Off to the Grocery Store

Another beautiful day in Caithness, so I decided to take the scenic route to the grocery store in Wick.  I saw the turn off to Dunnett Head so, I drove up to the lighthouse and listened to the waves and the birds and the general beautifulness.

The heather is in bloom and, of course there were more thistles.  Thistles often have visitors, sometimes fabulous big bumblebees, but more often it flies, flies, and more flies.

Nice enough to sit still while I got my camera the way I wanted

After the lighthouse, I headed toward Wick.  But I stopped at John O'Groats and took a trail along the coast toward - I hoped - a place called Shell Beach.

Looking back at John O'Groats

Jason had given me directions to Shell Beach, which turned out to be pretty darn good directions.  Soon enough, I saw this placard in the middle of a sheep field, and then there was shell beach.

You can see Duncansby Head is the far background

Most of the beaches here don't have too many shells, which is sort of strange.  Well, shell beach doesn't have sand really - it just has shells, I suppose that's why it's called shell beach.  

I wandered the length of the beach picking up shells and putting them down.  I had the place all to myself.  It was pretty much heaven.

See, nothing but shells - weird

The walk back was easier because I used the trail.  I didn't really see the trail on the way out and had to do some bush whacking, and that wasn't easy in my flip flops.  I grabbed a honeycomb crunch ice cream cone before heading to the grocery store.

On the way, I saw this sign for the Lyth Arts Centre.  I've seen this sign many times, but I usually have a car full of groceries, and today, well I didn't, so I took the turn off and followed the road for about 5 miles to what looked like a group of houses.  I just about said no way, but then I parked.  It was a huge parking area, but only I was there.

Inside there was this young guy that asked if I came to see the exhibit - I said, yes!  After taking my money, he told me to go to the Mexican Miracle Paintings exhibit first.  This was an installation of over 100 photographs documenting 'ex votos,' which are small paintings that people painted to say thanks to St. Francis for answering their prayers.  There was a guy that was thankful for surviving 4 gunshot wounds, a guy thankful that his horse got well and on it went.  They had the room very dark with candles, a film, and soundtrack of the town itself - church bells and wind.

It was incredible.  

Then there was another exhibit of a local artist; a french photographer that was more interested in the texture of something instead of what it actually was; and a vet that wanted to be a painter, but had rightly chosen to be a vet.

After the art centre, I did go to the grocery store; it had only taken me 5 hours to there. You know what they say, it's the journey, not the destination that counts.