2nd May 2025
A night out on Loch Ness with some stunning light over the castle.
4th May 2025
Today we have been out to watch the Minecraft Movie - the boys enjoyed it… the youngest REALLY enjoyed it and we found it entertaining too. Back home and have managed to tweak my back (again) having failed with the sleep catch up so I am grumpy, tired and sore now! Sure I will get there soon though with catching up and starting to feel a bit more myself again.
So not much excitement for this weekend - hopefully I will get a nice quiet day tomorrow (I do need to pop out to do a quick job and get some shopping mind) before Lochinver on Tuesday and 3 jobs for the new client on Wednesday morning… which is making a pretty good start to the week to be fair!
Tomorrow I am going to take the first step in the sorting myself out physically game by (trying) to go cold turkey on sugar in an attempt to reduce inflammation. I may pair this up with attemping to increase fibre content since that will further help in the reduction of inflammatory markers…. Here’s hoping anyway!
6th May 2025
Lochinver, yes... it is a pretty run of the mill composition, except I went a little wider for some context.
I was a bit too sore today to attempt any of the other exciting ideas I had planned, but not to worry. It still looks rather fine!
And my other ideas can wait for next time!
12th May 2025
Lachlan’s birthday went off without a hitch, can’t quite get my head around him being 14 years old now! But hey ho!
The greens are looking so vibrant at the moment it’s lovely - the fresh growth is a great mood boost and makes me want to really get on with things… including sorting out my health!
14th May 2025
It’s been a crazy busy, but productive, day today… and I have a quiet one set up for tomorrow (in terms of work) that may allow me a little “me” time along the way!
For today though, the clearance village of Eskart at sunset overlooking Drumnadrochit and Loch Ness.
25th May 2025
Ironically... the best photo I took today... was a red squirrel that was mooching about outside the wolf enclosure at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kingussie.
We decided it was a family outing day today, although we left home a little too late to really make the most of the day! The weather has not been so glorious mind so perhaps a full day may have been a bit much.
1st May 2025
Starting a new month with a hectic schedule! Absolutely worn out at the moment but the long weekend will hopefully get me back on my feet again - but first I have a final video edit to get out the way which will probably take until the end of Friday to get out!
Anyway - Beauly this evening.
3rd May 2025
Looking out over Clunemore this evening - I went on a mission to find the deer as I hadn't seen any today, they aren't far away just in the tree line away from the roads.
Absolutely exhausted today, hopefully a good nights rest tonight will finally get me back on all cylinders!
5th May 2025
Today was a bank holiday, so the boys have had ANOTHER day off school! I had to abandon a job on Friday though due to inclement weather… so Angus got a ride out around to the southern side of Loch Ness with me to catch up on that one this morning.
Tonight the light is lovely, the sika are down and the world looks a chilled out kind of a place. Tomorrow I am battling the toursit hoards though and heading north to Lochinver in the morning, and it is looking like a pretty full week with another 3 aerial only jobs on Wednesday and a big day out to Gardenstown in Aberdeenshire on Thursday provided I can get childcare organised that is!
8th May 2025
Today saw a complete change of scenery with a run out to Gardenstown on the Aberdeenshire coast, not far from Fraserburgh... and a long, LONG way from Drumnadrochit! This and it's neighbouring village of Crovie are some of the most spectacular in Scotland, and certainly on the Moray Firth. I haven't been this far along in many, many years so it was nice to get re-acquainted and I was making plans to return sometime when time is not against me.
And when I don't have a rather large church to photograph!
Home late and absolutely done in for the day!
10th May 2025
Roki out checking for pesky invading sheep tonight.
Today has been an odd Saturday in that I went out to do a job! I don’t usually work weekends, but it was a mix of a special favour and local enough to not be too much of a chore… plus it was only a one bedroom cottage so wouldn’t take long anyway! The only downside was a neighbour who was aggressively obnoxious!
Since I was working I thought it best not to launch into a tirade to his face… at least… not too much of a tirade! He did get a fairly curt response though, just without any expletives or too much of a lecture!
Anyway, all wound up okay and the job was done so that is the main thing.
My mission to regain my health and fitness is not going too well as this current bout of sciatica is going nowhere. I have even thrown co-codamol at it tonight and it hasn’t touched the sides. But I am now more determined than ever to get it under control so reading all sorts of scientific and medical articles to try and find a route to managing it, for starters, and then looking to improve the situation moving on. This is going to include a lot of weight management (that has gone right out the window of late)… and it is looking like a novel approach to that may be required in and of itself!
18th May 2025
Today we had a morning visitor! This swallow came in through the back door and then needed a little help escaping the house, fortunately out before the cats noticed (not that I think they would have caught it, but there would have been chaos whilst they tried!)
22nd May 2025
Kinkell Castle overlooking Dingwall on a fine spring morning.
I am starting to get an incling to photograph all, or as many, castles in the Highland region as I can. Perhaps further afield… could be a fun projet :-)
27th February 2025
The old military road from Inverness to Fort Augustus runs along the south side of Loch Ness away from the hustle and bustle of the new A82. At this point it runs between Loch Ashie on the left and Loch Ness to the right through some stunning spring scenery.
29th May 2025
When you are photographing a cottage called “Seathrift” and you notice some of that very plant outside…
The sky was also pretty stunning in Ardersier this morning as the rain lifted.
31st May 2025
Finishing off the month with a day out in Edinburgh. We didn’t get much in the way of culture done - but did have a nice wee wander about and a catch up with one of my bestest old mates. Which is good for the soul.
7th May 2025
The first day doing some work for Macleod and MacCallum today - 4 very different and very lovely properties requiring aerial photos and short videos.
The weather played nice, which helped, and I got out to some interesting and slightly different areas to usual… and then got home and discovered all the stuff I missed on the map!
Hey ho - looks like a return trip soon!
9th May 2025
It’s the end of another fantastic productive week, which I am suprised to have made it through since I antagonised my old back injury last week and have been in sciatic hell since then. I am working on some plans to try and bolster my core stability to stop that happening quite so often, or perhaps less badly… but can’t do anything until it has healed up. And yes, I do need to shift some weight too - that would help imeasureably. Everything I have tried has failed though so that is taking a little more thinking about still!
Anyway - here is one of our noisy neighbours who like to wake me up at 4:30am!
11th May 2025
Magnus today - because we have spent the whole day trying to get ready for Lachlan's birthday tomorrow!
13th May 2025
Many of my childhood memories include old wartime air-raid shelters such as this one I stumbled upon today. It’s hard to think that these are now rapidly approaching their centenery, there are certainly a lot less about than there were in the late 70’s/early 80’s
It has been a pretty good day today - some interesting possibilities are brewing!
16th May 2025
Much as this blue sky weather is lovely to be out in, and is fine for photographing houses in… it is utterly rubbish for landscapes! I was out in Ardersier today, which is somewhere I do love going, but the scenery was just not playing ball with photogenics!
15th May 2025
The rather delightfully named "Slumbay Harbour" in Strathcarron today! It looks far from a slum to me, perhaps that's gentrification in action though!
The name is actually much older - with it being recorded as "Slumba" in the late 15th Century which, in turn, would seem to be a corruption of the Old Norse "slaemr-vágr" which would translate to slim or small bay... which it is...
Bit of a tumultous day in my head today - I reached breaking point with pain, health, mental gremlins and stress. Life has become a massive negative feedback cycle which is pushing me down when everything else should be on an up so I have decided to take some positive action and go down the medical route to try and shake things up a bit. I need to loose some weight to take the pressure off some injuries and get better sleep in an effort to firstly break the cycle but then to reverse it to a more positive direction. This is probably going to feature in other social media chanels more than here, but I thought I would just state… I am on a mission… because I am not turning the next page on life in this state.
17th May 2025
Early morning on the 17th and a big aurora hit... unfortunately at this time of the year it doesn't actually get dark (from the end of April until late September... I think it is... we don't officially get "night" just various stages of "twilight") which makes the aurora much harder to see and less dramatic. None the less, we could see it with our own eyes not just through the camera.
20th May 2025
20th May 2025
What a crazy day! Started off with a low battery (in the car... probably in myself too) and a packed day with an immovable meeting in the afternoon. First job went well, second saw me deposit the drone on a neighbours roof (return visit now needed to attempt a retrieval), return to this one in Avoch that hasn't sold so needed some refreshed photos (seriously peeps - £585k for a massive house with sea views - surely I know someone that needs a many bedroomed mansion on the Black Isle?). Back to Inverness - found that we have some faster chargers hidden away when I was on fumes, which was a bonus... job 4 done then back to Drum for a meeting which I ended up having in the lifeboat station because I wasn't going to make it all the way back in time!
Today's edits will have to wait - I am beat - plus I need to retrieve some photos off a roof! I have caught up with yesterday's though!
19th May 2025
Today saw me travel up to Halkirk in Caithness to shoot a berry farm. On the way home I came across this old ruined farm called Ballone - there are quite a few in the area but this one had quite a collection of buildings long abandoned so I stopped for a bit of a shoot.
These places are always tinged with a little sadness, where there were once people and livestock now there are windfarms, and whilst I am a greeny at heart I do wonder why they all have to be here in the Highlands not where the vast amounts of energy are actually needed....
The day was thrown a little bit towards the melanchony before I arrived here - on the shoot there was a lovely little “my family” picture with the names of all the members of the household. Mum, Dad… and then their children… Neil and Robert Sutherland. Damn I miss my big brother…..
21st May 2025
It has been a busy day - a whole load of new jobs to get done, a drone to rescue from a rooftop, and all yesterday’s work to edit and get out the door too!
I am really not quite sure how I managed it all, but I did. Including some clothes shopping for Hamish ready for his school trip tomorrow and getting his bags packed too.
Tomorrow is looking a good bit quieter and Friday may… just may… be entirely free. So I may go and see if a friend fancies a coffee in the morning. Or go out on a mini adventure of my own…
24th May 2025
Behold... the mighty Falls of Divach!
Yes... after weeks of dry up until last night there has been precious little in the way of water falling over the waterfall. You would think the tourists would take one look at the Coiltie and think... "You know what, there is nothing going to be doing up there".
But no. Still they come... and leave thoroughly underwhelmed by the volume of water. Honestly, someone could just be standing up there with a garden hose... or a fairly full bladder... and create about the same flow!
Been a pretty busy day today and the plan for tomorrow is to head off for a bit of an adventure - so hopefully the current rain will take a break for a bit! That said, I am glad to see some perciptiation as the water levels were getting a bit worrying!
26th May 2025
The rain continues... today we have a soggy and fed up coo!
Looking like it is going to be a very quiet week work wise.
28th May 2025
Out for a wander at lunch time on the way back from a job - there are some paths out from Belladrum that need more investigating, this was from the lower reaches of one looking up Strathglass to the west as some “heavy weather” heads down.
30th May 2025
In a rare turn of events… I have popped out of the Highlands and actually gone out!
It was a little late in the day that I fell into Edinburgh so we only popped out for a couple of beers.
