Reflections…

Algy hopped up onto the massive stone wall which ran along one edge of the pier, and leaned back against another cold, hard thing, which had been placed there for some reason which remained obscure. Gazing out across the bay, he was astonished by the brilliant rainbow effect in the water, created by the reflections of the humans’ painted buildings. Algy had never seen such colours in the sea before; in fact, he had never seen such colours anywhere before. Even the strange objects which the humans used to transport themselves about the place seemed to have been coloured in order to blend in with the rest of the scene…

Algy hopes that you will all have a brightly coloured and happy weekend 😀

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Men at Work…

From the far end of the bay, Algy could see several brightly coloured boats fastened by ropes to a stone pier which jutted out into the water, and he decided to fly over to investigate.

There was a certain amount of leisurely but busy human activity concentrated around the boats, and a couple of men were mending long nets which had been strung out along the wharf. All kinds of odd objects were piled up here and there, or suspended over the sides of things, and the whole scene conveyed an impression of carefully arranged muddle and confusion.

Algy was intrigued, so he perched quietly on the edge of the quay, as unobtrusively as possible, and started to watch what was going on. From time to time the men glanced at him with slightly puzzled expressions on their faces, but without pausing in their activities. However, they seemed to pay no attention at all to the various large, shrieking seabirds which swooped round the boats and landed on the pier from time to time, so Algy guessed that the humans were quite accustomed to avian activity in general, and were simply unsure whether he was a new species which they had not met before…

[Algy says that if you find it difficult to see him in this photo, blow it up and look again 😀 He can assure you that he is definitely there.]

Monochrome and Colour

Some days it rained all day without a break, and some days the rain paused for a while, to rest and recuperate. On those days there were occasional bursts of light while the clouds regrouped, and it was often possible to see the dividing line between the monochrome world and the full colour version. Algy was intrigued by these changes, and watched in fascination as the clouds and rain wiped the colour out of the landscape, and then short spells of sunshine restored it.

Algy hopes you will all have a happy and relaxing weekend, whether it is in monochrome or in colour 🙂

[ This photo has not been altered to create the divide 🙂 ]

And the next day…

And the next day… the sun came out! Algy was so astonished that at first he didn’t know what to do. The mist had returned to wherever it came from, at least for the moment, and the landscape was entirely transformed: all the fuzzy greyness had vanished, and the world was crisp and sharp, and full of light and colour again. As he flew over his assistants’ garden, Algy noticed something especially colourful, hiding among a tangle of very thorny stems… Like many of his feathered friends, Algy loves berries of all kinds, so before flying back to the sea, he settled down to enjoy a summery feast of juicy tayberries 🙂

[For those who may not know: tayberries are a hybrid of raspberries and blackberries, bred in Scotland, and well suited to our… climate here. They are large and juicy and very tasty, if you don’t require your fruit too sweet.]

Eventually, the mist lifted…

Eventually the wind swung round to the north and the mist lifted, at least until the wind changed again… Algy was so relieved to see some light and colour in the world once more that he flew straight down to the sea and found himself a perch on a rock where the tide was washing in. The world looked entirely different on a fine day, and Algy couldn’t help wishing that it would be fine just a wee bit more often… But there was little he could do to influence the weather, so he decided to make the most of the sunshine while it lasted, even though the wind was still decidedly cool.

The ground was so damp and slimy, not to mention cold, that Algy looked around for another perch nearby, and soon found a splendid seat among a collection of nautical paraphernalia which the humans had left lying about the place. When the wind blew – as it did most of the time – it was almost as good as a swing, and although Algy found it a wee bit tricky to keep his balance and avoid tumbling off when the stronger gusts took him by surprise, he enjoyed himself immensely… until it started to rain again.

Algy hopes that you will all enjoy a colourful, entertaining, and very happy Sunday 🙂

Source: adventuresofalgy

By the Orange Buoy…

It was too altogether too slimy on the jetty, as well as being uncomfortably exposed to the wind, so Algy hopped over to a grassy patch on the foreshore and tucked himself down behind a large orange buoy. Dark showers were sweeping across the sky at regular intervals, but in between the downpours the sun lit up the world with a beautiful, stormy light, and Algy decided to watch it until the next icy squall swept in from the sea…

The weather had been very confused lately. There had been an enormous amount of rain, sometimes with ice or slushy sleet mixed in with it, hurtling down out of black skies and covering everything with grey sheets of water – or snow on the higher peaks. But there had also been some beautifully bright, sunny intervals. At times the sky had been totally overcast and forbidding, but at other times it cleared, and an orderly line of white and pale grey clouds scurried hastily across a sea of blue in a neat procession from the north-west.

Algy knew that, in the West Highlands, the best autumn colours were always seen when the sun came out soon after it had rained, so, when the paler clouds came scurrying again, he flew up to a spot where he could admire the effect. On a dry day, the fading moorland grasses looked lifeless and dull, even when the autumn sun was bright, but if they were thoroughly wet when the sun came out, they lit up in a wonderful range of colours which covered the landscape in a glowing carpet of orange and red and golden-brown.

Source: adventuresofalgy

Algy was fascinated by the many colours he could see around the wee moorland burn in the autumn sunshine. There was still a fair amount of green showing in the the lower parts of the grasses, but their tops were a beautiful blend of beige and russet and gold. The burn itself was like a tiny, narrow ribbon of sky winding its way across the moor: a beautiful cobalt blue in the calmer areas, but crisp, sparkling white where the water moved more rapidly. It made a lovely contrast with the stones that had been tumbled into the path of the stream when the burn was in flood, and Algy especially admired the rich, deep oranges and reds which emerged when the rocks got wet. On a day like this it was almost impossible to remember that when the Scotch mist came back down, the colours would immediately vanish and everything would revert to grey and black…

When the gales moved away to visit Algy’s friend @funnyful in Sweden, the wind started to swing round and the weather began to change. Before long the world was full of colour again, and as Algy relaxed on the hard, storm-hammered sand, he could detect fresh new autumn scents and tastes in the air, mingled with the usual sea salt…