Halki ruin

The old houses and ruins on the narrow back alleys with connecting stairways up the hillside in Chalki (Halki) are well worth exploring. With the colourful spring flowers in the alleys and little gardens, as well as the backdrop of the deep blue and cobalt waters in the harbour, it is a paradise for artists and photographers.

This Chalki ruin catches everyone’s eye and is probably the most painted and photographed ruin on the little island. Perhaps that’s why it is for sale for an astonishing 800,000€.

Sunlight striking Dumgoyne and Dumfoyne

The walk along a short stretch of the West Highland Way between Easter Carbeth and Dumgoyach is becoming one of our favourite short walks for a Sunday afternoon wander. The views to the Campsies and even Ben Lomond in the far distance when meandering down the well trodden track towards Dumgyach are simply stunning. I will never tire of these views. Especially with the ever changing and unpredictable Scottish weather. The light hitting the mountains and the atmospheric cloud formations are just never the same.

This is the view to Dumgoyach, Dumgoyne and Dumfoyne taken early on in the walk on a dreich day with flat lighting at the end of June.

Two weeks ago, a mixture of sunshine and fast moving clouds created a spectacle of light spots and light trails travelling across the forrests and the mountains. The monochrome photo above is, without a doubt, my favourite shot of the day, capturing a narrow band of light moving swiftly across the trees and foot of Dumgoyne and Dumfoyne. Below is the colour version.

It is not just the views that make this a wonderful walk. A slight detour from the track into the field to the South East of Dumgoyach is well worth it to explore the standing stones and admire Dunthreath Castle in the shadow of Dumgoyne. But I’ll keep those for a future post.

Old door, blue steps

Wandering around the back streets of Symi is one of my favourite pastimes.

Exploring the town behind the front and up the hill with it’s little alley ways, staircases, little paths, colourful and derelict houses, numerous ruins, churches, little gardens and pens with livestock simply never tire. Even if you think you’ve covered and seen a section, at the next visit, there is always something new that catches the eye. And after our fifth visit to the island, there are still large parts that we have yet to explore.

Lightning strikes

We woke up this morning to very dark skies over Turkey heading our way. It was not long before we started to hear the rumble of distant thunder. While having breakfast on the balcony the skies got darker and darker, and the wind started to pick up and swirling.

The world around us scrambled to bring in chairs and tables, and to move and secure the boats. The crew of a gullet panicked and cut the ropes to the quay when the swirling wind nearly became a whirlwind round their ship.

The lightning started to become more prevalent with the time lapse to the heavy rumble of thunder becoming shorter. But the eye of the thunder storm never reached us, as it bypassed Symi to the North.

And not long after, the clouds parted and we were drinking a coffee in the sun.

Harani sunset

There is nothing better than watching the sun set with a glass of red wine.

Dolphins in Symi harbour

Windmill and gnarly tree

The left (NE) windmill of the three (when looking up from Imborios) that is, the one that is not lit up during the night.

I’m back!

I am sorry that I have been neglecting my own website for several years, favouring the simplicity and reach of my Facebook page to share my photos with family, friends, Facebook groups and anyone interested instead.

However, the recent Facebook issue when all photos published from Lightroom disappeared from Facebook overnight came as a bit of a shock. Yes, you read that correctly, every photo published by anyone in the world from Lightroom to Facebook ever had gone. That meant every photo I had published to Facebook going back some five years, with all it’s social history (comments) had simply vanished.

Of course I have the (original and published) photos with the Facebook comments and likes still in my own Lightroom catalogue, but the thought of republishing five years worth of work online is daunting.

The issue was thankfully resolved within a couple of days following the outcry of those affected, and all photos and associated comments were thankfully back. I must admit that Adobe’s support and keeping the community up to date was superb, and in complete contrast to Facebook’s non-existent acknowledgement and communications.

An event like this makes you take a step back and re-think your online publishing.

Placing your prime reliance on a multi billion company’s social media product is perhaps not a good idea.

So I have made the decision to restart my own photo blog and share any publications to this through social media.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will need to bring my website up to date as well as investigating how to best publish my posts to Facebook and, if possible, import the social history (comments) from Facebook to my own domain.

So please bear with me.

Kastellorizo sunrise

It is always worth getting up early at least one day while on holiday to see the sun rise, and tuck into bed afterwards again (of course). The view across the water had been spectacular, with blue skies during the day, pink skies at sunset and dark blue skies at twilight. But the sunrise tops them all.

Hoogender Pijp

The Hoogendsterpijp is one of the ‘prestige’ Waterpoorts (water gates) in defensive wall around Sneek (or Snits in the local dialect) dating from 1613.

Pink and blue Kavos skies

One of the highlights of our two week stay in Kastellorizo was undoubtedly the view from our terrace across to Kavos. Nothing beats watching the end of a great day when the pink glow of the sunset appears and very slowly turns into the deep blue skies of the early evening with a glass of wine (or three) before heading out for a bite to eat on the quay side in the harbour.

Loggerhead turtles

The wildlife highlight of our two week stay in kastellorizo was, without a doubt, the loggerhead turtles frequenting the harbour.

It was just wonderful watching the loggerhead turtles swim in the harbour, both during the day while wandering the quay, or at night while having dinner on the quay side. At one point we could see three heads coming up for air, so the locals are probably right that there are four loggerheads frequenting the harbour.

What is surprising is how territorial these turtles are. When another one comes anywhere near them when there is food involved, the speed with which they chase each other through the water is just unbelievable.