Friday I got the noon bus, then ferry and another bus and arrived in Inverness, got home late Saturday night, not much to tell and no great photos but as I know some people who read my blog like to see photos of Scotland I took some from the bus as it went between Ullapool and Inverness, so the photos were taken while the bus was moving through the window, the crossing Friday was nice quite calm, very cloudy and overcast around Ullapool and crossing the western mountains and hills,
for the gardeners I saw these pleasant plants between the youth hostel and town centre, I was taken by surprise with the sudden bright colour, lovely winter flowering heathers and some nice evergreens,
the sun shone on the east side but as we reached the western mountains it was cloudy then rain, the sea was full of white horses so a rock an’ rolling ride home,
nice to go and nice to be back,
©Copyright 2012 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.
Oh Frances these photos are beautiful…so rugged, wild and green in spots and the heather….so lovely. It reminds me of the the wilderness still in parts of the central and western States especially some of the National Parks…thx for sharing :)
you’re welcome Donna glad you enjoyed it, the mountains of northern central Scotland are wild not a place to go walking in without telling someone where you are going and when to expect you back, the areas are not as large as those in north America but we are a wee country, Frances
Hi,
Ooooh, I love Inverness! It’s very much a home from home for me as I’ve grown up visiting most years of my life – haven’t been for a year or two now and I’m issing my annual visits.
glad to have rekindled happy memories, perhaps you will make it this year, Frances
I have never been to Scotland and love looking at your photos. Thank you for sharing your trips and your garden it makes not having visited Scotland an all the more must thing to do.
thanks Ronnie, you’ll have to take a trip up here even if you only get as far as the lowlands and central belt, it is sooo different in scenery from down south, Frances
Having visited Inverness (come from Oban), I envy your wee trip. Love that area. Went over to the cost in Nairn when we were there and took photos of the beach looking north. Have one of them, blown up to poster size, framed in our living room and I stare at it daily. Loved Nairn and Inverness. Glad you got home in one piece. Also, loved your phrase “white horses” on the sea! Hadn’t heard that. We say “white caps” here in New England.
thanks Bex, I’ve never been along the coast to Nairn in fact it’s something I have been thinking I should do is visit that eastern bump from Inverness, Frances
It takes me back a lot of years too Frances!My DH used to be mounaineering instructor and way back in ’65 we lived on the Mallaig road out of Fort William and I was expecting my first baby.At that time all first babies had to be delivered at Raigmore in Inverness so I had a few trips up through the Great Glen.(About 160 mile round trip!!) I pleaded for a home delivery and in the end we reached a compromise and my GP agreed that if all signs were good I could deliver in Fort William. My lovely doctor duly presented himself in the delivery suite wearing a gown over his pyjamas!
You have evoked a lot of memories with your pictures! :o)
i’m sooo jealous of your living in such lovely places Roz, I know the run up the glen not the best ride when in labour! glad you only had to go to Fort William in the end, Frances
Lovely photos of the trip Frances. Some nice bright skies for your journey. How long does the ferry take to go across?
thanks Marguerite, the ferry takes nearly 3 hours, Frances
You went right past our door :) Hope you had a nice trip to the big city – a shame the Inverness famers market wasn’t on for you on Saturday.
I know Cat pity I couldn’t get the bus driver to stop that’s when I miss not having a car, Frances
Oh, those beautiful photos brought tears to my eyes as I remember my two trips to Scotland. I have photos of the broody skies over the lochs and purple mountains in the mist. My mom came to New Hampshire as a girl of 16 in 1926 from Glasgow and I feel the tug of the roots from the ‘old country’, as she called it. So glad to have been able to see it for myself. A lovely country with wonderful people. Marion
glad to have re kindled happy memories Marion, I understand the ‘tug of the roots’ I grew up in southern England and do have roots there too but it was when I first came to the islands that I felt I’d ‘come home’ Frances
Your photos are so pretty of the countryside. I know I would love to see Scotland someday. It is such a scenic place, you must have had a wonderful time. The heather is so pretty but is a plant that does very poorly planted here.
thanks Donna, if you don’t get to Scotland a bit nearer for you is Nova Scotia I’ve been there and the north part is like a mini highlands, very beautiful,
the trouble with heather is it likes a special enviroment and little else grows where is grows! ;o) Frances
There’s no place that I would rather travel through sitting on a bus watching that wonderful scenery. Great photos Frances.
thanks Janet, though this one is beautiful my fav is south of Fort William through Glencoe and over Rannoch moor, Frances
I agree Glencoe is very special. I also like up around Assynt, the Summer Isles the bit round Bettyhill…though these places may not be on your route home!
I agree re the other areas, I looked at a house in Bettyhill nearly twenty years ago when I was still dreaming of one day living in the Highlands, the Skye, Fort William, Glencoe and Rannoch moor was my route south when I had a car and took the Harris Skye ferry I miss it now when I go south, the A9 isn’t the same, Frances
I am so glad you shared photos of your trip…so beautiful! Those vistas are breathtaking. I have never thought to plant heathers with evergreens, but I really like the contrast in the colors…thanks for sharing!
thanks Michelle, a mixed planting of low growing conifers and heathers is quite a common planting scheme for acid soils here in Britian, it is considered low maintenance and gives colour all year round, the addition of some upright dwarf conifers gives a bit height to an otherwise flat planting, Frances
I meant to comment on this post, and then I got bigger down… hope you don’t mind me being a bit slow!
Your shots really took me back – I partly grew up in east Sutherland, and for me Inverness was a place of great excitement and shops that didn’t necessarily sell lambing ointment along with the food and gifts… Mind you, Ullapool was pretty cosmopolitan too – haven’t been there for years. Sniff!
Kate I love comments so never too late, having grown up on the edge of south London I am always in wonderment at the thought of growing up in a rural place and mountians I used to dream of, most of the local women see a holiday as shopping in a town, Inverness or better still Glasgow (more shops!), you’ll have to have a trip north sometime, Frances
Agh – I hate spellcheckers. That should have read ‘… got bogged down’, not bigger down. What on earth could ‘bigger down’ be? A better duvet?
…..or more down which is then kinda the same thing ;o)