Looking back at our tenth year in the Scottish Highlands we are once more so humbled by the beauty of nature and grateful to share a few favourite moments from the places we love.
We have enjoyed our walks along the river, the pond and the shores along the Moray Coast. It was early January, when the last grown up cygnets flew the river nest and began the next stage of their journey. The pond swans were fortunate to have cygnets again this year, with one them surviving into adulthood. The river has been abundant with wildlife, with merganser, heron, redshank, goosander, and a record number of ducks. The mild Autumn brought a second wave of ducklings, who are still thriving today. We’ve seen many migrating birds pass our shores, especially geese, greenshank and dunlin. In the forests, we enjoyed peaceful encounters with raven, each of them inspiring a poem.
Raven’s Call became our most popular wildlife post of the year. A few other popular posts featuring wildlife were Summer Cygnets and Autumn Equinox featuring the pond swans, Two Herons and Mountain Frog.
With our mild Winter and plenty of rain during the Spring and Summer, 2019 was a good year for flowers, bumblebees and butterflies. The mild Autumn that followed saw many flowers bloom for a second time.
Hoarfrost became our most popular post featuring macro photography, posted late November after our first overnight frost. Flowers in the Detail, Fuzzy Blue and Cuckoo Flower also feature in the top ten posts for this year.
With the weather so much kinder than in 2018, we were able to travel North and West a few times. The beautiful landscape inspired many poems. In addition to haiku, haibun and tanka I revisited the villanelle and experimented with the lai nouveau and rubaiyat.
Our most popular post on the blog Fragrant Breeze was inspired by the wonderful landscape of Assynt in the Spring. Five other scenic posts feature in the top ten for the year, including Loch Broom, Forest Lake and Where Ducks Fly. We were delighted when our photographic post Castle in the Rain inspired a poem by a fellow blogger in Castle Ardvreck.
We want to say a very big thank you to all of you who take the time to visit and comment on our blog and to those of you who share your experiences through your own posts, photographs and poems. You are all an enormous inspiration and help make this world a better place.
A very big thank you too to all the lovely bloggers who host regular prompts and challenges. With so many photographs and impressions to chose from it’s a great help in finding a focus or different angle from which to approach a subject.
We look forward to what 2020 holds in store and wish you all a great start to the New Year. May this new decade bring new understanding and greater care for our natural world with increased compassion and peace among human beings.
You can see the 2019 highlights from our sister blog Whippet Wisdom in
2019: Favourite Moments Through the Seasons.
Wishing you all a Happy Hogmanay,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #77: Favorite Photos of 2019
Beautiful images, and lovely words. Thanks for sharing with us x
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Thank you so much for your kind words and your support dear Eileen and for sharing your lovely walks with us too! 🤗💖 xxx
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Happy New Year to you, Xenia. It is always a day brightener to visit with you, Eivor, and Pearl. Much love.
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Thank you so much for your kind words and your support dear Lois and for sharing your wonderful posts with us too! A very happy New Year to you, Parker, Piper and Pumpkin from all of us here 🤗💕🐈 xxx
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Nice to revisit many favorite posts via these galleries, Xenia. I echo your last paragraph, wishing you all the best in the year and decade ahead.
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Thank you so much for your kind words and your support dear Eliza and for sharing your beautiful vases, flowers and walks with us too! Wishing you a fabulous new decade with love from all of us here 🤗💕🌺 xxx
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Thank you!
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Beautiful year end series, a joy to look at! Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear Marcus and for sharing your beautiful photographs too! All good wishes to you and your family and a very happy New Year 🙂🙋♀️
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Thanks for the wishes – happily returned! Marcus
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Xena, another terrific gallery of photos for 2019. You’ve had an outstanding photographic year between both of your blogs 😀
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear Cee, the light and the weather have been so good for bringing the camera out this year 🤗💖🌞 xxx
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A wonderful look back with those lovely images 💕Wishing you all a very Happy Hogmanay and a fabulous 2020 🤗🐕xxx
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear Cathy, a very happy Hogmanay and a fabulous 2020 to you too! 🤗💖🐕 xxx
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Thank you ❤️🤗xxx
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Thank you for sharing the beauty of God’s creation from across the pond. It has been wonderful seeing your lovely photographs.
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Thank you so much for your kind words and your support dear Anita, it’s a great honour and pleasure to share these moments with you 🤗💖 xxx
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Thank you for these marvelous photos, Xenia.
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Thank you so much for your kind words and your support dear Ken, it’s a pleasure to share 🤗💜
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Loving all you images – Happy Hogmanay too
May 2020 bring you lots of love, laughter and fun
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear Karina, may 2020 bring you lots of love, laughter and fun too! 🤗💖 xxx
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Gorgeous photos and inspiring words…thank you for sharing them with us throughout the year!
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Thank you so much for your kind words and your support dear friends, it’s a pleasure to share! 🤗💖 xxx
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A beautiful review of the year.
All the best for 2020!
Cheers, Amy
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Thank you dear Amy, all the best for 2020 to you too! 🤗💖🎉 xxx
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So many inspirational poems and images – I send you my most grateful thoughts and love for your work, Xenia. I can only echo your words: “May this new decade bring new understanding and greater care for our natural world with increased compassion and peace among human beings.”
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Thank you so much for your kind words and your support dear Ann-Christine and thank you for sharing your beautiful photographs and challenges with us too. Here’s hoping for a blessed new decade and we wish you and your family a very Happy New Year 🤗💖🐕 xxx
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Happy New Year to you all, Xenia! You know your photos and words are a daily joy!
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🙂💜🙋♀️ xxx
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Beautiful images, and a thoughtful and inspiring retrospective, Xenia. Thank you too, for joining our challenge. Your contributions are beautiful and inspiring! All the best in 2020.
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear Patti and for hosting this lovely challenge! All the best for 2020 to you and your family too 🤗💖 xxx
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Same to you, Xenia!
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Thank you! 🙂💜🙋♀️ xxx
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Your love of nature’s wonders comes shining through your images Xenia – beautifully done. The young birds are my favorites
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear Tina, it’s been a real joy to capture these moments 🙂💜 xxx
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Beautiful. What a wealth of Nature in which to live. Best wishes for 2020.
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear John, we are so blessed with all this natural beauty. A very happy New Year to you and your family too 🤗🎉
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Beautiful! That last photo is unbelievable! ❤❤❤🦋🦋🦋
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear Lisa! 🤗💜 xxx
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Lovely post … thanks for the delightful images! Happy New Year 🤗💫
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear Julie, a very Happy New Year to you too! 🤗💖 xxx
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I can add nothing to your heartfelt sentiments except for a resounding “Yes!”
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Thank you so much for your kind words dear Laurie. We hope 2020 got off to a great start for you and wish you a blessed new year xxx
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