Heading off into the blue

One of my favourite paintings is Winifred Nicholson's 'The Gate to the Isles' or 'The Blue Gate'.  I will probably be infringing copyright to include an image of the painting here but it is easily found on a plethora of other blogs, this being one of them http://gauguinsloft.blogspot.co.uk/2008/09/paintings-of-scotland-by-winifred.html
I love the gate which invites you to explore what lies beyond.  In the distance you can see the paps of Jura in the Western Isles.  It's just glorious!

I have a painting by Philip Archer, Principal of Leith School of Art, in Edinburgh, which also depicts a footpath running around a grassy hill and leading off into the blue.  It is a very inviting image and I just want to be walking along that path to see what lies around the corner.

My favourite walk offers the same sense of anticipation.  I love this point on the walk, heading up hill through the sea buckthorn, the fine bladed grass neatly cropped by all the rabbits who live amongst the sand dunes,

 nearly there, with a little glimpse of telltale blue

and then stretching across in front of me is a truly wonderful beach.  It's as good as any I visited in Australia and I just love it.  It's appeal is enduring and it never fails to please.  Actually, I think I may have mentioned it before, now I come to think of it!

And of course the waves are endlessly fascinating to me.  I love the way they just keep on coming, running, and washing the beach clean again, all ready for tomorrow.

If it is blue and sunny tomorrow, as it is today, I think we might drag the troops away from their stashes of chocolate and go to the beach for a barbecue lunch and a spot of sandcastle building, before they go back to school next week.