A lot of clouds and some flowers...!

We might not have had wall to wall sunshine and June it has to be said was rather gloomy, but we have had the most lovely skies and light and rainbows and flowers!

Cloudy and the small picture

It has been very very cloudy 

Yesterday I thought I would go out and practice using the aperture settings on my camera. I sat in the car and waited for the rain to stop....

and after a while I took a picture of a bit of Stac Pollaidh 

before it disappeared...!

Down on the shore despite a glimmer of light on the horizon

I decided to give up on the big picture

and concentrate on small instead

cloud doesn't seem to matter when you look at small things

When I got home I thought the cloud was less than it had been. They say this coming week the weather is going to warm up. Does that mean warm with cloud I wonder..?

When things don't quite work out...!

We've been in the Isle of Wight celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary together with our children and their partners. We had a lovely time and I will put more pictures on here. This is just to let you know I haven't forgotten you! But now, I'm off to the airport to pick up my daughter, who should have been flying to sunny Barcelona this morning with her boyfriend but is flying to wet  damp and cold Scotland instead because, despite turning their flat inside out and upside down, she has been unable to find her passport...!!

Jo, in happier times with her younger brother...

Gruinard House Garden on a very damp day..!

There are a lot of photographs here, but it is such a delightful garden, I didn't want to leave any thing out and even when it's very soggy and wet and dripping it still looks scrumptious. The garden is situated at the mouth of the river Gruinard. There is a bridge in the garden that crosses the river. An abundance of wild life on the far shore looking back to the house and beyond to the Summer Isles, not looking very summery today. I came away at the end of the afternoon clutching my one purchase in a pot (won't be long before my garden looks like Gruinard House garden then!) and sat with my friend Mary on the beach enjoying the quiet and loveliness of it all. There are so many things here that are unexpected and Gruinard House Garden is one of them, even more so because most of the work has been done by one slightly middle aged lady who must have a strong constitution and not mind gardening on a slope, not mind the wind nor the rain and midges sometimes in the summer, nor the sheer hard work involved in making such loveliness look natural and whimsical and somehow just created by chance!

To  end on a sunny note. This was the front lawn of Gruinard House Garden when we were there two years ago....it can be sunny and warm sometimes!

Have we missed Spring...?

I have been neglectful of my blog. There are reasons and none of them important! I wonder if spring has arrived  yet? We have some lovely days that are warm and sunny then not so lovely days when it is cold and even snowing in the hills. Everything is slow to get growing. Everyone says that spring has been late in coming this year. I think we may have missed it altogether.

We are building a sort of drystone wall. More of that later, in the meantime I'm still unearthing items that have been buried in the garden over the years. An old iron, still with its wooden handle until I prized it out from under a pile of rubble where it simply disintegrated. I've joined an on-line drawing group. I have to draw something everyday in May....I can't wait for June!  There is a list to download telling me what to draw next. I'm finding it completely stressful and absorbing at the same time. Cleaning and cooking and shopping and blogging,  has become secondary while I rise to meet the drawing challenge!

Last week we went to visit Castle of Mey in Caithness. It was well worth it. Summer residence for the late Queen Mother. I couldn't take photos inside the castle, you must come and visit yourselves. On the way up we stopped at John O'Groats. I don't have the skill to make John O'Groats look attractive. It's a little like Lands End, rather bleak.  Starting and finishing points where everybody wants to go but nobody  wants to stay. 

After the castle our drive home was wonderful. This video (if it works) gives you a glimpse of the road we drove on. Truly a stunningly beautiful and remote landscape. For me there is nowhere lovelier than here....