Loch Coruisk lies beneath the fortress of the Black Cuillin of Skye - an unnerving and overpowering presence. A shattered, ancient landscape overlain with myths and much weather in which a human is an intruder.
Scotland
The Rhinns Complex
Everything on Islay seems flighty - from nervous sheep, scattering brown hares, endlessly lifting geese and a very anxious wind blowing from all directions - as if everything has a need for counselling. The only things that seem stable are the rocks where they connect with the earths crust. This geographical area hosts a geological phenomena known as the Rhinns Complex. The only part of Islay that doesn't seem to have a complex.
Hunkered Down
In Taynish Woods of Argyll - the winter seems to batter relentlessly in endless waves of wind and rain. Despite this there is incredible beauty in the colours of this season with the rust of bracken, emerald of moss, sage green of lichen carpeting the trees with an alternative foliage and the deep plum of old leaf litter. Even the wind is a source of enjoyment watching and listening to Ravens do their amazing tricks surfing the breeze and flying flipside over.
I am Humpback
Inspired by Simon Armitage's 'The Christening' about a Sperm Whale. The glacial striated rocks leading into Linne Mhuirich at the tip of Taynish National Nature Reserve have always reminded me of a knobbly Humpback. I chose to throw in a few Scots and Glaswegianisms as I think this Humpback would talk that way.
Just a bit of fun
Transition
The power of the turn of the tide always amazes me - the sense of wiping clean a slate. This is from one of my favourite locations in Argyll that I continue to be drawn to - the River Add estuary which has extensive sandbanks that stretch out into Crinan Bay. There is a powerful sense of being enclosed by water as the tide comes in - as sense of walking in a transitionary place.