Loch Etive and Cruachan

I cannot apologise for two blipping loch shots in a row. This is how it is around here. My mother bought her house on the shores of Loch Etive thirty-five years ago, and is still here. With a stroll down the garden, a leap over the stone wall, one is on the shingle beach. It's a sea loch, where otters are very occasionally seen. We played here as teenagers, lighting fires on the beach, (I was thirteen when we moved) and now my mother's grandchildren play there too, with fires, and among the new forest of Japanese knotweed by the garden wall.

Curiously the grandchildren are now having a "retro fest": they have dragged down an old record player from the attic and are discovering the joys of Vinyl (I found a single by the Osmonds lying around today!), while the 15 year old, is busily explaining to me how a film camera works! She has gone off the to Edinburgh tattoo with a film camera AND a digital compact! Makes me wish I'd kept my Walkman...

Meanwhile, I am helping my mother with the presets on her digital radio, and she is asking "but what if I want Radio 3 on FM, not digital?" Trust me, mother, you won't...

The uploading of images is going ok. My brain is very tired, but I want to get this up before midnight. But I must just explain that the mountain in the background is one of the peaks of Ben Cruachan. My mother's family are from the clan Mc Intyre, and they were hereditary foresters on the slopes of Cruachan until the Highland Clearances, when their (Campbell) landlords removed them from their dwellings with some force. One of my great friends at school was a Campbell of Loch Awe, the same tribe. I'm glad that the 'old business' didn't get in the way of our friendship, as it might have done if I had imbibed since birth some of the more fanatical rantings still heard in these parts.

CleanSteve has pointed out that our two shots from today make a panorama. We were on the same walk, but his shot is later than mine, so it's darker.

I have back blipped yesterday, if you have time to spare...