Even though I am most definitely a ‘city boy’. I am from Texas where we have our share of cattle. In fact my Alma mater is The University of Texas and our mascot is the Texas Longhorn, a type of cow with (you guessed it), long horns.
Scotland has it’s own version of long horn cattle called Highland Cattle. They are beautiful animals with amazing long hair including long bangs that often completely cover their eyes. One day while driving in Scotland, I pulled off the road onto a drive leading up to a ranch house to try to get a few photos of what folks in Austin Texas might refer to as “Hippie Longhorns”. After a few minutes of unsuccessful shooting (the cattle were being very shy) , I noticed a truck approaching from the owners house. Concerned that the owner might see me as trespassing I prepared to explain what I was doing & pack up my camera. Again I had underestimated the kindness of the Scottish people. In fact Murray (the owner) had seen me photographing & brought some feed in order to get the cattle to come close to where I was photographing. As soon as they saw Murray approaching, the cattle all ran to my position in anticipation of getting fed & posed for their portraits.

Thank you Murray.

When driving in Scotland on the northern portion of the Isle of Skye, the major highways consist of single lane roads with passing points every hundred yards or so to allow you or an oncoming vehicle to pull over so that another vehicle may pass. (You can see one in the distance near the sign in the lower photo.)

In the middle of this rural landscape amongst the sheep & green fields, in the middle of ‘nowhere’, stands this big red phone booth. Perhaps it’s for emergencies, perhaps it remains from a time when many of the local farm houses did not have phone service. In any case, it’s a great reminder of the wonderful simplicity of this beautiful Isle.

While in Scotland we stayed at Balmoral, so spending some time at the Castle & surrounds seemed like an obvious way to spend a beautiful spring day in Scotland. (No, we didn’t say in the castle. We stayed in a wonderful little guest house. You can see a photo of our place here.) The grounds are beautiful & the Castle itself is wonderfully un-pretentious. The estate is virtually self sufficient with the organic gardens providing all the vegetables & floral decorations.