It's High Time....

....I get back in the blogging saddle...hopefully I still have one or two faithful fans out there!

This past Saturday Mark finally got his birthday gift from me: a half day fishing trip to a local fishery. We had planned to go the day before his birthday, but the weather was dreadful the whole day. Thankfully it was worth the week long wait because this Saturday was an amazingly perfect Scottish autumn day!

Here's Mark working his magic on the fish...well, trying to anyways? (Unfortunately it wasn't a great day at the loch, though Mark assured me it was still better than a good day at work. He's a fisherman through and through!)

It was a gorgeous place out in the country with small mountains (hills?) in the distance. Probably the most amazing thing was the stillness of the air when we arrived at 8am. It made for great photos.

So while Mark fished, I photographed. We were both doing things we loved so everyone was happy! There were 3 white swans flying in and out of one of the ponds, as well as 8 juvenile swans who weren't so little, just not yet white. I had quite the photo session with them. I tried to respect them and they tried to ignore me or turn their backs on me as often as possible. I was proud I never once got hissed at, though did get some mean looks, especially from the one I think was mamma.

One of the neatest things I've seen in a long time was watching take off/landing practice of the young swans. The lead swan honked, waited a moment, then took off running on water, barely got up and then landed....all with his brothers and sisters in succession right in a line. The coolest. But it got better. Then the lead started a line to head back across the pond. He swam slightly ahead of the others and they trailed in a perfect line. They took a few minute breather and repeated the exercise. I got some video of it, but have yet to download it. I'll try to put it on here at some point. In the meantime, here's one of the older swans taking off. They literally run on the water. I never knew that!

I also saw two of the swans chillaxin' with one foot hanging out behind them. Not sure what that was about, but it made me smile.

After exhausting my options at the fishery I hopped in the car and headed to Fyvie Castle about 15 minutes away to try to snap a few more shots. Part of the time I walked along a loch. When I stopped to take in the scene and enjoy the peace and quiet, I heard faint honkings that kept getting louder. I then got mobbed by tons of ducks. I think they thought I had bread! I hated disappointing them, but all I could offer was a moment of fame on blogger.I'll leave you with two of my favorite shots from the day.In the below photo, see what I mean about the stillness? The reflections of the pond were great!

P.S. (or should I say N.B) The new header is also from that day. I tried hard all day to find a suitable fallish banner photo.