The strong winds have blown a fair few leaves from the trees and thankfully there are still plenty of autumn colours to enjoy.
Wishing you all a wonderful Wednesday,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/4 – 1/250 s – ISO 100, f/2.8 – 1/200 s – ISO 100 and f/4 – 1/640 s – ISO 160.
Cee’s Flower of the Day (including Leaves and Berries)
Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Flora
Wishing you all a blessed New Year!
With love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Canon Powershot SX60 HS, Settings: f/8 – 1/1600 s – ISO 100, f/8 – 1/1000 s – ISO 200 and f/5 – 1/1000 s – ISO 200.
Jez Braithwaite’s Water Water Everywhere #8
Word of the Day Challenge: Renewal
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
snow on the peaks
a few more sleeps before
midwinter
© Xenia Tran
We wish you all a wonderful Wednesday and a blessed Winter Solstice.
With love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Canon Powershot SX60 HS, Settings: f/5.6 – 1/320 s – ISO 100, f/5 – 1/320 s – ISO 100 and f/5 – 1/250 s – ISO 100.
Frank J Tassone’s Weekly Haikai Challenge #117: Midwinter
Your Daily Word Prompt: Duration
Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Common
Wishing you all a peaceful Sunday,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/4 – 1/160 s – ISO 100, f/4 – 1/125 s – ISO 160 and f/3.5 – 1/125 s – ISO 160.
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #76: On Display
Thank you for all your good wishes before we went on our break! It’s lovely to be back and to see the changing colours around us.
Wishing you all a magical Wednesday,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/160 s – ISO 100, f/2.8 – 1/100 s – ISO 100 and f/2.8 – 1/125 s – ISO 100.
Nancy Merrill’s A Photo A Week Challenge: Changing Seasons
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #65: Pick a Place
Wishing you all a blessed Sunday,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Settings: f/4 – 1/1600 s – ISO 160 and f/5.6 – 1/400 s – ISO 100.
Becca’s Sunday Trees
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #56: Seascapes and/or Lakeshore
Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Reflection
Stac Pollaidh
Wishing you all a blessed Sunday from Coigach,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Canon Powershot SX60 HS, Settings: f/5.6 – 1/1000 s – ISO 250, f/5.6 – 1/500 s – ISO 100 and f/5 – 1/1000 s – ISO 160.
Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Hill
Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #55: Dreamy
We’re taking a short Summer break and wish you all a wonderful week ahead.
You’re welcome to browse our archives while we’re away and we’ll be posting here again on Wednesday 17th July.
Thank you for all your support, it means a lot!
With love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/4 – 1/1250 s – ISO 160, f/4 – 1/800 s – ISO 100 and f/4.5 – 1/1600 s – ISO 100.
Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Wall
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: 5+ Items
Little Assynt
With a lot of rain forecast and only a light breeze, we’re braving the elements for a walk along the all-abilities path at Leitir Easaidh. The path is solid and even, free from slippery tree roots and stones that can be treacherous in wet weather.
Several lochans sparkle among the heather and golden flowers of bog asphodel on brighter days. Loch Leitir Easaidh is the first one we come to, with a wooden fishing jetty and an adapted small boat, suitable for people with limited mobility.
On the other side of the jetty is a shelter, built with natural stone and local wood. It has a grass and heather roof and blends in beautifully with the natural environment. We pause here for a mug of tea during a heavy downpour. It’s a comfortable and soothing place to stay for a while. In nature and sheltered by nature.
Beside the jetty and shelter is a small wooden building with a composting toilet. The building is wind- and solar-powered and has a grass roof for insulation. When we reach Loch na h-Innse Fraoich, we find a similar building, shelter, jetty and adapted small boat there for the visitor’s convenience.
The views beyond the gorse-covered hills across the water are obscured by cloud today, making it feel as if we’re walking in a small world of our own. A short, steep path on the left leads directly to a viewpoint. The other path takes you there via a slightly longer, more gentle route.
The peaks and cliffs of Quinag are hidden above the clouds. It’s possible to continue deeper into this estate via a link path, which joins the Loch an t-Sabhail path. If the weather and visibility had improved, we would have been happy to combine these two walks.
Despite the rain and poor visibility we enjoyed our walk here. It was very peaceful and the few walkers we met seemed to think we were on to a good thing too.
The Leitir Eiseadh paths are excellent and suitable for people of all abilities, including wheelchair users.
Wishing you all a happy Monday and a wonderful new week,
with love from Xenia xxx
Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.
The Little Assynt Estate is owned and managed for the community of Assynt by the Culag Community Woodland Trust.
Jo’s Monday Walk
Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Breeze
Your Daily Word Prompt: Sustain
Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Trail
Tranature 
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