More July Activities

Posted on 29 July 2016 by John

Wine o’ Clock has been taking place most Friday evenings through the year but it’s good to be able to venture outdoors now that we have a taste of summer weather. There are still a few fleece jackets in evidence but some hardy souls are in short sleeves.

We had a trip to the deep south and one of the highlights was a visit to the amazing gardens at Great Dixter, near Hastings. Here are a couple of pictures of the riotous planting there:

Kirkcudbright was visited by the Kelpies in July and August. These are models of the enormous ones that are installed near Falkirk but they fitted well with the scale of Kirkcudbright harbour.

Following on from the wine-tasting in June, we had a seashore wildlife walk in July, led by local naturalist Jim Logan as another fund-raiser for Kirkandrews Kirk. Unfortunately the weather was atrocious on the day but a small band of hardy souls ventured out into Kirkandrews Bay and discovered a range of interesting shells and marine creatures. Here’s Jim identifying a specimen for Howard.

Portpatrick

Posted on 8 June 2016 by John

We had a day trip over to Portpatrick, near Stranraer, to meet our friends Hilary and Jonathan who had sailed over from Largs via Northern Ireland. Portpatrick is probably the most scenic harbour village in Dumfries & Galloway and has some good harbour-side pubs and restaurants too. Here’s the view across the harbour towards the Crown Hotel where we enjoyed an excellent meal and some tasty local beer. The Crown is the black and white building just right of the blue building on the far side of the harbour.

Wind & Trees

Posted on 20 April 2016 by John

This is the effect of the prevailing winds on our coastal trees. Here is a hawthorn tree just coming into leaf as the gorse in the foreground is in full flower.

Here are a couple more trees right down by the coastal footpath near Knockbrex House.

Feb 2016

Posted on 27 February 2016 by John

One of our Wednesday morning walks was along the coast road from Auchencairn to Balcary Bay. It gave us a good view of Hestan Island and the posts that used to support fishing nets. The coastline at the far right is the edge of the Lake District in Cumbria on the far side of the Solway Firth.

Betty enjoying a walk along the coast on a sunny day with the tower of the Corseyard “Coo Palace” in the background.

There is a good network of paths through Balloch Woods near Creetown featuring some interesting sculpture and other items such as the Roundhouse at the Garrochar Wildlife Ponds. It is used as an interpretation centre and meeting point for groups visiting the area.

Yet another sunset picture. This one is looking across Wigtown Bay from the coast road near the Coo Palace.

We had a weekend trip over to Newcastle and spent a day up in Northumberland visiting William Armstrong’s Victorian estate at Cragside. There are some very interesting walks around the extensive gardens and grounds visiting innovative features such as the hydro electric power house and a very early iron bridge. We were very impressed with the carvings that had been made on tree stumps and this one on the trunk of a tree that had been felled.

We have now acquired a two-seater sit-on-top kayak which we hope will be useful for taking people out on trips along the coast. This is its maiden voyage – a quick trip around the bay to check it out. We discovered that the front seat can get a bit wet through the self-baling holes but we have now installed a little platform to raise the seat above the high water mark to minimise the chance of wet bottoms.

January 2016

Posted on 21 January 2016 by John

After the storms of Christmas and the New Year we’ve had a fairly mild, quiet January with some memorable sunsets. Here’s a random set of pictures through the month so far.

The sun setting over Burrow Head at the end of the Whithorn peninsula.

Looking up the estuary towards Kippford on a misty afternoon.

The sun setting across the bay from Castle Haven.

Our crow sculpture getting its first taste of snow.

A dramatic sunrise over Kirkandrews.

Betty on the beach

Winter Solstice

Posted on 22 December 2015 by John

Here’s the sun going down over Wigtown Bay on 21st December. Looking forward to the lengthening days and Spring just around the corner!

Autumn Scenes

Posted on 7 December 2015 by John

A few pictures from walks around Craig Cottage over the last month or so. The stormy Autumn weather has dumped plenty of rain on us but we’ve also had some very impressive sunsets and cloud formations. Here are a few of them.

One of our local fields was home to a small herd of brown belted Galloway Cattle. They also come in a grey variety as well as the more usual black and white.

Autumn leaves at Knockbrex

Descending through the oak woods from Mark Hill towards Kippford and a tasty pub lunch.

Atmospheric sunlight over Wigtown Bay.

One heavy rain storm caused the Pulwhirrin Burn to flow over the top of the footbridge to Kirkandrews.

Here’s Betty posing with an Autumnal tree in Doon Wood near Knockbrex.

Happy Birthday, Gabrielle!

Posted on 13 October 2015 by John

Today was Gabrielle’s birthday and we went for one of our favourite local hikes around the coast to Brighouse Bay. Here’s the birthday girl and her dog on the coastal path.

Betty enjoyed splashing around in the sea and stayed still long enough for one cute pose.

Rock Pool Walk

Posted on 1 September 2015 by John

The Galloway group of the Scottish Wildlife Trust organised a rock pool walk to take advantage of the recent very low tides. We met near Carrick, opposite Ardwall Island and ventured out across the sand (and mud) to the rock pools alongside Ardwall Island. Nic Coombey from the Solway Firth Partnership was leading the walk and introduced us to many different inhabitants of the beach and rock pools.

The view southwards across the sands from the approach to Ardwall Island.

Nic Coombey addressing the assembled group on the way across the sands.

We found a lot of different kinds of crabs, sea urchins, anemones, starfish and many molluscs. Here’s a brittle star that Gabrielle found.

This orange sea slug was lurking on the sand as we returned to the mainland.

We were treated to a fine sunset on the way back from Ardwall Island.

One more sunset

Posted on 26 July 2014 by John

Craig Cottage

Life on the Borgue Riviera

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