Farewelling the beauty of flowers in the cottage.

 

As much as possible Fiona ensures that we have fresh flowers in our Maleny home and our Scottish cottage. Where possible the flowers come from the garden.

We have been very fortunate this trip that the montbrecias, hydrangeas and various other wee flowers have graced our yard - so some were harvested regularly to up lift our home; and a rose and bouquet gifted by a friends.

I set myself the challenge to photograph quite a few of F's installations using the portrait setting on the iPhone. F taught me this trick - it tends to blur the background and make the subject a bit mysterious.

The opening and following photos simply celebrates the beauty of simple flowers.

As always simple beauty can uplift the spirit. This blog will publish as we start the flight home - farewell dear cottage and highlands.

Random fragments

 

A few random fragments from the phone - changing colours of autumn, the moon, red is the new colour in the garden and a couple bits of indoor cottage beauty.

First the changing colours on the lochans and hills opening and following photo.

Some recent moon photos - on cold nights.

Red, red, red ....

Flowers and wee installation in the cottage.

Random fragments of beauty remind me of hope and kindness.

Too gorgeous not to share

 

Dawn on Monday morning put on a magic light show - deep colours and rainbows as wide and as far as we could see. The opening photo shows how the wind's interaction with the cloud was also creating shapes, layers and curtains.

In no particular order some of Monday's images follow.

Even the sheep at the cove headland took on a slight glow.

The rainbow that appeared to the west on our way home started soft, intensified and then by the time we got back to the cottage it had all but gone.

Nature's temporary art show!!!!

Worth revisiting

 

On most of our stays at the cottage Fiona and I take a trip to Orkney - it is one of those places that simply speak to us. On a few occasions we have revisited Gurness - an iron age broch village. We visited Gurness again yesterday and were fortunate to get great sunshine between rain showers. The broch and surrounding buildings sat on the very edge of the coast as you can see from the opening photo.

It has been estimated that the broch was built somewhere between 500 and 200 BC. Information says the broth was about 10m in height and probably took 20 people over 6 months to build by hand.

As you can see from the following photos the village was an amazing solid complex that would have supported a sizeable number of people.

Further photos show some of the homely and complex aspects of the broch including the double walls - there were steps and passage ways between the walls. Most inner walls and storage spaces are stone.

It is just amazing what the builders achieved such a long time ago. The last photo is from the Gurness shoreline looking across to another broch village on the island of Rassay.

Fascinated by light

 

Over the last week or so we have had such light early morning light shows. Some reach wide and deep such as the opening photo and a couple following. In the second photo below you can see the Orkney Islands!!!!

Some colour the bay and beach.

Some create amazing sky-sea vistas.

And the morning moon has its own charm.

I  am grateful for such beauty.