landscape photography – Whippet Wisdom

Haibun: August Moon

segments from A Man in Assynt by Norman MacCaig engraved in a slap, with wet pawprints from two dogs

The path winds its way between sedge grass, the first blooms of heather. A scent of all things new that Summer brings, fills the air. We pause by a few lines borrowed from a famous poem by Norman MacCaig, engraved in granite. The large question mark enables us to ask his questions once more. Who owns this landscape? Who owns our beautiful planet? In our view too, it can only be master-less. For the short time that we’re here, we immerse ourselves in its beauty. We do our best to care for what we find, leaving nothing but our footprints, and our gratitude behind.

august moon
the words of our ancestors
still feel true

cotton wool clouds in a blue sky over Knockan Crag

The segment engraved in the stone is taken from A Man in Assynt, a long poem Norman MacCaig (1910-1996) wrote in 1967 to accompany a BBC documentary.

Wishing you all a very happy Monday and a wonderful new week,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Settings: f/2.8 – 1/500 s – ISO 100, f/4 – 1/640 s – ISO 100 and f/4 – 1/1000 s – ISO 200.

Frank J Tassone’s Weekly Haikai Challenge #99: Sturgeon Moon

Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #58: Something Old, New, Borrowed and Blue

Haibun: Lochs that Glitter

Knockan Crag Nature Reserve

a blue and white whippet leaping onto the trail below the top of the crag

Loch Eadar dha Bheinn winks at us from his mountain. Clar Loch Mor, Loch Dhonnachaidh and Clar Loch Beag make us wonder, whether we’ve met each other once before. I wish we could stay, get to know them better. Their personalities, their taste in fish.

crystal waters
the kindness in their names
a gaelic song

two whippets running on a trail near the top of Knockan Crag

Wishing you all a very happy start to August,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/4 – 1/640 s – ISO 160, f/2.8 – 1/400 s – ISO 100 and f/2.8 – 1/640 s – ISO 160.

Your Daily Word Prompt: Applicable

Word of the Day Challenge: Kindness

Haiku: Quiet Beauty

Lochan an Ais

we drink the water
left here by the clouds
quiet beauty

a smiling blue and white whippet looking across Lochan an Ais in the sunshine

We wish you all a very happy Monday and a wonderful new week,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/2000 s – ISO 160, f/2.8 – 1/1600 s – ISO 160 and f2.8 – 1/2000 s – ISO 100.

Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #56: Seascapes and/or Lakeshore

Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge #264: Beauty & Quiet

Rag Tag Daily Prompt: Astral

Haibun: Deep Time

Knockan Crag Nature Reserve

a blue and white whippet at Knockan Crag on the trail beside the sculpture of a female geologist

The grass-covered roof of the Rock Room blends in with the ferns and heather of the hillside. Inside are display boards in English and Gaelic, explaining how parts of the earth’s crust have travelled long distances. The older mylonites on display at Knockan Crag had been forced up against and over the later Cambrian layer.

There’s a sculpture of two geologists, Ben Peach and John Horne, to celebrate these findings. Today the grass is growing around Horne’s feet, some of the seeds tickle his knees. The sun feels extra warm after the morning’s showers.

deep time
so many treasures
breathing the same air

a blue and white whippet sniffing the ground by the sculpture of Peach and Horne at Knockan Crag

You can find more photographs with a triple haibun about this beautiful nature reserve in Moving Earth on our sister blog Tranature.

Wishing you all a wonderful Thursday and a happy weekend ahead,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/4 – 1/640 s – ISO 160, f/2.8 – 1/640 s – ISO 160 and f/2.8 – 1/1000 s – ISO 160.

Dutch Goes the Photo Tuesday Photo Challenge: Sculpture

Nancy Merrill’s A Photo A Week Challenge: Unexpected

Becca’s Nurturing Thursday: Celebrate

dVerse Poets: Open Link Night #247

Tanka: Dreaming the Landscape

Farleitter Crag

a blue and white whippet in purple harness reaching the top of a steep crag

this glen
sprinkled with lochans
both worlds meet
these jewels of nature
floating inside our dreams

Uath Lochans and the hills beyond seen from Farleitter Crag

Wishing you all a very happy Monday and a wonderful new week ahead!

With love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/160 s – ISO 100 and f/3.2 – 1/125 s – ISO 100.

Lens-Artists Weekly Photo Challenge #55: Dreamy

Your Daily Word Prompt: Creation

Haibun: Origins

Cove Bay

a window shaped gap in a seaside rock through which we see stones, tidal pools and seaweed on the sand

The stones are dripping with seaweed, marvellous and green between sand and silt, where the water has been. Clambering down these rocks I wonder where their stories began. Like all the other stories floating around us and within us. From wolf to hound. From ancestors whose language I cannot speak, even though it sounds familiar.

waves echo
through the open window
a seagull’s song

a blue and white whippet on seaweed covered rocks beside a sea cave's entrance

Below is a video by Julie Fowlis and friends, performing the Gaelic folk song Bothan Airigh am Braigh Raithneach:

You can see more images from Cove Bay in our posts Cove Bay, Rock Around a Cove and Nature’s Layers.

We wish you all a very happy Monday and a wonderful new week,

with love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/320 s – ISO 160, f/4 – 1/640 s – ISO 100 and f/2.8 – 1/1600 s – ISO 100.

Kate’s Friday Foto Fun: Layers

Your Daily Word Prompt: Origin

Tanka: Loch Morlich

Cairngorms National Park

a blue and white whippet and a black whippet, both in black jackets, looking at the camera on a forest trail

at peace
celestial voices
crossing water
their talk of pine-clad mountains
streams into my heart

view across Loch Morlich from the west shore towards the snow-capped mountains

With love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/640 s – ISO 100 and f/4.5 – 1/1600 s – ISO 160.

Twiglet #121: Voices Crossing Water

Paula’s Thursday’s Special: Pick a Word in April Y4 (resplendent, alluring)