Today Algy is celebrating the fact that the Castle Stalker View Gift Shop and Coffee Shop – Algy’s favourite café on the west coast of Scotland and a very popular venue for tourists – will be stocking both the paperback and hardback editions of his book A Surprisingly Fluffy Bird from next week. The café commands a fantastic view of Loch Linnhe, and overlooks the castle which is on an island just below it.

So, in the tradition of Throwback Thursday, Algy is taking a moment today to look back a couple of years, to the late spring of 2013, one of the many times he has visited Castle Stalker. As you can see if you look closely, on this occasion Algy flew across the water and perched on the battlements to inspect the ancient castle more closely 🙂

[Apologies for the picture quality – this older photo was taken before Algy’s assistant got a nice new camera in 2014…]

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Like most people in the area, Algy had been unwell with “that virus”, but he was feeling somewhat better now and in need of a new adventure. He flew over to the great sea loch, and found one of his favourite viewpoints. The gorse made a very spiky perch, but he was so intent on watching the light over the loch that he hardly noticed the prickles.

The next day, Algy decided to explore the castle. He found that there was a very fine view from the battlements, but in the distance he could see some bad weather approaching across the loch. For the time being, however, the sun was shining and the water was alive with sparkling light.

Algy travelled on a little further, until he reached a spot overlooking the old castle in the great sea loch. Huge masses of golden gorse covered the headland, so he decided to make a bed out of the soft, perfumed flowers. That night Algy dreamed of a tropical island, full of the exotic fragrance of spiced coconut!