69 thoughts on “Some of the Magic of Scotland – Stones, Lochs and Reflections – Photos”

  3. Hey Opher, Namaste. How’s you? 🙂

    Scotland is a beautiful country and these images have caught something of her vibrant majesty.

    The opening shot is expansive, so rich in both colour and detail: the rippling lake and reflection is superb, it is my choice from them all – just that one image on its own would have sufficed, but you spoil us with more 🙂 I have to say that by the last photograph I was almost convinced I was somewhere in the world other than Scotland but in a paradise far away in a tropical land, Hawaii or the Philippines perhaps.

    A joy to view – nature is exquisite – thank you 🙂

    Namaste 🙂

    DN

    1. Dewin – thank you for your praise. I trust you are well and in fighting spirit – there is much needs fighting. Recently you have seemed out of salts. I send you mental energy to buck you up so that you have the strength to resist the forces that would drain you!!

      1. You’re most welcome dude: the praise is well deserved – the opening shot would make for a great piece of wall-art, and cost you less than £60 to get framed. I can see that hung above your writing station.

        Me out-of-salts? Perhaps it is so: winter months are always troublesome. I seem to metaphysically forgo winter for some reason and head on into spring without pause to ‘steep’ underground for a while and switch off: take chance to catch up with myself and grow. Hence spring arrives with her energetic explosion and there is no choice other than go with the flow and push the limits again. It gives rise to a sense that I always rise to early for spring and bloom to early not to catch some frost. But as ever, by the time Summer is in full swing I hope I will be as well, The energy you send is most welcome, thank you! 🙂

        In other ways the writing is tiring sometimes: I like to stretch myself and perhaps stretch to thin but doing what is enjoyable and addictive is very difficult not to get caught up in: tis the curse of the Midnight Muse as Cristian elegantly stated the other day on his blog. The Wizard of Wands took two years to complete, the current poem is already 70% the length of that story and that written in about 8 weeks: it’s been a huge investment of energy and I am a little jaded.

        Indeed you are right to make mention and direct my attention to reality. I have been following various news-blogs and read/viewed/watched many articles and reports detailing the state of the world. The Establishment under the bastard Tories continues to crap all over the common man, and it’s a state fo affairs that is global whilst the common man remains subservient to a closed society of blind, ignorant, self-serving elitist’s. The wave of public opinion is swelling up against this legalised tyranny and they fight with hooded claw to repel the advancing tidal wave hell-bent on destroying these capitalist inspired maggots. The Tories will destroy everything by privatising everything and anything, transferring costs to the common man whilst every penny that can be robbed, stolen, or acquired through legal loopholes and new legislation, will be moved upwards away from grass-roots and into the bank accounts of an elite few: the shady wankers, sorry bankers, who feck-up the world to fatten their girths. In the UK, if Corbyn doesn’t win at the next election, the UK will be totally f**ked. UK politicians (and the Establishment at large – a closed society including the queen) are blindly following Trump’s agenda, which is America’s self-interested self-serving money-grabbing idealism loathed and detested throughout the world – that triumphs because of unrelenting fecking greed and ignorance, and the apathy of the sleepy common man – and if permitted to continue will destroy society in the UK and create deepening division, further suffering and hardship and further despair for unknown hundreds of thousands of people. The NHS is just one example of what will be an avalanche.

        For our future to recall the historical turning point in the evolution of civilization the Earth will need to stop turning on an axis of fool’s gold. The perpetual problem is that only the very rich, the very ignorant and very selfish, those who are the fool’s in life, these are the fecking idiots who run the world pretending they know what they are doing when all they ever do is repeat under a different guise the same illusion to an ever-changing population that soaks it all up and believes it to be real. When the common man wakes up and understands that all they are being shown is just a stage-act designed to maintain social divisions by monetary mechanism that ultimately concentrate power to a select few, that will be an occasion to celebrate. The Establishment never changes its desire to be elitist, and until that selfish and merciless philosophy is destroyed there is no prospect that human-kind will be walking on worlds other than our own. Elitism thwarts the evolution of civilization as a whole and restricts its healthy organic growth physically, psychologically and spiritually because elitism dictates the vial common narrative: it is why this fascist government are trying to market an idea to the public that those claiming Social Security should be denied opportunity to vote. It is social engineering, it is eugenics, it is fascism, it is the desperation of those with an evil mentality, those who are ignorant and now redundant in this modern world and they must be stopped before the world does fall apart

        Thanks for the energy to have a little rant 🙂 I feel unburdened and more buoyant as a result. I shall never give in or be drained or dredged.

        Viva la revolución!

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

      2. Dewin – I neither understand the madness that is devouring the world; the selling of the future for a quick profit; the destruction of nature; the rape of the planet, nor the malleability of people and how cattle-like they are led by a ring through the nose and sold into this slavery. It isn’t even a gold ring.
        Until they wake up we are saddled with this selfish, greedy bunch of elite wankers. The Tories truly are scum.

  4. Reads like one loony speaking to another loony.
    Did neither of you manage to work out that the countries willing to do the most damage are left wing? They’re quite able to be selfish, greedy wankers all by themselves without any help from the Tories.

    1. Very good again 😀 He did? Good old Stevie. Is there such a thing? A universal quay of life? Sounds like a place stuck way, way, way out in space – maybe next to the Astro Café on the edge of Infinity?

      Namaste 🙂

      DN

      1. Dewin – we are always on the edge of infinity – hovering (and in the middle). Make mine a three dimensional brown (or a flat white).

      2. Namaste Opher 🙂

        Yes I suppose we are always on the very edge of infinite possibility – perhaps even more so when we die and returned to the toy-box as building blocks for whatever is to be fashioned with it next.

        Only a three-dimensional brown? I heard the 4D triple half-soy half-fat decaf organic maple-syrup brownie crushed-ice vanilla triple-shot gingerbread Frappuccino extra hot with full-fat squirty cream double-blended with stars on top is pretty tasty 😀

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

      3. Dewin – Aaah yes! I could do with none right now! (But I’m on my post solstice detox campaign as I try futilely to shed a few pounds and cleanse the temple!)

      4. Namaste Opher 🙂

        Cleanse the temple – we all gain a little weight during the Winter: a throwback to ancient times braving the elements etc. 🙂 However, I like the sound of what you are trying to do, but I wouldn’t necessarily buy into it myself, at least not through abstaining from 4D coffee! Tis sugar and coffee that keeps me upright lol 😀

        Good luck with the post solstice detox!

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

  8. Alas Dewin – it is more a concept rather than an active project. Your reply activated a real need. I’m already on my 4th 4D triple half-soy half-fat decaf organic maple-syrup brownie crushed-ice vanilla triple-shot gingerbread Frappuccino extra hot with full-fat squirty cream double-blended with stars on top. They are delicious!

    1. Dewin – – BTW – I went for the quadruple caffeine versions! Who needs sleep? It’s overrated there are books to be written and life to be lived!

    2. Namaste Opher 🙂

      Your 4th – ye gods, you must be tripping! I just knew you’d enjoy a 4D – tis called Ambrosia Blend – the choice beverage of all great writers! Drink! Drink!

      Phew! Pleased to hear you are only conceptualising – for a moment there you had me worried! 😀

      Namaste 🙂

      DN

      2. Namaste Opher 🙂

        Feeds and accelerates the little grey cells. I drink far to much of it. My father used to drink a chicory-based alternative, the flavour of which once acquired is quite satisfactory, at least when sweetened else it is a little tart. But I find it lacks the punch of a (decent) drop of the dark stuff 🙂

        I heard from the Baristas, Kaluza and Klein, the Astro Café were introducing a 5D Blend – according to them it’s a high-voltage infusion with a kick like being struck by lightning! 😉

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

  9. The acid of coffee! 5D – I sometimes have difficulty managing 1!
    I do need pepping up though! I need to rattle my brain a bit.

    1. 🙂 It can be a bit bitter, but add a few teaspoons of sugar and it goes down like honey 🙂

      I tried a jar of this blend – Rocket Fuel – and thought it quite reasonable: certainly has a kick to it – two or three cups in the morning whilst listening to some thrash metal soon gets the brain moving 😀

      https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rocket-Fuel-100-Instant-Nutrition/dp/B012WHJ0V8/ref=sr_1_2_a_it/262-3910403-3924712?ie=UTF8&qid=1547202141&sr=8-2&keywords=rocket+fuel+coffee

      Namaste 🙂

      DN

      1. Never heard of it Dewin but it looks interesting. I could do with something to energise myself!! I’ll give it a shot – lift off!!

    1. “Ha! Ha!” said I in reply, to Opher’s wit and woo,
      “Why just the one book? You could make it two?”
      “Or three if you wanted, for two is one too few.”

      Namaste 🙂

      DN

      1. I can feel twenty or more bubbling up!
        All I need is another cup!
        I’ll pour it quickly and quickly sup!
        A tsunami of ideas it has let loose!
        With energy galore to cook that goose!
        The tension mounts – my face’s gone puce!
        Scribbling, writing frenetically!
        Sod this for a lark – I’ve gone back to tea!

      2. Tea is for wimps, PG for chimps,
        Your no chump, that’s for sure,
        So why dispense with coffee so intense,
        So intense it has you write more?
        ~
        I’m on my eighth cup of the day,
        Or is it my ninth cup this hour,
        Rocket Fuel appeals to me –
        Tis what gives my pen power!
        ~
        I’ll never sleep, but hell, so what!
        As long as there’s coffee in the pot,
        And sugar in the cup to sit and sup,
        My pen will go-on penning: it’ll never stop!
        ~

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

      3. Thick black coffee in the pot
        So stiff the spoon is standing up!
        Spinning mind will never stop!
        Dissolving spoon! dissolving cup!

        Hands are trembling, mind racing,
        Words pouring, pages defacing,
        Chapters whirring, sentences gracing,
        Caffeine jag – so very bracing!

        Just one more cup and I’ll sleep no more!
        But what the hell – that’s what life’s for!

      4. Call that strong, my worktops gone!
        Hot coffee burnt right through it –
        It’s not stopped, but continues on,
        Dissolving, floor, earth, rock and grit!
        ~
        Caffeine jag! Bah! Mines a Lamborghini,
        At pace it races, roars, and speeds,
        Nothing’s faster than my coffee blaster,
        Every coffee-jar: every car I’ll ever need.
        ~
        ‘Just one more cup,’ I hear you say?
        What are you a light-weight?
        Have a couple, then you’ll double,
        Double speed on your writer’s slate!
        ~

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

      5. Meldown! Meltdown! To the centre of the Earth!
        I think I made the coffee too strong!
        It’s eaten through both home and hearth
        The Australians will know about it before too long!

      6. Not strong at all, merely weak!
        I gave my coffee a neutron tweak –
        It’s what powers-up my Lambourghini!
        Currently en route for Alpha Centuri:
        ~
        I’ll send a postcard with a small sachet,
        Neutron Coffee, help you on your way,
        Once tasted, tis hard to ever stop:
        Gotta keep going to the very last drop!
        ~
        Namaste 🙂

        DN

      7. Just do not crash! As you speed along!
        Manic manoeuvres can only last so long!
        All too soon you have to come down
        And get your feet back on the ground!

      11. Dewin – I used to live on coffee – 14-20 mugs a day! Constant energy! I never slept much – four hours at most. The night was when I wrote until exhausted. I worked all day – did three jobs – teaching, tutoring and youth work. Played with the kids before bed. Not sure how I really survived. The coffee was salvation.

      12. Namaste Opher – that is quite a full day!! I imagine it was coffee and sugar that kept you upright never mind just keeping-on!

        Coffee as salvation! That is a fun theme for a poem.

        But the important thing is you did what you had to do, and survived the experience still laughing! For such worthy efforts, I hope the children will take care of you when in the winter of your years.

        Enjoy your day! Namaste 🙂

        DN

      13. It seemed fun at the time Dewin. I enjoyed every minute and I had the energy to do it. When the kids were older I went to gigs and ran a History of Rock adult ed course. That was fun too.

      14. Then it has been, and still is, a rich and wholesome life. One you’ll be able to look back on and be proud of: it was lived to the full! 🙂

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

  11. So shall I pour a cup for you?
    Milk or cream, one lump or two?
    Perhaps a digestive or a rich-tea,
    I’ll see what’s in the tin for thee.
    ~
    Ah bourbon-biscuits, now we talking,
    Soon we’ll be moon-walking,
    Sugar and coffee, what a dream,
    Would you like a custard-cream?
    ~

    Namaste 🙂

    DN

    1. Make mine a chocolate digestive and a cake
      With creamy coffee – all I can take!
      I can feel the neurones zing with electricity
      From the coffee and not the tea!

      1. Now that’s much better! Good to know,
        The spark in the arc still flows: and,
        A cake eater too, a sugar fiend!
        We’ve common ground there my friend.
        ~
        Good to mag over a mug or two,
        Tis what us British like to do,
        Yak away ’til our work is done –
        Tis why the kettle’s always on!
        ~

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

  12. Alas alack! my metabolism is not what it used to be!
    Burning calories now lacks efficiency!
    I seem to grow from head to feet!
    And have to watch just what I eat!

    1. Ah, that old devil called age,
      Or is it cellular entropy?
      Isn’t an issue for the likes of me,
      I’m still in my prime, aged 23!
      ~
      Tis retirement and an easy life,
      Relaxing all day without any strife,
      Not as active as once when younger –
      Weight-gain a freight-train growing longer!
      _

      Catch-up later. Enjoy your day!

      Namaste 🙂

      DN

      1. Certainly the body does not work as efficiently as once it did. Cells are getting clogged, tissues weakened and organs not as effective as they once were. Life is at a slower pace. Words do not readily flit into the mind quite as easily. Sometimes one has to wait.
        Ageing is a frustrating experience. Do not take your youth for granted. It is fleeting. Life is a blink.
        I could certainly do with a more efficient metabolism!

      2. I tease in jest, I’m 52,
        No longer quite as sprightly,
        But it’d not do to feel blue,
        Nor take my age lightly.
        ~
        I hear what you say, life drifts away,
        The further we glide under sail,
        The more we wish, the more we wail:
        When woefully our bodies fail.
        ~
        But yet, our spirit gets stronger,
        As to our strength of will,
        It makes one forever wonder,
        Why aging leads downhill?
        ~
        Namaste 🙂

        DN

      5. I’ll drink to that too! Except I’ve got a bit of a sore head after yesterday! I think I drank to a bit too much!
        Did you notice how much better the world was today?

      7. We put everything right yesterday! I was just hoping you’d noticed how much better the world was.
        yes a coffee will be nice.

  13. Ah yes indeed we did Opher! In fact I half expected Mr. Corbyn to call and offer us positions with Labour’s ‘think tank’. But there’s still time before the GE for him to do so 😉

    Namaste 🙂

    DN

      5. Morning Opher, Namaste 🙂

        Well I find that difficult to believe. Perhaps they’ll call Monday when back at work?

        The answerphone is working properly, right?

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

      7. Lol 🙂 That’s the spirit Opher! To be fair I don’t blame you.

        No doubt they just want to speak to you in person that’s all. Be patient JC will call when ready.

        Namaste 🙂

        DN

  14. I’m not sure I’ll hear it from out there even if it is still working! Never mind. I might form my own party!

Comments are closed.