Here is another installment in my series about artistic delights I found while in Europe this fall. The photo below is one I took while marvelling from a train at the Scottish countryside. I’ve seen photos, but it’s breathtaking seeing in person the different shades of green covering the rolling hills. The rolling hills themselves were fascinating! And then look at the clouds: I see so many different shapes, dimensions, and shades in them. Gray, darker gray, yellowishness around the edges of some clouds…I can imagine dipping a paintbrush into these shades of paint and blotting it over a paper.

This cobblestone street was where we came across Robert Burns’s home. We were rolling our carry-on luggage over this street to catch a train and decided we had time to stop and look through the house he had worked and lived in. As I waited for my husband to do his tour (we took turns keeping an eye on luggage outside), I started noticing all the different shades and colours of the stones! I also enjoyed the pattern that the stones made when laid out all together. I can imagine painting, drawing, and even embroidering a pattern based on this photo.

Bags! Pretty bags! If you’ve known me for awhile, you know I love colourful bags! I spotted these in a cafe in Scotland and learned they are made from Harris Tweed wool. I knew that was a thing my mother liked, so I sent her photos. I had always thought of tweed as being neutral colours (which I’m not crazy about), so I loved seeing this pink and purple! I also like the gridded design on these.

This was one of the coolest things I saw in Europe!! It was on the grounds of David Livingstone’s home, and it’s a bunch of trees woven together to create a canopy. Those wood blocks are for sitting, and this whole set up is called the Mindfulness Area. I had been strolling by myself through the meadow on the property when I came across this. I sat under the canopy for a long time, just listening to the birds singing and the river flowing. I simply felt so happy just sitting there in the midst of nature. It was healing to experience that after the year we’ve had.

The little house in the next photo was on the same property. I think it was made of iron; the intriguing thing about it was that it had cutout designs all over it! I tried to get good photos of the design from the inside, but I couldn’t get enough light in the photos. Can you see on the side and top the cutout designs? They were so intricate! It would be fun to tape a big piece of paper over the designs and do pencil rubbings!

I’m very happy with how the next photo turned out, because it shows the detail in a plant I saw everywhere in Scotland. I tried finding out what plant it is, but haven’t had luck yet. Do any of my readers know? Can you tell me in the comments? Anyway, I just loved the look of the fluffy white stuff all over it, the curly white spikes, and then the pink spikes. I took this photo on the shore of Loch Ness; thus, the blurred pebbles under the plant. Like in the cobblestones photo, I can see so many different shades of colour. I like the contrast of the pinks against the grays.

Final patterned and coloured photo from Scotland: a plaid tartan pool table cover at our hostel on the shore of Loch Ness. I’ve only ever seen green pool table colours, so this was a treat for my eyes. We stayed in this hostel for three nights, and every night a bunch of guests gathered around the table for fierce rounds of pool. Actually, this table was in the midst of a big lounge/dining area which was relaxing to hang out in. Lake views, interesting people from all over the world, listening to different languages.

A few more posts in my artistic delights series to come!

Love all these so interesting and unique.
As I’m going through and reading all your comments, I’m thinking, “Brenda, YOU are an artist, too!”