We have installed a couple of ponds in the upper garden, hoping to attract more wildlife and provide facilities for the frogs, toads and newts. It’s a bit early in the season yet to find many good pond plants but we hope to have them planted up soon with aquatic plants and a selection of others in the beds around the ponds.
We had been having a few problems with rabbits digging up and eating some of our plants so it was time to get out the trap. Here’s the first victim:
This rabbit has now been relocated to a new home a few miles along the coast well away from houses and gardens.
We harvested a couple of trunks each from an ash tree and a sycamore before the sap started to rise this year. It takes about 10 minutes to cut them down then a few days of harder work to process them down into split logs, smaller branches and mulch from the thinner branches.
The Spring storms have delivered plenty of assorted rubbish onto our beach but occasionally something more useful turns up. Here’s a fish box just where the tide left it by our garden gate. They come in very handy for storing various garden items or as planters.
One of the most popular walks in the Galloway Hills is the ascent of Merrick, the highest summit in the region.
The first section of the walk follows the Buchan Burn up into the hills. There are a number of small waterfalls providing a good excuse to stop and look at the view.
After a slog up to the the summit of Benyellary this ridge, called the Nieve of the Spit, leads across to the main mass of Merrick.
On a clear day from the Summit of Merrick you can see (from south to north) the Lake District, the Isle of Man, the Irish Mainland, Ailsa Craig, the Mull of Kintyre, Arran and the Scottish Highlands. Here’s the Isle of Man floating in the shining waters of the Irish Sea.
A carved stone at the Culsharg bothy just by the path to Merrick.
Overlooking Loch Trool is this monument to Robert the Bruce who began his campaign for Scottish Independence back in 1307 at the “battle” of Glen Trool.