had started to drizzle. The walk started through a little piece of woodland and then hugged the shore across bogland where Hettie got mired a couple of times. I was amazed at the number of orchids and other wild flowers putting on a fine display for me. I had to skirt a broken path at the base of Hawk's Nib, a low sandstone cliff and finally came round a rocky shoreline to see the lighthouse. By the time I had got there I realised I would have ...

In the flat where we were staying on Kilchattan Bay our bedroom had very pale thin curtains. I am not a good sleeper at the best of times and while we were there I was waking around 4.30am to put my nose out between the drapes to look at the view. On this particular morning I woke to see the curtains glowing red. I threw my clothes on and rushed outside before the spectacle had gone. So here is a rather vulgar sunrise!

It was late in the afternoon when we visited Ettrick Bay, a wide sandy beach but it was getting cold so there were only a few dog walkers around. Finally there was a bit of a sunset at Kilchattan Bay, although not until 10.30pm, so I battled the midges to take a few shots.

The morning of the 23rd proved to be sunny with stacks of cumulus cloud. We had planned a walk but I had time to slip across the road to the beach to make some more abstract pictures of the view across Kilchattan bay. Our plan took us again to the other side of the island, back to the Kyles of Bute. If you drive up the north west coast as far as you can, you come to a small car park where you can leave the car before carrying on by a footpath that leads to Kilmichael and another ancient chapel. We did not manage to get all the way there as Rene could not manage the distance, but the sides of the path were full of wild flower I photographed as we went. Here we have foxglove, yellow flag,  a picture of the coast looking across the Kyles, yellow pimpernel  and buttercup. Everything was flowering much later than at home in Essex, I even saw a few bluebells out.  

After we had had supper I had the chance of stepping outside to ward off the midges and take some pictures of sunset across the bay, with one intentional camera movement shot. But first a picture of the view down the garden of our holiday house.