"Scottish Snippets"

"Colour Supplement"

19 January 2008

Each week the Rampant Scotland Newsletter includes a number of photographs which illustrate the weather and the seasons, plus the flora and fauna of the current week around Scotland. This separate "colour supplement" displays some more pictures, in a larger format. Here is this week's crop of Scottish views!


It will be a great relief when the repainting of the magnificent structure of the Forth Rail Bridge is complete and no longer has scaffolding around sections of the massive supports. The iconic rail bridge over the river Forth opened in 1890. It carries trains from Edinburgh to Fife and further north and repainting used to be something that never came to a stop. The current contract is using new longer lasting paint which should mean a gap in the painting schedule of perhaps 20 years. It began in 2002 - but ground to a halt at one stage. The present contract is due to end in March 2009.


No, I haven't taken up scuba diving... In the shadow of the Forth Rail Bridge at the northern end in North Queensferry, is the "Deep Sea World" visitor attraction. It was created from the site of an abandoned quarry in 1992. The underground aquarium is supplied with fresh seawater from the tidal estuary of the river Forth. One of the exhibits is an underwater walkway made of thick Perspex, with fish swimming above the heads of visitors. The sharks are well fed - so don't apparently attack the other fish!


This Stingray undulated across the roof of the underwater tunnel, showing its mouth and eyes which are often flat on the sea bed.


A popular event at Deep World is feeding time and this grey seal is waiting with anticipation for a nourishing meal of herring from the keepers.


Partly to give the seals exercise, they have been trained to fetch objects - such as the ring round its neck - and bring it back to the keeper for a reward. This seal is named "Heather"!


On my recent visit to Deep Sea World, there had been rain for most of the day (being inside seemed a good idea, even if it was to look at more water). But late in the afternoon the rain stopped and a weak sun appeared, just in time for this photo of the Forth Road Bridge to be silhouetted against the setting sun.

If you want to look back at earlier editions of this Colour Supplement, there is an Index Page





Where else would you like to go in Scotland?








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