A day out!

At Culzean Castle and Country Park near Ayr

(pronounced Colayne)

 Walking from the visitor centre

… and looking down past Gas Court towards the beach

 Inside Gas Court

 Very heady scented Butterbur -remiscent of the towpath

 The castle from the beach

 Formal Gardens; the National Trust looking after the environment beautifully

 Approaching the Castle

 Looking over the wall … a long way down!

 Front aspect of Culzean

 … and walking away

 … over the battlement

 Access to another part of the coast down the steep incline

The Powder House, well away from the guns!

Awesome views down to the sea

Tortured trees along the pathway

Superb! 

The Swan ‘Pond’ is actually a 13 acres lake!

The numerous meandering paths are really well kept

Down now at the pond we can see a Heron perched over the far side

A slight detour and climb brings us to the Pagoda erected in 1860 which used to house swans and other birds with a tearoom above.

And another view down to a sandy beach

The duck house has 24 nesting cubicles which have been in use since it was built but this swan prefers to be outdoors!

A Cormorant in the sunshine and a cheeky chaffinch not at all perturbed by the public!

I have no idea what these are but they looked fantastic! [Edited - Skunk Cabbage - thank Sonia Louise]

A great day, a great place and Molly ran her socks off all day!

House sitting in Scotland

Our daughter Sharon and son-in-law Joe (left) are off to the Big Apple for a few days and then on to Las Vegas! Pal Paul is their chauffeur for the journey to New York.

Bye Mum, bye Dad, have a good time.  Come on everyone it’s party time now!

Pal/chauffeur Paul is now their flight captain!

 Upgrade to first class … they could easily become accustomed to this!  I’m sure they’ll have a wonderful time.

 Where’s the Easter bunny laid those eggs?

The clue the girls have been left with was to look in all the top drawers downstairs and note the first letter of the first thing they see, these letters well then inform where the treasure can be found ...

In the living room …  I saw this first, no I think it’s this! Same in the kitchen!

It could be just about anything in the study!










Wot! no vowels?

Time for a breakfast meeting but the puzzle has not been solved!
After 10 minutes I put them out of there misery - it was all a joke!







The real clue …
A goldmine of treasure
From holidays to times gone past
You will find some pleasure …
A Happy Easter stash!

Easy Peasy!  Where are the photos are stored? … in the loft!

Happy Easter Bunnies … and we had one too!

Happy Easter to all blog readers!

Rain and wind … a walk in the park!

We enjoyed the weekend at Cassiobury and of course we found time between the showers to go for a walk round the park ...

Ornamental trees … I mean ornaments in the trees on the towpath

The Beech trees are coming into bud

… and the trees look as magnificent as ever!

Busy cleaning up the children’s water play area, perhaps they’re hoping for some warm weather this Easter!

A beautiful sunrise on Monday at 6:30, it’s another early start for us

A good example of bad mooring! Although to be honest I think his front pin has came adrift and perhaps some kind walker has done the best they could in the circumstances and fastened his middle rope to the seat.  His rear pin was intact but there was no one onboard as we passed.

Some historic boats seen today ...

            Rigal            Elstree            Asterope

                   Coronis          Cantley (not registered)          Indus

… and some unusual boats.  “Dunravin!’ They must be feeling their age!

It’s a lovely area around Lot Mead Lock ...

and busy with moored boats on the way to Coppermill Lock

… where the wharf buildings are being transformed into a very pretty terrace of houses

… and the slalom course made our cruise past just a bit hairy!
We moored up for the night just past The Coy Carp pub.

This morning we really were not looking forward to our cruising but needs must.  The forecast is gusting wind up to 49 mph and the chance of some fairly vicious though brief showers.  Fortunately  we are travelling south and the wind is WNW which means it'll blow roughly against our right shoulder and not broadside!

Leaving our mooring at half seven

 … and the hedgerows are keeping the worst of the wind away

 Just two locks today … Black Jack's

 … where the crocodile still lurks and where just after we saw ...

 these goslings and ducklings, what a lovely sight that was!

Second and last lock at Widewater, our destination is just below here

 Molly’s been quite happy sheltered from the wind on top of the gas locker today.

 The view from the bow at our mooring in Harefield Marina.

Even though the wind is blowing a real hooley the temperature on the roof is nearly 24 degrees C!

Off on our hols tomorrow!