Well, it’s been an eventful few months and finally I’ve got around to updating this here website thing! Where to start? Back in December last year, we decided to spend the week before Christmas up in The Outer Hebrides on the Isle of Lewis. The standing stones at Callanish was one ancient site I have wanted to visit for donkey’s years and this seemed the perfect time to go – avoid the noise and crowds of the pre-Christmas shopping, and go to somewhere potentially deserted and quiet. It was both deserted and calm; no hustle and bustle, hardly anyone around, and access to all the places we wanted to see with absolutely no-one there. Callanish is a true, magical wonder and it was a joy to spend time there, just us and the wind, rain, hail, snow and glorious sunshine – all within about an hour and a half! The car park was like an ice rink, the visitor centre was shut (mercifully) and it genuinely was, just us. We also visited the Gearannan Blackhouse Village, again just us and although the actual houses were closed for the winter, we could walk amongst the buildings and get a real sense of place, as well as having the nearby beach to ourselves. We had a fabulous time up at the wonderful museum in Stornoway, where they have some of the original, so-called Lewis Chessmen, found on the island in 1831. They are beautifully carved pieces, all only about ten centimetres high but with expressions on their faces that show real characters.

Everything was so good, we made what some might call a rash decision to buy a house there. That was all done and dusted through January/February and we have now been up to our house twice and started to become locals (not sure that will ever truly happen, but it’s a state of mind). Anyway, the prints all came from photographs I took on that first visit. We didn’t actually see the Northern Lights this time but I used an old block from a previous image and it seemed to work.