Saturday, August 31, 2013

Edinburgh Take 2

I'm enjoying my second trip to Edinburgh for conference. I visited a couple of years ago and saw most of the sights: http://janallbeck.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/edinburgh-scotland.html

The view from my apartment windows show that the roof tiles here are more interesting than those back home...

This trip I've only had part of an afternoon to roam around. I headed toward the Royal Mile and the castle. It turned out the entire castle area was closed to remove the infrastructure put up for the festival and military tattoo. Much of the city seemed to be cleaning up.



On my last trip I didn't go into St. Giles cathedral, but this time it seemed like a good place to get out the wind for a while...

It turns out it has amazing stain glass windows...



The ceilings aren't bad either...





Part way through my visit I realized I have my fish-eye lens with me...





I could have spent a lot more time there, but it closed and I got kicked back out into the wind, so I played around with the fish-eye lens on the street...





All of this was really just to kill time before the conference's banquet. This little scene was at the end of the alley where the restaurant was...

The banquet was held in The Caves, which is in the sub-structure of South Bridge. After the meal, the conference arranged for us all to go on a short ghost tour. It visited dark, dripping rooms in the bridge and told us about the history and various ghost stories. It was pretty awesome...
Next, north to the highlands!

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

A Visit Home

It looked like a storm was rolling in...

Even the dog and kitten were interested...

But it just passed quickly by...

By brothers' barns are getting a face lift. Old deteriorating boards are being replaced by tin...

Bear and the kitten sharing a meal...

And playing around...


A tweedy bird hanging out on the clothes line...



I still seem to have a thing for leaves...







Sunset from the top of one of the grain bins...






This cloud looks like a little lamb to me. White head and darker legs sticking out...

A mist was rolling over the hill after sunset...

From the top of the grain bin, I saw a deer walking along the pond path. I decided to see if I could find her. I found her and a few of her friends...


The soybeans are so tall it looks like the buck is swimming through them...


These plants seemed to be glowing in the last few rays of light...

Getting rather dark...




Getting light again...