Yesterday we took advantage of the sunshine – even though there was no thaw in sight – and travelled north for just under an hour to North Berwick in East Lothian. No snow here but it was freezing cold…..bracing is the word!
Sometimes we catch the bus from North Berwick to Aberlady, a beautiful village on the Firth of Forth with excellent bird watching. Then we walk back across golf courses and through woodland until we reach the coast path back to North Berwick which is a fair old distance! Or we might get off the bus at Dirleton, a hamlet a little way inland and about 5 miles out of North Berwick. There are lovely castle gardens and a tea room to take advantage of before making our way back along the beach. Continue reading →
Things are warming up around here in more ways than one! The sun has decided to shine and for the last couple of days its been just like Summer. Also, we’re hoping to move to Scotland before the end of October so it’s going to get a little too busy for walking and blogging.
Sadly I have to concede defeat and admit that I’m not going to make it to 1000 miles this year.
Never mind, there’s a whole new world of walking out there just waiting for me and Mr RR! As soon as we’ve got ourselves settled in, I daresay we’ll be off on some lovely new walkabouts.
Meanwhile, it’s going to get a little quiet on the blog…..but here are a few miles to keep you going until I get back to it all again.
See you in Scotland!
The (Notso) Wee Ricketyrambler
The Lost Gardens of Heligan (3 miles) and The Penrose Estate (6 miles)
We took ourselves up to the Lost Gardens last week and had a wander amongst the vegetable gardens and the dahlias:
I love the Italianate Garden:
but my favourite thing is the Potting Shed!
I want one!
Beautiful fungi:
Marvellous marigolds:
Fantastic flower gardens still:
Simply stunning!
They’ve got a new family of Tamworths who could squeal extremely loudly:
And a pair of Ostrich:
Mr RR did the rope bridge walk……but I’ve don’t it before and once is enough!
Then today we took the top path around Penrose, descending for coffee at the Stables Cafe and then returning alongside the lake and Loe Bar. We saw sparrows – flocks of them – A Quarrel of Sparrows! Five Great Crested Grebe – A Waterdance of Grebe, a Swim of Cormorants and a Posse of Herons! Quite a good morning for birds on the whole:
We debated whether they might be Tree Sparrows – but no, I don’t think so – just House SparrowsA Swim of Cormorants
The views across to Helston were unusually clear:
These are Oak apples – a soft spongy ball found on the end of Oak tree twigs. Inside the apple is divided into cells and in each cell lives a grub, destined to become gall-wasps or flies very soon!
On the way back along the coast path from Loe Bar we noticed hundreds of tiny holes in the bank:
They went on for quite a way and there were wasps hovering all around. Despite many tries I was completely unable to get a picture of a wasp! Except this one:
Can you see it? On the left hand side – just emerging from it’s hole.
I think these must be Bee-killer wasps! These insects are voracious predators of Honey Bees – they capture and paralyse them and then carry them back to their nests before laying eggs on them. The developing larvae then feed on the bee. Twenty years ago this insect was rare but it is now colonising new habitats throughout England.
We thought we’d take our favourite ramble around Perranuthnoe with a little diversion into Marazion. It’s a lovely walk this one and we nearly always see some interesting birds foraging in the quiet coves along the way. And it might be the last time……….that’s what I kept thinking as we walked along.
We haven’t had a walk since arriving home from Scotland, it’s been a little busy! So we head off for a quick scramble around Mullion while the weather holds up. Continue reading →
Goodness me! I’m so far behind with these blogs! Usually, as you know, I write them up on the same day as the walk, but we had a quick ramble the day before driving up to Scotland (for a wee bit of exercise before spending a week sat in the car) and then I got so busy checking out house viewing timings and home survey reports that I hardly had time to pack my jimjams let alone write a blog! Continue reading →
We’ve been a bit busy recently but after several days of dreary, rainy weather, a little bit of blue sky encouraged us to venture out today. Mr RR suggested walking backwards around The Lizard! On noticing my incredibly dubious expression and hearing my cry of dismay…..after all I’m not very good at staying upright walking forwards, heaven knows what the outcome would be if I walked backwards…..he hastens to clarify. Instead of starting from Lizard Point and walking towards Church Cove as we usually do, we should go the other way and walk from Church Cove back towards The Lizard. Continue reading →
Yesterday we went back to Predannack and across walked to Kynance Cove which has become a favourite circular walk for us. After torrential rain all day on Thursday, it was pretty wet! But despite grey clouds it didn’t rain on us during the walk. Continue reading →
After a sluggish start I suddenly found some get up and go and announced a local ramble to Loe Pool. Mr RR remembered being told about a path to some woods on the far side of the pool where, at dusk, badgers can be seen. Despite it being 9.30 in the morning we decided to hunt out said woods, so that if we felt so inclined we could go back and spot badgers at nightfall one day! Continue reading →
We took a trip to Mousehole today, to see an exhibition at the Little Picture Gallery which is host to the British Association of Naive Artists. Mr RR has a couple of pictures there so we went along and saw them in place and met Judy Joel, who is the Director and Secretary and generally overseas everything. The exhibition runs until the 15th August so you still have time to get yourself there and have wee look. Then it moves off to Maker Heights in Torpoint from 21st August to 4th September (www.britishnaives.co.uk/exhibitions.html). Continue reading →
ricketyrambler 