News & Updates

Wide smiles and early birds

It’s as if I’ve never been away. The sticky heat; the salty waves, warm as a summer bath, and the blue-black belch of the tuk tuks as they scurry back and forth between Banderanaike airport and Negombo ‘beach-side’. It’s January, it’s a new year; it’s high season and tourists are arriving by the plane-load after … Read more

Can’t look past it!

As I take my Christmas Day lunch out of the freezer, with rather more excitement than you might imagine, I do wonder if I’ve become just a little obsessed. It’s a large takeaway curry that I bought from our closest Indian restaurant, which is in Ullapool, thirty-six miles away. There’s enough to feed several people, … Read more

Time stands still

Our skin is brown, our sketchbooks full as another ‘Mists of Time’ itinerary on beautiful La Gomera has come to a close. Our first return since March 2023, when we arrived back into the UK with flights being cancelled and borders closing behind us, I was delighted and somewhat relieved to find the island unchanged, … Read more

No negativity here!

Every time I receive an enquiry from someone in a warmer climate asking about a sketching holiday, in Scotland, ‘this year’ – ie, during deepest, darkest winter – it always makes me smile. Perhaps they have not quite realised that Vistas holidays take place outside, in the landscape, and if the landscape is unavailable (behind … Read more

Through tears…

Last Saturday morning I was woken by the ping of my phone as a message came though. It was from my friend Jane, so I rubbed my eyes and opened it, wondering if she was heading into the village and wanted to meet for coffee. I would have slept a little longer if I could … Read more

Why now? Why not?

I’m often asked why I run the Scottish itineraries just once a year, and never in the middle of ‘summer’. There are several answers, but the simplest ones are: 1. I have a lot of itineraries, and others which I would like to introduce in time. If they all ran more than once a year, … Read more

Thanks for the thanks!

Still warmed from the two Morocco adventures in March, I have since had some lovely feedback from guests who enjoyed their time enough to write about it. I’m grateful for Helen from Australia who wrote this lovely review: ‘Painted Desert – What an amazing sketching journey! My Moroccan adventure began in a beautiful mosaic filled … Read more