Patrick's birthday today - 8. Jean and Eddie, Fiona and Gerry and Michael came over for dinner. Megan was going out to her Guides Halloween Party - Fiona brought over an old outfit she had - it is a bee by the way! Patrick is having a party with his friends on Sunday - so stay posted.
Friday night was High School Musical Night at the cinema. The kids loved the first two movies so we all went to the cinema to see the new one. Ella had to wear her "High Musical Cheer Lead" outfit - OMG!! The cinema was full to the brim and everyone was clapping and cheering - great atmosphere - must have been like the cinema in the olden days!!
Mum and Dad are decorating and when Mikie popped in on Saturday, they invited themselves round for dinner on the Sunday. Michael decided to make a dinner party out of it and called Fiona and Gerry. We got the phone call on Sunday afternoon - I think he was hoping we would say we had already made plans - nae luck. We jumped in the car and were over at his house for about 5 o'clock. What a great dinner Mikie!! Chicken Myres and Chocolate Cake. He even had diet coke and sprite (only a month out of date - Gerry wasn't bothered)Patrick took some pictures for the blog. Notice Granny Meg's table and couch in the last picture - go on Granny Meg. You can still smell her from the couch.
Have a competition hand in tonight - external judge, so the judging is not happening for another 2 weeks. My prints look great - I got them printed out big - 12"x18". I have great hopes for my "John O'Groats Harbour" - but you never know what the judge is going to think. Anyway - I like it and that is all that matters. I will let you know how I get on.
Colour Prints Category
John O'Groats Harbour
Glen Etive
Dornoch Sands
Mono Prints Category
Sun On a Glencoe Boulder
Can you Feel the Flow .. of Glencoe?
Digital Category
The digital section are images that are displayed on a big projector screen - like the old style slides.
Knapps Loch Sunset
Buachaille Etive Mor
Misty Sunset On Loch Rannoch
Kids got home on Saturday afternoon after having a ball with Jean & Eddie. They were swimming and out in the fresh air all week as the weather was kind to them. They visited Culloden - Patrick is dressed as a red coat below. Megan only took her camera out a few times so here are a few.
Fiona & Gordon were at Loch Rannoch for the weekend and went up to visit Jean, Eddie and the kids yesterday - they sent us a few pictures. I almost miss them!!!
Up, dressed, fed (Scrambled eggs this morning) and checked out of the hotel. We had decided to go home via Eilean Donan Castle and Glen Coe for some more photo opportunities. The weather was lovely when we started off - the autumnal colours on the trees was absolutely amazing - As we headed across to the west coast the cloud started coming in and I was convinced we were going to arrive at the castle in a down pour. However, we arrived just after a shower and it was dry while we were there.
We carried on down the west coast stopping at any photo opportunity (when the showers were off) - some better than others
Once we reached Glen Coe there was a break in the weather and I stopped at a few locations.
All in all we had a great time and hope to do it again sometime soon.
Read more...Up, dressed, fed (Full Scottish) and on the road for 10 o'clock. 
We drove up to John O'Groats - about 80 miles north. Not much to see in John O'Groats - a bit like Lands End, you go just to say you have been!!
There was a nice photogenic red fishing boat in the harbour which is shown below - might be a future camera club entry.
We had a coffee (I got a wee cake too - I was fading away!!) and jumped back into the car along the north coast towards Thurso.
About 10 miles along this road there was a sign for Dunnet Head - most northerly point of mainland Great Britain. We decided to go have a look - we were on a single track road for about 6 miles - along real rugged coastline. We stopped and went down to a rocky beach which had about 10 seals all lounging about. They were a bit far off for any good pictures - however the surrounding scenery was not bad!
After getting out of the car and being as far north on the mainland as was possible we jumped back in the car and carried on along the road to Thurso. Not far along this road we came across an enormous, amazing beach. The wind was blowing and the waves were crashing. We got wrapped up and went out for a walk. I tried to get a few shots of the beach - but they just didn't do it justice. Mo got a call from her Mum to let us know how they were getting on - so while she was talking I took some pictures of the stairs to get on and off of the beach - maybe another winner - what do you think?
We got to Thurso and decided to keep driving along the coast road to a place called Tongue (about 70 miles from John O'Groats) before turning in and heading back towards Dornoch. This was 60 miles along a single track road - amazing rugged and barren scenery. Hardly passed a house, car or evidence of mankind! It rained a bit on the way back - which added to the atmosphere, but made it difficult to take any pictures. Got one on the way back. There was a river meandering along beside the road for a bit. The picture below was taken a point where it was meandering a bit faster (can that happen!!)
We got back to Dornoch about 6:30 - just as it was getting dark. We went out for dinner and were back in the hotel, crashed by 10:00. A great day. All in we must have done about 220 miles.
Jean & Eddie had planned to take the kids to Lochanhully, Carrbridge - near Aviemore for the school October week - (beau
ty!). We took the kids up to Aviemore as there was no room in the car for all the weans and luggage, dumped them with Jean and Eddie and we carried on north to Dornoch.
We had booked into the Dornoch Castle Hotel for 2 nights. We arrived at about 3 o'clock, checked in and went for a wee walk round the town. The hotel was right across from Dornoch Cathedral (Madonna got married here), which has some amazing stained glass windows.
After a look round the obligatory gift shops we went down to the beach - absolutely beautiful.
Day #2 and #3 coming soon ......
First competition of the new season - now in the A section. There was loads of entries, but I managed a 5th place with my picture "Broken Bingo". This place is in Paisley and is waiting to be demolished.
