Stronaline

This is Stronaline, one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of houses built by an entrepreneur in 1906 and rented out to people from the central belt who wanted to get away for the summer to the healthy air of the Kyles of Bute.

When we first came to the area some 21 years ago it was owned by the Hubert & Beth Andrew and we have spent many a happy hour having a drink with them in the room that is lit up at the front. It has great views up the Kyles and over to Bute. Hubert , a retired vet, was a fount of knowledge on almost everything and Beth had a disarming but very sharp sense of humour that could put anyone in their place, and frequently did.

Hubert & Beth are now both dead but their son Hugh, not only a publisher (Birlinn) of some of my books but also a friend, kept the house on until this year when he sold it and bought one on Mull.

I haven't yet met the new owners but I noticed this view when I was down at the hotel this afternoon, using the bottle bank, and it seemed not just a good picture but somehow particularly suitable for Hogmanay, a time when we all remember those who have gone and especially in our own families.

My father will have been dead for 20 years this coming October and I still think of him often.

Anyway, a happy new year to all blippers across the globe. This blip makes the end of three calendar years of blipping every day but I feel as if I am only just starting to scrape the surface of how and why I take photographs.

I learn something every time I look at other pictures on this site, taken by people doing fascinating things or just seeing the world around them in a new or unusual way.

Thanks.