Sloe Gin

I missed last autumns harvest of sloes so a special trip was planned this year to Lairg to battle Belinda's insanely prickly sloe bushes to try and collect a harvest to make the infamous 'sloe gin'. The berries look like blueberries but grow on small spikey trees... an effort I hope will make the resulting brew, all the more enjoyable!

This is the first turn of the bottle... I might add, two weeks down the track and the gin is looking very purple....!!! Roll on Christmas!!!

Pebbles at Spey Bay

Where do all these pebbles come from??? The variety of colours and patterns and textures is incredible and the power of the Spey to carry them down from the Grampians and out to the Moray Firth is quite something to ponder over your Earl Grey at Cafe Wild.

Summer Garden

Technically I know they are not great, but gosh, how amazing ordinary petunias, begonias and other common flowers in the garden can look through a macro lens... when you take notice of things you just don't normally take the time to look at properly.

Edinburgh and Bute

Summer holidays mean spending time with dear friends from all corners of the globe and celebrating the wonderful buildings and history and gardens and scenery Scotland has to offer... in this case, Edinburgh (Botanic Gardens and High Street) and the incredible (no interior photos were allowed) Mount Stuart house on the isle of Bute.