Holiday in Wales, day 1, Monday 4th May

Holiday in Wales, day 1

 

 I’m back, actually I arrived back on Friday but it’s taken me this long to rest, sleep, sort the laundry and download all of my many photos. I’ve not had the chance to check through all of them but I think I am going to lose quite a few, partly because we had so much rain and the lens kept getting wet and partly because I ended up taking many photos through the coach and/or train window ( again due to relentless rain). Anyway, I have so very many, there are bound to be at least a few that are half decent. I’m going to have to share my Welsh holiday in parts, far to much to cram into a single blog so here’s what I’ve decided. I’m going to do one day at a time and this is the first. This is Monday May 4^th the day of travel.

The coach left at 8.30, I booked the taxi from home to the coach departure point the day before and as luck would have it, my friends taxi arrived virtually simultaneously with mine. The coach driver was waiting at the roadside to greet us; she took our cases and welcomed us onboard. It was a bit chilly but the wind had stopped and so far… no rain, which is always a bonus. For the first couple of hours we were picking up other passengers along the rout. Once every one was onboard we headed for Stirling which was our first chance to get out and stretch out legs. Coaches usually stop at services along the motorway but out first stop was at a huge Dobies (garden centre + café + toilet facilities) just outside sterling before we reached the motorway. 

Being the savvy coach aware passengers that we are, we had packed food and flasks so we didn’t partake of the high priced café coffee, we had our own. 

Plus not having to queue behind 38 other thirsty coach goers gave us a little time to crack open the camera case and take a couple of long distance shots of the Wallace Monument and Sterling Castle.

If you are interested find more info on the castle here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_Castle

Sterling Castle is on our must do list for this year so hopefully, at some point this summer I will be sharing close up and personal shots of the Castle and all its nooks and crannies. But for now this couple of distance shots will have to do. I watched a documentary on Sterling castle a couple of days before we left and I learnt why the Wallace Monument  is on that little hill, properly called Abby Craig, that sits adjacent to the Castle.

Apparently at some time in the mists of distant past, when the Castle was occupied by the forces of that dastardly evil Edward 1 of England; William Wallace and friends amassed their gangs (not actually troops as such more a collection of like minded, kilt wearing, spear waving but highly disciplined individuals) on top of Abby Craig. From there they sat and watched every move the English made. The English were led (against advice) over Sterling bridge which crossed the Forth and lay between the safety of the Castle and the wrath of Wallace. Sterling bridge was small and narrow and left little space for troops to manoeuvre. When the English infantry and several cavalry had crossed the bridge, Wallace & Co attacked, cut the troops off from the safety of the castle and the remainder of the English forces and famously won the day. Hence, the William Wallace Monument sits on top of Abby Craig opposite Sterling Castle. For any one interested full story of the battle of Sterling it’s here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stirling_Bridge

The national Wallace monument is also on our to do list for the year but again, if you want more info it’s here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Monument

Anyway, that’s enough of Sterling and Wallace for now, onward toward Wales. Our driver was a lovely lady called Dagma, (hope that’s spelt correctly) originally from Germany but a driver in Scotland for almost 20 years. She spoke with a delightful accent that combined her native German pronunciation with colloquial Scottish phrases and words. She informed us that if no one could adequately explain why sheep (plural) are not sheeps when dogs are dogs, cows are cows, rams are rams and cats are cats, she would henceforth refer to them as sheeps.  As we passed through the lowlands of Scotland, where there are possibly more sheeps than peoples, she revelled in pointing out the heaps of sheeps along the way. We then left Scotland and entered what she described as ‘Englandshire’, which most passengers found quite amusing.

Our next stop was IN Englandshire, we stopped at the award winning Tebay Services, if you HAVE to stop on the motorway, then this is the place to do it.

http://motorwayservicesonline.co.uk/Tebay

Again, we picnicked outside, enjoyed the views and cracked open the camera cases. On the many occasions when I’ve found myself on a coach, hurtling along the motorway, heading south either toward the airport or to visit family, the highlight of the trip has to be the break I get at Tebay services. 

I love it there, I’m sure there is no other stop off point, on any motorway, any where in the UK, quite like it. It has wonderful views, sheeps, birds, a duck pond and a proliferation of wildlife and flora.

Then it was onward, non stop, toward Wales. We arrived in the seaside town of Rhyl early evening. I don’t know what I was expecting but the Hotel was a bit like something out of a 1950’s B movie. The first thing to hit you was that awful axminster carpet. I’m sure you know what I mean, that highly patterned, multi coloured, probably fairly good quality, typical hotel carpet that coveres every inch of floor and hides from the eye the multitude of dips, lumps and slopes that lurk underfoot. It was an extremely odd hotel. We were told it was bought as a semi derelict shell in 2002 and had since been returned to its former glory by the family who ow and run it. It had the look and feel of a hotel in gradual decline for at least 50 years, the décor, the carpets, the peeling paintwork, the peculiar shaped little rooms, and the old fashioned cast iron plumbing that ran along skirting boards and up through ceilings, all of it looked as if it belonged in another era. What it didn’t look like was a hotel that had enjoyed a total refurb in the 21^st century.  Perplexed and puzzled we were! why would anyone build something up from a semi derelict only to make it look as if it had escaped intact but worn from the history books?   
We had time to book in, more or less unpack, inspect the room and then go back downstairs to the dining room for evening meal.  The food was OK, I mean there was nothing fundamentally wrong with it and the little waitress was great but again, it was like something from a past era. My vegetarian choice of main meals for the week consisted of, Monday; roast veg quiche, Tuesday; baked pasta with cheese and tomatoes, Wednesday; cauliflower cheese, Thursday; cheese omelette. Well I guess it’s lucky I like cheese and I’m not vegan. In fact I don’t think they would ever have coped with a vegan diet, and I don’t think I’ll look at another block of cheese for at least the next month. Meal finished and, at last, we headed out to explore our holiday destination.

WOW….. now I love beaches, and I’ve seen quite a few, but Rhyl beach must be the longest, yellowest,  sandiest beach I’ve EVER seen. It quite literally went on forever. Our first glimpse of the beach was through one of the arches of the newly constructed seaside promenade. It looked just beautiful. The light was beginning to fade and it was getting colder, but the sight of that beach through the arch was enticing. 

Once down onto the beach I looked seaward, the tide was out; I can’t remember ever seeing a tide that recedes so far, the sea was hardly visible from the beach. 

I looked right and the beach stretched on forever, I looked left and again, I saw no end to the beach, but to the left there were mountains in the background. 

By my feet I saw the remains of a sandcastle, abandoned by its builders probably when the sun sunk low and hunger set in.   

We walked a little way along the beach, it was so peaceful and virtually deserted, far out at sea we saw a wind farm. There must have been hundreds of wind turbines out there on the horizon glowing pink in the evening sun. 

What a sight. We walked until it was almost dark taking pictures in the ever changing light until we realised, it was becoming too dark to take any more photos and we were suddenly very, very tired.

So… that was the first day of our Welsh holiday.

Day 2 tomorrow, 

or as soon as I can sort through the photos and write it all up.  

The Montrose wildlife Centre.

above; view as we left the Montrose wildlife centre

Saturday 25 April 2015

I’m back home after house/ garden/ dog/ teenager sitting for the week. My daughter is studying environmental science at University and she needed to go away for the week on a field trip. Not sure exactly what she was doing, but the photos are wonderful, she spent the week at Aviemore counting rocks or measuring the ‘roundness’ of boulders or some such thing. 

above; Montrose Wildlife Centre main building.

Her partner was away and so….. Granny ( that’s me) to the rescue. It’s a while since I lived with a 14 year old. The days went by something like this;

Me, ‘Good morning dear, everything OK?’

Her, ‘Yeah, fine’.

She then fed the dogs and ate her breakfast in silence.

Me, ‘Bye then, have a nice day hun’

Her, ‘yeah ok’

Me, ‘Hi Hun, how was school today?’

Her, ‘OK’

Me, ‘what did you do today hun?’

Her, ‘nothing’

Her, ‘what’s for tea today Granny?’

Me…. Told her what I planned and asked if that’s ok

Her, ‘Yeah, fine’.

Her, ‘going to my room now’

Me, ‘OK hun, see you later’

5.50 she reappears

Her, ‘Tea ready yet?’

Me ‘almost ready just getting it out of the oven’.

Her, feeds the dogs in silence and hovers until her tea is served.

Me, ‘here’s your tea, hope you enjoy it’

Her, ‘yeah, going to my room now’

Me, ‘OK then see you later’

After that she made another appearance and either walked the dog or took it into the garden to play for a while ( second dog was post surgery and not to be walked or excited). Then back to her room, then a final appearance about 9.30pm to look for something to eat before bed, and then nothing until the following morning when we start all over again. At the end of the week, I could say in all honesty, yes, she was absolutely fine, no bother at all, hardly knew she was there. Such is life with a typical 14 year old I guess.

above; some of what you are 'supposed' to see at the wildlife Centre

It’s been a bit like a mini holiday, I filled my day with pottering in the garden, talking to the dogs, attempting to play on the laptop, (although that didn’t work out very well, I gave up in the end and decided to wait until I could be back here in front of my own computer) and catching up on some reading. I’ve been reading Russell Brands book ‘Revolution’ and to my utter surprise, I’m quite enjoying it.

 Goldfinch

Once you get past his weird, disjointed way with words, there are little gems of pure truth and astounding insights into well, everything really, all buried deep within his verbal diarrhoea. I found it on my daughters bookshelf and started reading, I’m glad I did now.

Chaffinch

Anyway, I’m back home now and its catch up time on the computer, my first task will be post here about the Montrose Wildlife Centre; which is something I wanted to do while I was away but ended up giving up with daughters laptop, then on to catch up with every one else here, then over the flickr to edit and save more of my huge backlog of photos, and that’s more or less, my plan for today

 outside the wildlife centre

Montrose wildlife Centre

This was supposed to be another photo opportunity for my photographer friend and myself. Off we went on a lovely sunny morning a couple of days before I was needed for house sitting. We were hoping to capture lots of interesting wildlife on our cameras. It didn’t quite work out as we planned, for a start, it may have been bright and sunny but it was also windy and freezing cold which was a bit of a disappointment because we had packed a tasty picnic lunch. Hardy souls that we are, we sat outside, enjoying the sunshine, trying to ignore the biting cold and ate our lunch, I was so glad I decided to take my flask with hot coffee and not a bottle of water. The second disappointment of the day was the noise; there were people doing routine maintenance at the Wildlife Centre. They were banging, sawing, hammering, shouting to one another and stomping around. Obviously any wild life that may have been about that day was scared off.   Undeterred we tried to make the most of it; we found ourselves a good viewing position from inside the centre and waited; hopefully, for something of interest to appear. We resigned ourselves to having to photograph through glass, which isn’t ideal but we didn’t want it to be a totally wasted day. On to the third disappointment of the day, well it was more of an irritant than a disappointment really. I think I must have been particularly grumpy that morning, because there was a young member of staff who (through no fault of his own) began to seriously grate on my consciousness, he irritated the life out of us. He was very young and very enthusiastic. He wanted to constantly engage us in conversation, he wanted to point out all and every single detail of the centre, the tiniest footnote could not be overlooked, he was driven to educate us on the history of the place and explain to us, at length, about every species of wild life EVER seen there. In general, he just wanted to talk, and talk, and talk. My friend was born and brought up in Montrose, and as she said to me afterwards, she has probably forgotten more about the area, its wild life, its history, and the history of the centre than he will ever learn. I think the final straw for us was when he focused the telescope way out on a sandbank to show us some seals sunbathing there. He was so proud that the seals were there and desperately wanted us to share his enthusiasm. The bit he didn’t understand was that yes, seals are great, but we have seen them many times before, we live around here, and unless we are in a position to photograph them (which we were defiantly not) they were not of that much interest. We were both doing a good impression of grumpy old women that day.

In the end we left the centre (and Mr Enthusiastic) and made our way down to the hide, the solitude down there was lovely. Still not a lot of wildlife to be seen but the views were spectacular, the little windows opened up to allow us to take photos without looking through glass which was great. There was no heating in that tiny hide but because it was well crafted from solid wood it was out of the wind, draught free and warmed by the sunshine. It was like another world. It was also a Mr Enthusiastic free zone.

It’s from here that we took most of our photos. I looked up just in time to see a heron landing on the shore, it was quite a distance away and I didn’t have time to focus properly but it was nice to see.   

We saw a variety of song birds that stayed long enough to get some photos of. We saw Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Great Tit and Pied wag tail. 

We also saw one solitary yatch sailing by, it looked as if it was a beautiful sunny day, blue sky and blue sea, but I bet it was cold way out to sea in that little single sail yatch.

I also watched a mosquito fly into a spider web and become hopelessly snared. The web was so fine I didn’t even notice it until I saw the mosquito land. My first thought was, shut the window because I didn’t want Mosquitoes in the hide with me. 

Then I realised that poor little mossie wasn’t going to bother anyone any more. He wriggled and turned trying to get free, but it was hopeless, from the nano-second the tip of his little leg touched the web his fate was sealed. Funny how you can think lots of different things about the same subject all at the same time. I felt immensely relieved that he couldn’t get into the hide and feed off me; I tend to come up in gold ball sized lumps if bitten or stung by flying pests, I also felt a bit sorry for him, it’s a most unpleasant demise, then I felt a bit happy that an unknown, unseen, spider would get a meal that night and then, I stopped the random thoughts and started to closely observe him. He has delicate lace wings with long legs, his legs have little barbs on them and at the bottom of his body is what looks like a large sharp stinger. At that point I realised he probably wasn’t a mosquito at all but another, unidentified flying beastie that could render harm to me if freed. Anyway, what ever he was, he ended up as a meal for the unseen spider and a nice subject to practice my macro photography on.

As we left the hide we thought maybe the temperature had risen a little, the sky was so blue and the sound of birdsong was every where, it really looked lie a mid summer day, it was just the cold that reminded us we were still in early April. 

The flowers were another reminder, nothing quite so cheery as a good display of spring flowers.

The last thing I remember seeing that day was the old gnarled tree who laughed at us on the way back from the hide. He threw his arms in the air and gave a rumbling belly laugh as  I passed him. I  looked back to make sure I had seen him properly and there he was, still laughing. He looked as if he was standing,  mouth open, throwing his arms toward the sky and laughing at us as we alternated between admiring the scenery and shivering in the cold air.

Day Trip To Oban on Wednesday 8th April 2015

Above, view from McCaig's tower. 

Day trip to Oban on Wednesday, 8^th April, 2015

I’m having a bit of a computer day today. The plan is to download all my recent photos from the memory card to the computer, maybe do a bit of editing on some of them, write and post a blog about my recent trip to Oban and then….. Hopefully, post a garden blog. Plus the obligatory peep into FB to see what’s happening over there.

The Oban trip was the first long day out of the year. It was a fairly early start; we left the bus station at 8am and arrived in Oban 12.10.

http://www.rome2rio.com/s/Arbroath/Oban

above, from the window of the bus. 

It was a long but worthwhile drive through some of Scotlands’ most spectacular scenery. We travelled from the east coast to the west coast passing rivers, lochs, mountain ranges and a whole heap of towns and villages along the way. We made a few local stops to pick up more passengers and then headed west along the coast to Dundee where the river Tay empties its loads into the North Sea. The river Tay is the longest river in Scotland and deposits a greater volume of water into the sea than any other river in the whole of the UK. From Dundee we continued west to Perth where we crossed the Tay on the Perth Bridge (also known locally as Smeaton's Bridge). We drove through Perth and headed out toward Crief. Some people got off the bus here and were picked up later on the way back. Crief is a lovely little town that I’ve only visited once a long time ago, maybe one day I too will get this bus as far as Crief and spend the day there.  After Crief the landscape becomes more mountainous and wild looking. We pass St Fillians, traveling along the northern edge of loch Earn and then passing right through the top end of the Trossachs National park.

above, from the window of the bus.

As we drove through Cranlarich Ben More was to the south of us. Then we began driving along the Northern edge of Lock Awe looking north toward  Ben Cruachain and  past falls of Cruachan.  We had breathtaking views of the Grampiam Mountains to the north and the Trossachs to the south. The journey was so frustrating at times, here were all the views and scenary I could ever want and I was trapped on a bus unable to get out and take photographs. I took quite a lot of photos from the bus but a combination of movement from the bus and strong overhead sunlight reflecting every where rendered most of them useless.  These few photos are all I have of that wonderful journey. We arrived in Oban on time and parked at the little harbour. From there we could look out over the sea and see the Isle of Mull to the west of us.  The return bus left Oban at 3.30 which only gave us 3 hrs and 20 minutes but we figured that was enough time to do what we had to do. We did the same bus trip last year and explored the town and harbour, this time we wanted to achieve two things. First we wanted to make enquiries about times, cost, frequency etc of the boat trips out to the seal colony in preparation for our next visit, and secondly, our main task of the day, was to climb to the top of McCaigs Tower and take in the views.

above, from the window of the bus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCaig%27s_Tower

There are 144 steps from the town up to the top of the hill, and I felt the effect of every single one. These steep steps are called Jacobs ladder, even the name has a sense of foreboding about it.

From inside the tower.

McCaig's Tower is a prominent ‘tower’ at the top of what is called ‘Battery Hill’ in Oban. It overlooks the town of Oban, the harbour, and the Isle of Mull which lies just offshore. It offers the best views available of the many ferries and ships coming and going from the busy little harbour. 

From inside the tower.

It is built of Bonawe granite which came from the quarries across Airds Bay, on Loch Etive. McCaigs tower has a circumference of about 200 metres with two-tiers of 94 lancet arches (44 on the bottom and 50 on top) there is also a single small open arch right at the bottom in an area where the land dips away and the tower had to be extended downwards. 

 The entrance to the tower.

The structure was commissioned, at a cost of £5,000 (which would be anything up to 10, 000 in todays economy)  by an ultra wealthy, philanthropic banker, John Stuart McCaig. Oh that bankers were still of the generous philanthropic variety.

Spring flowers just outside the tower.

John Stuart McCaig was his own architect. The tower was erected between 1897 and his death, aged 78 in 1902. McCaig's intention was to provide a lasting monument to his family, AND ( and I think more importantly)  to provide work for the local stonemasons during the winter months. Like I said,  oh for a banker of that variety these days. 

View from the tower.

McCaig was an admirer of Roman and Greek architecture and had planned for an elaborate structure based on the Colosseum in Rome. He planned to build a museum and art gallery in a central tower inside the present external structure.  

 View from the tower.

If he had lived long enough to see his plans through to completion, there would be what we have now, the circular external structure, plus an internal tower housing a gallery, a museum and many statues of himself and his family. Sadly his death brought an end to construction with only the outer walls complete. 

view from the tower.

The climb to the top was adventurous for me to say the least, but so very glad I persevered and made it to the top. We had a good look around, took loads of photos, marvelled at the views and fully appreciated the unique opportunity this position offered to see ships manovering in and out of the small harbour area. Fortunately the weather was great that day and we enjoyed our picnic sitting on top of that hill.

Watching the boats in the harbour from the top of the hill.

 

Above, this is the little boat that will take us to the seal colony next time. 

And then it was time to think about our descent. We took the road back down. It was a narrow winding road with steep incline and sharp curves and bends. Half way down we began to notice these brightly coloured knitted covers made by hand and obviously sewn into place while insitu.

They were sewn over lamp posts, flag poles and anything else that made itself available.

We met an elderly gent climbing the hill with apparent ease who viewed them with amusement and told us they just started ‘appearing’ about a year ago and no one knew where they came from. We took photos and continued on our way downhill.

http://www.alicestrange.com/

Then came across an artists workshop/ studio. She had a notice outside which invited you to go in and take a look which we did. Now I have to say much as I admired her work, and I did,  she lived up to he name. She was indeed  a little ‘strange’. 

She had a tiny but interesting workshop/ studio. I loved her unusual quirky work and the fantastic mosaics all over her hillside garden, (she said they were influenced by the famous mosaics in the Park Guell by Guadi at the Barcelona park) but, she was odd!!. 

above, banner on the side of her studio wall.

We felt as if we were intruding and she didn’t really want visitors and so we left her to her work, quickly.

above, her mosaics, all very reminiscent of Gaudi

We reached the bottom of the hill with just enough time for a quick refreshment stop and then headed back to the bus. And on the way back, we checked through our photographs, admired the view and planned our next trip to Oban and the boat trip to the seal colony.