In the pink.

Fraserburgh Moonlight Prowl has been raising funds to fight breast cancer for ten years.

Every year for ten years many women have joined in the Moonlight Prowl to raise even more funds.

As this year is the tenth their intention is to celebrate by having ten events through the year.  We, at the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses, are proud to be involved.

Last night our lighthouse at Kinnaird Head obtained all the necessary permissions to light the light in the old lighthouse.  This necessitates notifying the Harbour Board, shipping et al.

We then flood lit the tower and the light itself was PINK.

The Moonlight Prowlers gathered at the Lighthouse to have a special Burns Night Supper. To celebrate the women behind the man.

Happy Burns Night to all.

Expectations.

Bit of snow, lots of wind, some frost, well it is Winter. What else do we expect?!

Bet you weren't expecting that. Note the date, 13th January. 

The sunsets have been awesome.

The sna (snow) quite pretty.
 

So - to be expected - a painting of a Buchan Beast in a snow storm. 

 

Stay warm.  Not long til Spring now....

50 Shades of Grey.

No celebration of Black Friday here.  I am not shuffling along with hordes of germ riddled shoppers fighting in lumps in over heated, overcrowded shops.

First I went where there were no crowds, hopefully no germs, to my framers.  

Not only do I get a cup of coffee but words of wisdom.....


Two lighthouses to mount plus the penguin.

 
 Rattray Head Lighthouse at dawn - appropriately from a photo by the Dawn Patroller.

The words of wisdom led to the lighthouse being moved to the right a bit more .  Apparently there is some sort of mathematic equation one applies to draw the viewers eye in.
Well as soon as anyone mentions mathematics my brain shuts down.  So I cannot remember what it is called.  It may well be to do with thirds...... There were a lot of hand waving during this lesson.  So I just said, "Get on with it."

Not a lot of possibilities to apply the mathematical theorem to this one, so it will remain in the middle.

After a visit to my favourite place after the shed.

 Preliminary sketch of..... from the best seat in the cafe at Kinnaird Head.

I returned home through 50 shades of grey.

At 2.15p.m. this was the sky.  

 It has been like this for two days now.  From dawn til dusk.  We still have not had a frost. Hence the multitude of bugs and viruses,  unseasonably warm.  

Good job I have a daylight bulb in the shedudio as otherwise I would not be able to draw or paint.

Fortunately my hairdresser has the solution for 50 shades of grey.

 

 
Cut it off.

 

This could bore you.....

Lighthouses.  As you may well know they fascinate me.  Still have not got to the bottom of exactly why.  I was born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, quite a way from the sea.  In fact holidays as a child, to get to the sea, took some considerable time, in a car that looked like this.

 No, we were not rich.  My Dad had a garage.  Repairing cars.  He probably borrowed one in for repair to give it a test run.

I remember holidays to Butlins.  Hunstanton, Norfolk, and Withernsea.

My first sighting of a lighthouse.  In the middle of the town of Withernsea.  Didnt take much notice of it.  I think I thought it was just an over the top street light.  In fact I still do not understand what it does/did there, must google it.

I lived in Cornwall in the late 60s and came across a real lighthouse.  Lizard Point.

Every time I visited it was foggy.  The sound of the foghorn was quite magical.  But I was then more interested in if it had a tea room.

(All the above images I took from google, so apologies for not naming individual photographers. Tres difficile to obtain. For me anyway.)

So here we are, many years later, and I discover lighthouses big time.  

I am interested.  I learn about them.  The people who worked them, their families.  I find out how they were built, and by whom.  

Kinnaird Head, Fraserburgh is now a big part of my life.

Built for the Fraser family, this fine 16th century castle was altered in 1787 to take the first lighthouse built by the Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses.
Historic Scotland.

Since taking up art in 2011 I have on occasions attempted to depict 'my lighthouse'.  Perspective not being one of my talents I gave up. Lighthouses do have a slight slant I believe but not quite as much as I drew.  But then, recently, decided I was going to DO it.  

Challenged to do some pen and ink which would then feature on cards to raise funds to keep the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses going.  I had another go.

 Through the Keepers Cottage window.

 These bouys had a light/beacon.  There are quite a few of these around the Museum grounds.

  
Through the Keepers garden door.

 One of the few occasions the Lighthouse is lit.  This was the Queens Silver Jubilee. ( There is a more modern boring looking effort that is nearer the shore that works all the time.)


Different views of.  Done.  All the photographs were taken by the Dawn Patroller.  I then did the pen and ink/ colour wash painting.

I sat on my laurels so to speak.  THEN I received another challenge.

Next year the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses celebrates being 20 years old.  Within the Museum are so many lenses, lights, screws, dinner services, pictures, artefacts etc. etc. from all the now unmanned and electrified lighthouses..... 

As the Stevenson Family were involved in building, designing, engineering - Jill, 20 paintings of Stevenson Lighthouses.

I might just go off Lighthouses big time.

Ooooh.  Rattray Head , Boddam, just down the road............... 

Told you I could bore you.


 

Wrecked.

458 years ago today the Edward Bonaventure was wrecked near to where now is Kinnaird Head Lighthouse.

Chancelour*  sailed the Edward Bonaventure to Archangelsk, and gained an audience with the Russian tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible) in Moscow, obtaining a trade agreement for a return visit by four vessels, which sailed for London in 1556. Amongst the cargo carried by the Edward Bonaventure, there were many fine furs and exotic animals for Queen Mary Tudor of England. Also on board, was Osep Gregorovitch Napea, the first Russian ambassador to England.
On 10 November 1556, the Edward Bonaventure was attempting to ride out a Northerly gale in Pitsligo Bay when she was driven ashore. Chancelour and about a hundred others were drowned, but the ambassador was one of the few survivors. Flotsam from the vessel included much of the cargo and many of the presents intended for Mary Tudor. The ambassador reported that the local population stole these and other items of value from the wreck, complaining to the Scottish Crown. This proved politically embarrassing, causing Mary Queen of Scots to attempt to recover the stolen property. Royal Commissioners were sent to Pitsligo but recovered none of the ambassador’s belongings.  


canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/

*Chancelour was the leader of this and previous expeditions. Mostly disastrous. To read more go to canmore.

It rather tickled my sense of humour that the Lairds around denied all knowledge of the treasure.  But soon after undertook massive rebuilding of their castles!  

 So the pirate of then would not have looked like the above at all.

More likely

 
Ho ho ho.

Looking around.

Beachcombing.

Every so often the sea throws up something really interesting.

On Fraserburgh beach.  A boat wreck.  Wonder how long that has been there.  It has wooden nails, according to the DP.

31 August 1875

LOSS

Notes Fraserburgh, 31st Aug., During the terrible gale from the NNW today the services of the lifeboat of the National Institution on this station have been three times called into requisition, and she has been instrumental in saving the lives of twelve seamen. At about 10 o'clock a smack lying in the bay was observed to be flying a flag of distress, whereupon the lifeboat put out and rescued the crew of three men. Scarcely had she regained the harbour when a Banffshire boat, prosecuting the fishing in Fraserburgh bay, was upset by a heavy sea. Fortunately the lifeboat was able to reach the wreck in a few moments, and the whole crew, consisting of five men, were saved. But for this providential escape they must have all perished, as no other vessel could venture from the harbour. At about 1 p.m., a Norwegian smack showed a distress signal, when the lifeboat again proceeded to sea, reached the vessel, took the crew of four men on board, and landed them safely in the harbour. The smack will probably drift from her anchor and become a total wreck on the beach. While this telegram is being despatched another fishing boat is approaching the harbour in great [Record received incomplete].
NMRS, MS/829/70 (no. 4221).


Could be one of the above.  What struck me was how brave and still are our Lifeboat Men and Women.

Back here in the shedudio.

Ok it is an old photo.


I am on a roll with painting, penning, a series of pictures of Kinnaird Head Lighthouse.  These are then transformed into cards and will be for sale at the Lighthouse Museum.

I am trying to portray it from unusual viewpoints.

The above is through the Keepers Cottage Garden gate.  This one is finished.

The one below is just started, the sky was in reality much darker, as its the light lit on the Queens Silver Jubilee.  So a way to go.

 

I have also been asked to do the same with all the lighthouses built by the Stevensons in Scotland.   No pressure there then.  Also totally out of my comfort zone - but hey I am enjoying myself.  Actually thought it was Sunday today. .......

Be some looking around.......

Art - Camera and Brush.

Allelulia.  Pleurisy banished.  Thanks to my GP who had prescribed antibiotics for me to have at home ready for it.  PLUS my pulmonary physio reckons the fact that all my efforts (listening to Abba doh) in exercising has increased my oxygen levels, decreased heart rate, and generally fitter all over meant I could fight the .... I will not swear.

So the enforced rest has been not unpleasant.  

Eral the Great Horned Owl number 2.  Her' horns' are flattened behind her head.

 

Bit of fun in betweenst the serious stuff.  A Friesian Coo .  When finished it should look as if it is looking through a window, or over a fence, havent decided yet.

 

And finally Whooper Swans coming in to land.  I have had quite a few goes at this from a photo by the Dawn Patroller.  Perhaps this time I will be happy with the end result!  Not there yet.

More on the arty front.  The Museum of Scottish Lighthouses has the wonderful photographs by Ian Cowe.  His aim in life is to photograph every lighthouse up here.  Only a few left which tend to be inaccessible unless you have either a boat, helicopter or parachute.  How the Stevensons managed to build the damn things is a fascinating story.

Rattray Head Lighthouse above.

Kinnaird below, when the light was lit for the Queens jubilee.
 

Exhibiting at the Museum of Scottish Lighthouses for the next two months.

In September it is the North East Open Studios.  My Wednesday morning art group take over.

Better crack on with the paintings.

The Bucket List.

Seems to be the order of the day these days.  Having a bucket list.  Although I have not actually sat down and done one as I have no intention of shufflin off this mortal coil just yet, it did occur to me that had I done so I would, very recently, been able to cross some off.

My first sight of a real live hare, and not one of the DP's photos.

 Ok.  This is one of the DP's photographs.  It was so far away by the time I had screeched to a halt and screamed "Is that a hare?"  He got his camera out, I wound the window down, well I pressed the button that does it, and he then focussed, it was so far away he has had to 'enhance it' so it looks like one of my paintings now!

But today......  today was MAGIC.

The DP and I had an art groups meeting in the morning so had gone for lunch to the Lighthouse Museum where he got a text from a bird watching friend to say he had seen Killer Whales at Rattray Head.  Then at St Combs.  So they were heading our way.....

I drove everyone mad leaping up to peer out of the cafe windows.  The DP left me to it.  Most of the customers in the cafe were also considering leaving this mad old woman to it when I saw them.

 

 Sadly my camera is crap.  So I have permission to borrow ones taken by our bird watching friend, Tim Marshall and his wife Joy for their amazing captures.

(I doubt I could have taken a picture with the best camera in the world as I was SOOOOOOO excited. )

For information. On the first photograph, at the bottom right of, you can see two seals.  We have an abundance of seals in the North East of Scotland and that's what Orcas eat.  They also eat fish.  Where I first saw them there were lots of fish as the Gannets were many and diving into the sea to catch them right where the whales first surfaced. 

Perhaps I should now be considering a Bucket List after all.  Any suggestions?

Aroond and aboot.

The Dawn Patroller went off on one of his jaunts with fellow photographers.  Not too far today.

Rattray Head Lighthouse.
 

 Most of the time it is surrounded by the sea.  In this second picture you can see the tide coming in.

Nearby there are wrecks from long ago.  The plan had been to photograph them for the challenge in the local photographic society on decay.  On the landward side of the lughthouse are sand dunes, which have moved considerably in the strong winds and storms we have had.  So much movement, the wrecks were nowhere to be seen.

Yesterday I met Ian Cowe.  Photographer.    His aim is to photograph all the lighthouses that are/were under the jurisdiction of the Northern Lighthouse Board.

His take on Rattraay.

 Kinnaird Head.

 

Nearby is the Loch of Strathbeg, our local RSPB Bird Reserve.  Which has a visitor.

 The Little Egret is a small, white heron which feeds on small fish and crustaceans. Once a very rare visitor from the Mediterranean, Little Egrets are now a common sight around the coasts of southern England and Wales as they expand their range, possibly due to climate change. It first bred in the UK on Brownsea Island, Dorset, in 1996, and has been moving northwards ever since; it was recorded as breeding in Berkshire for the first time in 2007.  So this one moved Northwards to visit us.

I finished off removing all the Christmas decorations.  

Then carried on, and almost finished my boxing/dancing hares.

 
 I take photographs of work in progress.  As I look at the photograph the glaring mistakes are obvious.  Hopefully tomorrow all will be good!

Hope yours is too.

Reflections.

Another year almost over.  Not one for New Year Festivities, I tend to be tucked up in bed way before midnight, and yes the wine has a lot to do with that!  I do know my failings after some considerable years.  But I am (almost) grown up now so can do what I like.

Traditionally the DP and his siblings commence to block up the phone lines as soon as Big Ben (in London) has chimed in the New Year.  And they all hit the Malt.  Cant stand the stuff.

This year the DP is being the Lighthouse Museum's Official Photographer at a wedding there.  So I shall be unplugging the phone before heading to bed.

The Happy Couple have today had to face pouring rain and gales.  Should set em up for life.  Now it is calmer and dry.  So their fireworks should go off with a bang rather than a fizzle.

Just hope they have warned the Shipping.

So, reflections on the year past.  

Well, its been a full one!

Kids Activities have been great fun.  We have done Pirates, Sea Birds, Halloween and Creatures of the Night - including Santa.

Kids of all ages had great fun.

Art group = educational.  Who wears silly hats and who doesnt.

Museum of Scottish Lighthouses.  Interesting.

Officially announced as one of three new trustees.  Still the only woman......

House is still standing as is the Shedudio.

Depicting beautifully the seasons.  Our wee hoose in the winter and the shedudio in the Summer.

All in all its been a lovely year.  Like everyone there have been downsides.  But now its time to look forward.  

I guess one major item of this year is that I have become an artist, still a small a....  But selling.  Still in pleasurable shock about this.  Along with this come the scary commissions.  

Bloody nightmare they are.

So this is on the drawing board for 2014.

As soon as I get permission from the photographer.  Although there is no way anyone would recognise it as being from that by the time I have finished with it.

FUN!  Lets hope 2014 is the same for all of us.