Dufftown is dreamy. Enormous red mushrooms, giant purple lupins, secret lakes and covered bridges, coloured flags high on warm wind, stone houses, grey green lichen, black trees. The countryside in every direction is dotted with sheep.

I’ve been here for one and a half weeks and am fully settled. The highland games came to Dufftown this weekend, as well as rain and deep sunshine in equal measure. It is very quiet here, but then again never silent, there are always cars on the road into town which lies outside my door, and some sounds and smells from the distillery are constant.

I am researching Scottish folklore and legends for a new video and in the meantime have shot and edited a short video titled Ceremonial (working title), inspired by the highland games and the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony. Well not really, but they were on my mind, as was Ray Bradbury’s (RIP) Something Wicked This Way Comes.

A still from the video.

Highland Cattle, in conference.

I may find myself inspired by Hitchcock too…

Dufftown “decorated” for the highland games.

Late sunset, my backyard.

Train to Keith.

Mouldy cellar (not where I’m staying).

Thistles, which are giants here.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 29th, 2012 at 2:44 pm and is filed under jillian mcdonald, Nature. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.