Aberdour Bay

I had about an hour to spare in the afternoon, so decided to visit the beach. I went to Aberdour Bay, which turned out to be a very good choice as it was a lovely bay with some great arches to explore.

This looks like it would be a fun section of coastline to explore by kayak.

The only drawback was (as I found in pretty much the *whole* of Aberdeenshire) the number of irresponsible dog owners.....  Between out of control dogs and dog dirt seemingly everywhere I went (footpaths, beaches, sand dunes, grassy areas....) I was seriously unimpressed at the number of irresponsible dog owners everywhere. The exception was at Rattray Head where the owners of the hostel have very well trained and looked after dogs, and the people I saw walking their dogs on the beach there who had them well under control as soon as they saw someone else coming along. Unfortunately there was still dog dirt on the beach and in the sand dunes though.... come on, Aberdeenshire, clean up! It really spoils some beautiful areas of coastline.

Rattray dawn

I was back staying at the bunkhouse at Rattray Head again this week. I was south for another interview, and also spent a bit of time exploring the area (more of that to follow in further blog posts.) This time I managed to get some dawn photos of the lighthouse.

It was a beatiful morning, as the sky gradually lightened.

Sadly, the early promise of good weather didn't last all day as it dulled down a fair bit, but it was still a pretty good day. The forecast for the next day wasn't too promising though, leaving me a bit worried about the ferry journey home...

That evening, after managing to cover over 200 miles in my wee car, I relaxed by the fire with a small  glass (well actually a cup, as the hostel unsurprisingly isn't stocked with wine glasses) of red wine (and I do mean small, this is one of these peedie bottles, not a full-sized one.) 

I like this hostel. :-)

More seal pups

I enjoyed seeing the seal pups so much that I decided to go back again the next weekend. This time I spent over 2 hours watching them... I'm not quite sure where the time went!

The first hurdle was to get past the seal which was totally blocking the path...

This accomplished (by getting rather muddy climbing round above the path) I was able to get to the beaches again. It was interesting to see the variety of sizes of seal pups this time.

There were newborns...

... right up to pups which were getting close to 1/2 adult sized, yet were still suckling from Mum.

It was interesting as well to see how well camouflaged they were. Considering that the white fur is nature's way of camouflaging the pups in their original natural habitat of ice floes, etc. I was impressed with how well camouflaged they actually were amongst the boulders on the beach.

The colours do vary though - and the tiniest newborns are rather yellowish - and not so well camouflaged!

The adults can be very well camouflaged too - but that doesn't stop fights breaking out over their 'territory'.

Seals can be very protective if they think another seal is getting to close to their pup, even if it's only trying to head past on its way to its own pup.

Seal pups

Back in November I took my parents on a trip across the barriers to see the grey seal pups.  We had a lovely hour or so there ... though I could easily have stayed a lot longer!

There were seals and pups the whole way along the beaches.

Clear views

I love flying on a clear day, and at Christmas the flight down from Orkney to Glasgow was pretty much perfect.

 Just leaving Kirkwall Airport - Holm in the foreground and looking at the cloud over the flow.

Very early on in the flight we went into some cloud, but through gaps in the cloud had clear views, and once past Wick it was pretty much clear the whole way.

Looking across towards Deerness, "almost an island".

My house is actually in the above photo too - but you'll have to take my word for it because without having the large version to zoom into I doubt you'll spot it, even those who know exactly where it is. I love trying to get photos of my house from the plane, and have managed to get a couple recently now that I've been able to fly back from work in the isles a few times (but I'll save that for another blog entry.)

Pentland Skerries - first time I've seen it from the air (it's usually cloudy at this point!)

 A not very good photo - but it's the first time I've seen marine wind turbines.

The blurry thing to the left is a large ship, which gives a sense of how large these turbines must be.

 Loch Lomond - so we're nearly at Glasgow now....  Can I spot my friend's house?

I did once manage to get a photo of my brother's house in Renfrewshire from the plane!

Rhu and Helensburgh

Snowy Christmas

Yes, I know it was over a month ago - but here's some photos I took in Arran at Christmas.

Sunrise over Holy Isle

It was quite strange actually - when I arrived Holy Isle was all white, but due to the angle of the sun at this time of year, the snow on Holy Isle was nearly all gone within a day while the rest of the village was still white. It felt slightly surreal standing in a white winter wonderland looking out at sunshine and very little snow on Holy Isle.

 Looking towards Goatfell.

 The fisherman's walk - where the going was slightly easier than at this time last year, when we'd have been better wearing ice skates!

 Baby Christmas trees.

I did find it sad, though, that the Foresty Commission found it necessary to have signs prominently displayed about having CCTV in this spot!

I wonder how many places in Scotland have Christmas lights on palm trees?

Packaging insanity

I recently ordered 2 (identical apart from colour) items from a well known company. They arrived separately. One was quite sensibly packaged in a small padded envelope which was ample protection, even from the sometimes rough treatment of the Royal Mail. The second arrived in..... well, judge for yourself......

Just how much packaging did they waste there???!!!

Insanity or what?



Lunar Eclipse

No, this isn't something you all missed last night. This was on 21st December, but I'm only getting round to blogging about it now!

My photos aren't good at all - but it was great to see this historic event all the same. I call it 'historic' because it's only the 2nd time in the last 2000 years that a lunar eclipse has occurred on the winter solstice. The last time it happened was in 1638. The next one will apparently be in 2094, but I don't suppose I'll be around for that one, so I'm glad that the skies were clear enough to see this one.

Looking towards the orange moon above my neighbour's house.

Back down to my house, and a nice solstice sunrise.

This was definitely a nice way to celebrate the solstice.

If you want to see really good photos of the eclipse, I'd recommend having a look at this blog. Stunning!

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