Flashback: Inverness

A spectacular day on the river Ness in 2015.

The slush pile

Here's a pretty abstract to start your day.

I've been submitting entries to juried photography shows, and so have been going through thousands of pictures, over and over again. Because photos in a show have to be large enough to be printed and hung, many of my favorite pictures aren't eligible because they're details I've cropped out of much larger images.

Or because, like this one, they didn't quite work. This is the sort of thing you need a tripod for -- taking a long exposure of moving water to get that feathery effect without having everything else blur as well. But I was in Inverness, and didn't have a tripod, and so this is what I got, blurred leaves and soft whirls and whorls of water.

But I like it anyway.

Saturday reflections

Autumnal reflections to mark the shift in season. This is one of the little streams the river in Inverness is carved into by the Ness islands.

Trees aren't turning here yet, but this was the week the summer finally lost its grip and a coat in the mornings started to feel like a comfort rather than a precaution.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled scenery for this announcement

This is post number 2000 on this blog. I've always written it mostly for myself and and as an easy way to share pictures and stories with the people I know, though this being the internet, I've picked up other readers along the way. I hope you've enjoyed reading it.

Here's an appropriate what the hell piece of urban poetry to mark the occasion -- a police car in Inverness. I was drinking a coffee and enjoying the sun on the high street, listening to a credible if unexpected version of Folsom Prison Blues from a street musician, when this object cruised into view. I saw similar police cars in London, so it's not just a scheme to shock visitors to the Highlands out of the dreamy lethargy induced by too much natural beauty; these are called Battenburg markings and are designed for maximum visibility.

They certainly are hard to miss. And I suppose you would get used to the idea that the passengers in these vehicles are sober, serious civil servants and not circus clowns on LSD.

Eventually.

Saturday reflections

Old buildings in Inverness, reflected in the window of a bridal shop.

They must not have an over-the-top wedding industry in Scotland yet -- that's the only possible excuse for those awful mint-green bridesmaid's dresses, which are wrong in every possible way.

Inverness

Here's a postcard-ready view of Inverness, on what the forecast says will be the last good day of weather on this trip.