Sunsets

There's been some bonny sunsets recently.

Sunset over Bennachie.

 Aberdeen Harbour

 

 Back to Bennachie again. Typically some of the best sunsets over the last 2 weeks have been when I haven't had a camera handy, and the best views of the sun setting over Bennachie are from a point on the road home where there's nowhere to stop. It's been great to see such lovely sunsets though.

Sunsets

There have been some gorgeous sunsets over the last week or so. Of course, now that the clocks have changed I can't get back from work in time to catch the sunset over the sea, which I so enjoyed watching on the rare occasions when we saw the sun this summer. However, I've managed to catch the sunset in the countryside a couple of times. Beautiful.

Explorer at sea!

Last month I finally got my Explorer back on the water. I bought her when I was getting an operation on my wrist, 2 years ago now. I think I was trying to persuade myself that the operation would be successful ...  it wasn't and she's only been on the water twice up until now which is extremely frustrating.

The local club were paddling from Cullen and I took the opportunity to get my boat back on the water as this was going to be a shortish paddle. As it turned out I did manage it - but I certainly couldn't have paddled any further (which is why I've paddled in the double since then). I was in a lot of pain the next day - but was also grinning hugely all day which mitigated the pain a bit!!

The highlight was definitely Bow Fiddle rock, just outside Portknockie. It was calm enough to paddle right through.

Some people took more adventurous routes through the rocks than others ...
(There is a paddler in the photo, but you might need to click on it to enlarge it to spot him!)

The evening sun lit up the rocks beautifully.

Big grin despite the pain!

Returning to Cullen in the evening light was lovely, with the railway bridges clearly visible. I think the line is now disused. It was part of the North of Scotland Railway. The local landowner, the Earl of Seafield, was a director of the Highland Railway (presumably a rival company, I don't know my railway history!) so he refused to allow the line to cross his land. Because of this around 1/4 of a mile of track has 3 viaducts and a bridge to carry it to Cullen.

As we loaded the kayaks and got changed after the paddle, we enjoyed the sunset.

It was *so* good to be out on the sea again, and in my own boat too.

Midsummer sunsets

After some fairly horrible weather around Midsummer's day itself, with not a midsummer sunset in sight, things have improved. The weather hasn't actually improved that much - torrential rain yesterday afternoon made my drive to Aberdeen rather more interetsting that it could have been - but the sunsets have been in evidence again and I've been enjoying them over the last few evenings.

The Changing View - part 2

Having moved recently, I'm still missing the amazing views I enjoyed previously. That's not to say that my new place doesn't have good views too though... 

These were all taken from my balcony.

Shalders and dunters are common.

Plenty of boats to watch too...

 ... including the Pharos which moored out in the bay one evening. That's another boat I last saw in Orkney.

Some wilder weather.

Ayr sunset

Thursday was a beautiful evening. I couldn't bear to just stay in and work, and decided that it didn't really matter if I had to stay up until 1am to get all my work done, I just had to get out and enjoy the lovely weather. So I went for a walk along the beach.

It was so calm... I was really enjoying my walk, watching the birds and the sunset over the sea. I spotted a lone kayaker - and felt quite jealous, wishing I had my boat with me down here - it would have been a perfect evening for a calm, relaxing paddle, enjoying the wildlife and the scenery. Instead I watched from the shore, and snapped a few photos of the kayaker in the sunset sea.



The kayaker can be seen in the distance here - he (she?) was quite far out from the shore. The kayak is just visible if you look hard - at the top right of the sea in the photo.

I was just hoping that the weather would hold out for another 2 days for my trip to Arran on Friday evening....

Walk home from uni

The walk home along the river is a really nice one in good weather, and there's usually quite a lot to see along the river too...

Looking across the Auld Brig. The nights are definitely stretching now, and there's been some lovely sunsets lately.

The view from my window

Dunure Sunset