The Falkirk Wheel is 15 years old this year. If you’ve never been or not sure what it is click on the link. It will take you to the Scottish Canals website where you can find out all about it and what a great day out it is for all the family.

It was my brother who first suggested we visit. He lives South of the Border (but we don’t hold that against him!) and had seen an article about it on the news. As the Wheel is literally on my doorstep off we went.

Almost 10 years ago I took what is, still, one of my favourite pictures of my eldest nephew playing in the children’s park at the Wheel.

He was playing in the tunnel and at the time my camera was on full auto mode (I was still learning my trade) and the flash bounced around the aluminium and really made his eyes pop. There is no filter or creative Photoshop ‘magic’ used in this picture either (as I still hadn’t learnt that yet either). Be it happy accident or right place, right time it still makes my heart sing every time I look at it 🙂

Maybe another reason I love it so much is the direct eye contact my nephew is giving me. Since then he has been diagnosed with a developmental disability called Autism and eye contact is difficult for him. You can find out more about this lifelong condition here.

Someone with Autism can find routine and familiarity soothing so whenever my brother brings my nephew to visit we go to the Falkirk Wheel. It is a place I will always associate with family and happy memories (and the scones in the cafe are pretty good too!).

Fast forward ten years and my nephew has a little brother, when they all came to visit me this month we went to – yup you’ve guessed it – the Falkirk Wheel and Big Brother was able to show Little Brother the play park.

The tunnel is still there and I wanted to get the identical shot of the latest member of the clan, ten years apart. Despite the rain, my camera lens focussing motor deciding to die and a one year old that really didn’t want to go through the tunnel, after much coaxing we got a shot!

 

Is it my best work, absolutely not! Do I love it? 100%! Look at the concentration on his little face and those cute chubby hands poking out of his sunny yellow jacket….what Auntie worth her Auntie stripes wouldn’t be in love with that picture?

Afterwards we had ice-cream in the rain and we all had a wheely good time (sorry…couldn’t resist).