Skip to main content

Walking group - first walk of the year

It was the first outing of the year for the walking group today!  And, hip hip hooray, we walked under pale blue skies and in gentle sunshine.  What joy!  

I arrived in the nick of time.  We always set off at 10 am, but by the time I had banished all traces of Jack Frost from the car windows, I barely had time for the journey.
We gathered in the car park of the Prestongrange Museum, just beyond Prestonpans.  This part of the world has an interesting and industrial past.  I am not going into it all now, apart from saying that coal and salt have featured strongly, but you can get more information here http://www.prestongrange.org/site/pages/about-us.php  The museum is closed at the moment, but we made use of their car park and then set off on a good circular tramp.

We walked along the north side of the racecourse at Musselburgh (where they have been racing horses since 1816).  Then along the seawall, the River Esk running out here, into the Firth of Forth.  We stopped to look across the old mussel beds (hence Musselburgh) to the distinctive outline of Arthur's Seat and Edinburgh.
Our route took us back alongside the sea, to the left, and Levenhall Links to our right.  Flying over the links was a desert of lapwings, and wafting around, back and forth across the top of the grasses were two or three short eared owls!  What a fantastic sight!!!
In the far distance, looking wintery and beautiful, are the Pentland Hills.  It was a very good first walking group walk of 2016.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In a vase on Monday - colour

The intense colours in my vase this week come from nasturtiums, sweetpeas and a single glorious zinnia! Their beauty and love of life speak for themselves and need no further words from me! Enjoy!

Found items IAVOM

I am on holiday on the Inner Hebridean island of Colonsay. It is my happy place. Thoughts of Colonsay rattle around in my head each and every day I am not here! I haven't got a vase to share this week but some lovely things I have found over the past few days, which are just as beautiful as a vase of flowers! I hope you agree! Here are some leaves of giant rhododendrons, growing in the outer gardens of Colonsay House. Some skeleton leaves of magnolia. The dried stem of a kelp seaweed. A couple of conkers (can never resist those!), and a branch heavily populated by a number of lichens. The air on Colonsay is so clean that lichens flourish here!

Colonsay postcards - on arrival

The first thing I do, once we have unpacked our car, which has been groaning with all the stuff we need for a week's stay in the holiday cottage, is head for the outer gardens of Colonsay House. It is a place of wonder for me! I particularly love the leaves of the giant rhododendrons. There are many different varieties, all planted in the early 1930s. The outer gardens are generally overgrown, having had little tending over the decades. That makes them even more magical! The old woodmill falls apart a little more every year, but that's fine by me because I love corrugated iron and especially if it's rusted! And of course the bees. Colonsay's beekeeper, Andrew Abrahams, has one of his apiaries on the edge of the pine wood. So lovely - the hum of busy bees and the heady smell of the pines. We are here - finally! Delayed by four months by the wretched virus, but now I am on holiday! Hooray!