Jim Malcolm

Out for a long cycle up the River Tay today. Passed the Kings Stone which marks the Battle of Luncarty where the Vikings were defeated by an army of Scots in 980 AD.

It has been a beautiful few days in Scotland, clear, still and even quite warm. The mountains are slowly losing their snow, this a view from around Balbeggie to the north.
I am having trouble uploading the remaining pictures from my WestCoast tour. I think I might have filled up this blogs capacity by putting up pictures at too high a resolution. I am trying to get it sorted…

Safely back from a West Coast Tour.. here battering past downtown LA on a “quiet” Sunday afternoon…

Quiet street in Santa Monica…

Unbelievable.. these folks are picking strawberries.. in January!

Pacific ocean around Santa Barbara..near where Michael Jackson lived.

Up on the hill Hearst Castle, trophy home of William R Hearst the newspaper magnate on whose life the movie Citizen Kane is based..

Aahh the beach at St Simon…

beach property, needs some work..

This rock looks like a deflated whale

Alan Cameron picked some of these mussels and they were delicious..

Here he is about to hit a canny shot..

This was my shot of the day.. a low stinger…

There are colours in the Pacific sunset that yoy don’t see anywhere else..

These people are actually signs..

Up near San Jose, where the dot-com millionaires live..

The beachfront at Santa Cruz

Not much surf so not many surfers. This Dude is making the most of a wave around a rockface.

Monument to surfer dudes…

This guy is using a type of board that is used to slip across the wet sand..

Wayhay!

San Francisco Bay looking across from Berkeley to the city. My best picture ever!

An impressive mural in the town of Napa in the heart of the famous wine region

The loudspeaker was invented here..

You can ride up the Napa Valley on a train, getting sloshed at great expense..

Well tended vines, the yellow flower is mustard which adds much colour at this time of year..

An important historical marker..

Safe to say I had a cracking gig in Kelseyville..

Driving on highway 20 towards the Sacramento Valley..

A very flat and fertile place..

Two thirds of a toblerone, honey and almonds…

Lots of rice fields..

my rental car with walnut trees.

Mandarin country on the way to Auburn near Sacramento..

The fog was rolling in from the coast(er)

ahhh another wonderful spot the mouth of the Navarro river south of Fort Bragg..more to follow..

North of Fort Bragg, breathtaking coastline..

Heading north…

In the background (to get a full image of it ) is a massive redwood known as the grandfather tree

The pacific ocean where the surf is up…

In amongst more redwoods..

A huge lumbering lumber lumberjack, what a lot of bull..

Heading towards Bend Oregon through the snowy Cascade Mountains..

Mt Batchelor, seemed rude not to head up with a plank strapped to my feet..

View from the top I think of either Mt Hood or Mt Washington..

Went for a lovely walk along the famous Deshutes River, which is an anglers paradise. Loved this sculpture..

Had a letter from Dumbledore.. the owl is resting after the long flight from Hogwarts..I have more photos from this trip but I am having trouble downloading them.. More to follow

Santa Monica, where its quite a bit warmer than Scotland judging by the orange tree in Yvonnes garden…..

Yesterday I was snowboarding at Cairngorm Mountain, you can just see the line of the funicular railway that takes folks up to the runs. This has been a poor year for snowsports so far in Scotland but it can all happen quite late on, with skiing often on the menu at Easter. The water is Loch Morlich. On Monday I had great opening 2013 gig at Glenfarg Folk Club. My daughter Beth was performing with me and did a very good job. Next week we are playing together at Celtic Connections in Glasgow,,,,

Sunset on Loch Morlich.