House Holiday 2000: Ascog House on the Isle of Bute

All pictures are copyright Hywel T. Phillips and may not be reproduced without my permission.

If anyone would like prints of any of these please let me know, I can do them up to A3 size!

	We were staying in Ascog house, a much-modified Scottish castle set in private grounds near the sea shore on the Isle of Bute
	The tower at the side was the kiddie ghetto where the screaming sprogs could be imprisoned (quite right too)
	Before the house holiday, Hobbit and I had had a week walking on Arran
	This gave Hobbit enough time to ensure good weather for the house hols
	We went to the beahc quite a lot because you could find all sort of interesting things there
	Mud, mainly, in Kaelan's case
	Looking across to Arran from Bute
	There were quite a few stone circles on Bute (and even more on Arran)
	This one was popular because it was 50 yards from the car...
	But I think the highlight of the week was Scalpsie bay, where the seals would come to sun themselves
	They would lie on rocks that were just out of the water, so they could make a quick getaway

	The first morning we went, I forgot my long lens... so I went back on my own the next morning and had the place to myself (apart from the seals, obviously)
	They dived in when I got too close but I sat sround for half an hour and they let me get quite a lot nearer
	Best of all was a mother with her baby
	One evening we headed off for the "private beach" that Arwen had been told about by the locals
	I was half expecting a lynch mob to be waiting for us, but the place was deserted
	A storm was heading our way
	And the light was really beautiful
	We wandered around the rock pools, looking for the hermit crab colony Carl had found, but only found a couple of tiny ones
	We made a bit of a dash for it as the storm closed in
	Then stopped again to admire the rainbow!
	It was one of the best I've ever seen
	You can see where the pot of gold is!

Portraits

I took my new protraiture lighting setup with me and collared some victims one afternoon. Hobbit and Helen agreed that the whole setup was well scary.