Week #25 Melrose

This week's walk was at Melrose in the Scottish Borders. Lots of interest-the Abbey, nice textural details, like rust, brickwork, and splintered wood..

Some interesting examples of symmetry, a fabulous old unused railway station feeling like something from the wild west..

interesting gardens, and plants..

a vaiduct and an MG..

And wonderful vintage signs..

a great walk

Week #24 Leith Festival

So for this week's walk I went down to Leith to watch the parade and look at the stalls at The Leith Festival.
These photos should be bright and colourful, but I was pretty well shooting into the sun and they are generally over exposed. I am so cross at myself for forgetting to check the histogram!
Lesson learned!

Week #23

This week I met up with some other keen photgraphers and we headed out to Port Seton for a photo walk.

First we went to the small fishing harbour:


Then to the Seton Collegiate church:

And finally the Prestonpans Industrial Heritage Museum:

Week #22 The Pentland Hills

The Pentland Hills are the hills just south of Edinburgh. In fact you can see them from the top of our street, and walk out from the house into the hills. But this walk is further out past Silverburn, and takes you up past a farm, where there is an interesting array of farm paraphernalia which makes for some interesting photos. Here are a few:

Week #21 South Queensferry

Photography is all about light, and the best light is around sunrise or sunset,
so with this in mind I was up early and got to South Queensferry just before 6am.
I was about an hour too late!
The best light had been and gone, but nevertheless I did get some lovely shots!

Week #20 Glen Esk

Blue skies, sunshine, wonderful scenery, wildlife and old buildings=
a great day out for any photographer!!

Week #19 Homecoming March

I went into the Royal Mile to watch the 3rd Battalions The Rifles, Homecoming March after their tour of duty in Afghanistan. This battalion is stationed at the barracks near to where we live. I was surprised to be quite overcome with emotion watching the March and hearing the applause of the the crowds who came out to welcome them home. I'm not sure why I had that response. This battalion has suffered a significant loss of life while on tour and they marched so proudly. It must have been so hard for them to experience the joy of coming home and being reunited with loved ones, and yet knowing that some of their comrades were never coming home. And some of them are so young... the same age as Jack

Week #18 Dawyck

Week 18's walk was at Dawyck Botanical garden in the Scottish Borders. It's not that long since my last walk here, but it's nice to visit a garden throughout the year to see the seasonal changes. This was my first outing with my new Canon camera, so I'm on a steep learning curve at present, learning how to access the various settings.

Week #17 Madrid

After spending 13 days in Madrid, and walking more miles than I care to think about I feel I got to know the city pretty well. We were in Madrid 2 years ago also, so this time I tried to get some different shots of this wonderful city. This is a selection-click for a close view.

Week #16 Madrid

Week 16 and 17 photos are from Madrid. It was meant to be week 16 only, since we were to be in Madrid for 4 nights. However the volcano eruting in Iceland changed that. We were unable to fly home because of the volcanic ash, so eventually we got a bus to London and train home from there. Our 4 day break expanded to 13!, so I will upload another selection from Madrid soon. Madrid is such a photographic city-everything from narrow streets, ornate balconies, grand civic buildings, fountains markets and beautiful parks. The difficulty is in making a selection!

Week #15 Benmore Gardens

 
 
 
 

Week 14 Cramond

 
 

Week #13 Dawyck Botanical Garden

Dawyck Botanical Garden is near Peebles in the Scottish Borders- a garden of trees, rather than flowers. It has trees from all over the world, including enormous Douglas Firs. At this time of the year the buds are froming on the trees and shoots of herbaceous plants are coming through. It was a week or two early for the daffodils-I shall try to get back in the next couple of weeks. I hadn't realized that seasonally it's a couple of weeks behind Edinburgh. The drive down was lovely with the springs lambs and calves in the fields.

 
 

Week #12 Wallace Monument

My walk this week was at the William Wallace monument near Stirling:
Completed in 1869 after eight years' construction, the 220 feet high Wallace Monument sits prominently on the Abbey Craig two miles north of the city of Stirling itself. It was from this prominent hilltop in 1297 that William Wallace watched the English army approach across Stirling Bridge before leading the Scots into the battle of the same name: and victory (see our Historical Timeline). A fitting, and striking, location for the national monument to a national hero.