Stunning October light off the South Ronaldsay coast, Orkney. These images were taken on a welcome walk across the cliff tops after several days largely inside. Amazing how there are new areas, still to explore, after fourteen years here in the far north of the UK.
Along the coast from Wind Wick bay 
Clearing skies
Stunning skies here this week in Orkney. The autumnal light seems to come earlier here in the far North of Scotland, so beautiful.
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| Looking towards Hoy |
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| Clestrain sound |
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| Hoy Hills from Warebeth |
On a recent walk at Evie beach, here in Orkney, we found a vast array of jelly fish washed up on the shore. These beautiful sea animals come in many different shapes and sizes and look stunning both in and out of the water. Sadly however they quickly begin to die if they are inadvertently caught in currents and washed up on the coastline. Some of the ones at Evie were still covered by water at low tide so hopefully might survive and be taken back out to sea. I’ve had a go at identifying the ones shown below - still not certain? There were many other colours and sizes but unfortunately I’d left my phone and camera behind.
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| Single jellyfish (Photo E. Forsyth) |
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| Pair of jellyfish (Photo E. Forsyth) |
These photos were taken at the beginning of July. One of those amazing days here in Orkney, when the combination of sea, sun, cloud and stunning coastline all seem to come together in a magical synergy of energies.
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| Looking east towards Costa head and Rousey |
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| Looking west towards the Brough of Birsay |
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| Due north |
Beautiful Rosa rugosa, not native to the UK but grows so beautifully here in Orkney’s chilly, windy and salt laden environment. It's loved by people, insects and birds, the latter feeding on the large red hips which form in the in the late summer, early autumn.
We have it in both white and pink varieties in our garden here on the West Mainland of Orkney but the photos were taken on the East Mainland a couple of days ago in St Olav’s wood, a hugely successful plantation of trees and shrubs started in the 1970’s.
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| Rosa regosa |
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| Part of St Olav’s Wood |
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| Rosa rugosa and visiting hover fly |
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| Evie coastline, Orkney, West Mainland |
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| Looking out to Hoy, above Skaill Bay, Orkney, West Mainland |
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| Cliffs at Yesnaby, Orkney West Mainland |
Yesterday I visited ‘Hedgehog Wood', a tiny area of woodland just down the track from our current home here in Orkney. This beautiful jewel of woodland, so named because of the way it's been shaped by the prevailing westerly winds, came with our house. We’ve managed it by doing very little, a bit of clearing out initially of some accumulated rubbish and gun cartridges. Some crystal planting to cleanse and return peace to the land and enhance elemental life, and then simply allowing nature to take its course.
The results are stunning an oasis of flowers, trees and plants, ever-changing through the seasons and a marked contrast to the heavily farmed land around. It’s such a reminder of the beauty and harmony of nature, when we undo our human inflictions to our Earth Mother, replace these with positive energy, and then simply surrender to her flow.
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| Hedgehog Wood |
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| Bluebells and pink purslane |
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| Old Sycamore trees |
Bennybeg Craig is one of my favourite places on Earth. It's a somewhat incongruous outcrop of quartz dolerite in central Perthshire, a f...
