Well...I'm back again! Had a wonderful week in North Berwick in Scotland where we did lots of lovely things including visiting the Edinburgh Festival, the newly opened Museum Of Scotland..ate and drank an awful lot with our good friend's Kay and John...and were taken out on John's boat to try our hand at sea fishing. I don't mind admitting it was one the most terrifying things I've ever done ..I was reluctant to go with everyone, but I was swayed by the lure of seeing Puffins which nested on a nearby island. I have no explanation for the fear I felt..I'm usually quite able to reign in my fear and be rational...but this was wholy irrational and had absolutely nothing to do with the competence of our hosts...I tried realy hard to concentrate on all the factors that meant we would be safe ( which of course there was no doubt we wouldn't be)...but I couldn't help it....I clung onto anything I could..I was an absolute and total 'Big Girl's blouse'!!....but I beat the fear in the end and came through it....next time i'll know what to expect!
We sailed out and around the famous Bass Rock (see photos) which is home in the summer months to tens of thousands of Gannets who nest there each year...then to Fidra upon which the Puffins nest...however after getting caught in some very choppy sea and buffeted around, it became apparent that the Puffins had migrated some time before!
at least the sea calmed a little later and Jan and Annie were handed the rods to do some fishing. they caught around 27 Mackerel which when we got home, they gutted! Kay put some of the fish in a smoking oven and barbecued others. they were delicious!
Back home now and back to work...you can see the progress I've made on the sky today having completed around 5 hours of dotting.
John preparing the boat for transfer to the water...Annie in the foreground...Kay on the boat.
At sea approaching the Bass Rock
Up close, you can see the huge amounts of Gannets airborne as well as on the nests.
Here's Jan gutting one of the Mackerel
Here we all are enjoying a glass of red!
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4 comments:
Looks like a good time! I would want to sketch the sea and sky, but then getting tossed about by the waves and not able to draw would make me cranky. Still life with mackerel?
Julie...I did take my sketch book..I didn't draw any sea or sky, I mainly worked on a drawing of a fat nurse I want to appear in a forthcoming picture!
Getting dizzy just hearing about it. haha Good to know you had a wonderful time! We all need breaks every now and then :)
:)
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