Ceud Mìle Fàilte

Photography Nature Technology Food
Movies Music Politics

and life in the Highlands.

Fàilte

Thank you for dropping-by, I hope you enjoy your visit. The main content is to be found in the blog where I discuss everything and anything but topics including photography, nature, technology, food, movies, music and politics make regular appearances.

I commonly write reviews of movies (or films, if you prefer). Some movie reviews are short, others will be discussed in more detail. The scope covered will be mainly mainstream English language movies from the 1930s until the present day.

About me

My name is Iain MacDonald and I live in the Highlands of Scotland (although I have lived elsewhere in the past). I am a big fan of Free & Open Source Software which I use both professionally and at home.

Computing and technology tend to infuse themselves into my other interests, as once you learn some skills in one area it is convenient to use them to solve problems in other spheres.

When not tinkering with computers, I am likely to be found repairing things because living in the countryside you learn to be resourceful.

Of course, man doesn't live by SSH tunnels and kerosene vapour burners alone so food, as a subject, makes regular appearances too. Did I mention I used to work in hospitality?

Latest Life articles

My most recent ramblings.

  • Push or Pull?

    A couple of days ago I saw these two boats coming up the canal towards us, as we were doing the daily dog walk. It was clear from a distance that the two boats were very close together, and I assumed the first boat was towing the second. [Read more...]

  • Bright Eyes

    I took this photo on the evening dog walk two nights ago, when we had some lovely weather. I quite liked the composition of the photograph, but it wasn't until I started processing the photo that I noticed something else special about it. As it was in the gloamin my ... [Read more...]

  • Fàilte don Ghàidhealtachd

    Who did this? Who added Nessie to the Highlands' welcome sign? Whoever it was, it is absolute genius! The original sign had an empty loch, someone has used a marker pen, or similar, to add the Nessie image. I drove past this sign, northbound lane of the A9 at Dromochter, ... [Read more...]

  • Pole Pruning Saw

    It is the time of year when the beech nuts are developing, and, consequently, the branches are getting heavier. A few branches above the house were sagging, and as a result were touching the chimney head and the apex of the roof. These branches required to be dealt with immediately, ... [Read more...]

  • O' Mice an' Men

    It seemed like a good idea at the time. We were due to have a guest visiting for ten days, so I decided to clean the chimney flue in the lounge. This flue is used by the wood burning stove and hadn't been cleaned for a few months. I thought ... [Read more...]

Click here to view the whole Life section.

My latest Mastodon posts

Mastodon is a microblogging app that is part of the decentralised web known as The Fediverse. See this article for more details.

Fitheach (@fitheach@mstdn.io)

Sat, 18 Jan 2020 12:37:28 +0000

Lots of folk have got in touch to ask what is happening, which is lovely. I've not gone anywhere. The instance I am on has been seriously broken for several weeks. Posts in my timeline and Notifications take days to come through, if at all. I don't even know if anyone will see this post.

Hopefully the instance will be sorted soon.

I'll be back.

mstdn.io/@admin/10350147370655

Thu, 09 Jan 2020 08:45:41 +0000

Looks like the ability to post text is working again [touches wood].

My Home timeline doesn't look right, no posts newer than 13 hours ago.

Server is still borfing on attempted image uploads. I will need to upload images to my blog instead.

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 20:08:34 +0000

Any chance *all* the other Royals could step down, too?

Wed, 08 Jan 2020 11:33:53 +0000

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I could not learn something from him."
Galileo Galilei
15 February 1564 - 8 January 1642

Huh, well seen Galileo died 377 years before Boris Johnson became PM, as otherwise he wouldn't have said that.

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 20:10:59 +0000

On to-night's we startled a Red Deer (Fiadh-ruadh - Cervus elaphus) hind as we were approaching a gate. The deer felt trapped, and ran a short distance to our left, and then majestically jumped over the fence to make its escape. Ironic, as the fence was a deer fence, and is 2 metres high. Granted, there was a slight decline down to the fence, but impressive athletic ability regardless.

Tue, 07 Jan 2020 19:54:40 +0000

I think my instance is over-stressed again. I can't upload images, and posts from 8 hours ago are suddenly appearing in my timeline. If I haven't replied to you, it is probably because I haven't seen it.