Gruinard Bay

I love this beach. Today's weather was walking on the beach weather. I used to think Gruinard Bay was about an hours drive from us (it's a little more to the south west) since living here and driving like the locals it's now only half an hour!

As on most days it was pretty empty

What struck me, looking around was, what a lot of order and pattern there is to nature

I want to hang this on the wall

even shells have such symmetry in their design

It seems perfect

The noisy Oyster Catchers didn't seem orderly but their design and pattern was flawless

Our order by comparison seems chaotic! The house still looks as if we moved in only yesterday! Having completed out tax returns we see we are due a tax rebate. With that in mind we shall be heading back down to Ikea this week to stock up on cupboards and storage space - then we too can have order and patterns and symmetry in our lives - maybe!

On the way to the Summer Isles

We had a lovely Christmas. Family and friends came up to spend it with us in our cosy little house on the hillside. The weather wasn't at its best although Christmas Day arrived with some sun shine, and we managed a walk on Gruinard beach (the day I forgot to take my camera!)

Now our visitors have gone and the weather, of course, has improved - not much but a little.

Yesterday we took advantage of a break in the clouds and drove out to the Summer Isles. A region some 20 miles from here by road - less by water

The Summer Isles Hotel is situated in Achiltibuie and as its name suggests overlooks the Summer Isles. It is noted for its home produced or locally caught food. We had hoped to book a table there for friends arriving this coming weekend. Sadly the hotel is closed until March 2008, but the drive was beautiful and worth the effort

The sun sets at around 3.30pm, although we've now had the shortest day and have longer days to look forward to

A Happy and Peaceful New Year to you all