As the local weather here over midsummer has been so wet, wild and windy, I was inspired to continue to look back on midsummer 2 years ago* when we were on the wild North West coast of Scotland….which in reality was not that wild.
Scourie is a small ‘one time’ fishing village surrounded by a rocky moorland landscape on three sides and the Atlantic Ocean on the forth. When the weather is bad it sweeps in from North America or down from Greenland.
The up-side are the open vista that the ocean provides; some fantastic views both over the sea and also along the rugged Scottish coast………
…………the ever changing sky adds to the drama of the scene but the wide open expanse dwarfs the surrounding cliffs and distant mountains of the Assynt peninsula with its majestic mountains of Canisp, Suilven and Stac Polly mere pimples on the horizon. The whole area is now defined as a National Geo Park (Geological Nature Reserve) and the nature of the underlying geology is perhaps well illustrated with this view of Scourie beach and bay where the lichen is as attractive and abundant as the rocks.
One cannot deny the extremes of this regions climate, very wild, wet and in the winter, snow and ice bound, but also when it chooses it can be warm and sunny.
Yet just a few miles to the south sharing the same Atlantic weather is Inverewe Gardens a spectacular ‘tropical’ garden created some 100 years ago by the then owner who recognised that whilst the weather could indeed be wild it could also benefit from the warm air and waters of the Gulf Stream.
Just 4 images from a garden that does indeed live up to its brag of being a ‘tropical’ garden, with Lavender from France and Eucalyptus from Australia merging with other Mediterranean and British plants….an eclectic mix that does much to satisfy the inner sole.
(For those with a photographic interest all the above images, except one, are HDR images taken at a time when I was starting to play with the technique….a technique I am still learning and still none too sure if I like or not)
Images taken on 22 & 23rd June 2010.
23 JUNE 2012
DAVID OAKES - IMAGES. 