Scotland by Rail - Montrose, Scotland, August 2014

A family and art week in the caravan in Montrose. Me, mum, Roan, Ian. Walking and cycling and a good deal of sketching and painting - including Roan doing his first paintings for eight + years. Peterhead family coming to visit.

There are always loads of gulls and eiders and, in summer, terns, but only ever a few gannets, fishing far out or flying swiftly past. One morning the sea was far in and turbulent and gannets were all over, presumably following a shoal. In an undercount I got three hundred, a mix of browny-plumaged juveniles and white-black adults with their mustard heads. Most were close in and riding the waves or performing semi-horizontal gliding dives to cope with shallows.

gannet dive

lady's bedstraw

The same day there was a bi-plane over the airfield, marking a centenary. Loop-the-looping through grey wet haze.

Cousin and cousin's husband Gemma and Danny visited with the kids.

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Cycle through Ferryden village to Scurdie Ness. Locked bikes below the lighthouse and walked along to blowhole point. Last visit Roan discovered it, a miniature cave has collapsed and sea pours in and out of the lidless pot - when tide and level of choppiness are right a plume of spray shoots up. This time it was definitely shooting. Mum was at the other side, taking photos of us. She retreated fast when a thick wave rushed around her ankles.

Scurdie Ness lighthouse

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We cycled to Langley Park Gardens, 1 mile from Montrose. Extensive three-tiered walled garden with beautiful herbaceous borders; meadowland; woodlands; standing stone. Tea, coffee and cake by the fountain pond, served on fine china.

Langley Park horse head statue

standing stone, wildlife meadow

 

It's definitely a tree Roan.

Langley Park Gardens are open Saturday, Sunday, Monday during the season. You'll receive a very friendly welcome. Full details here and on Facebook here.


We returned via the Lurgies at west end of Montrose Basin. A little egret was on the mud and twenty or more grey herons.

count the herons

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 A walk on the red cliffs between Arbroath and Auchmithie Harbour. Take a torch for Dark Cave and Light Cave, leading right through the width of a thick headland.

Dark Cave, south entry

kittiwake parents and young. The juveniles are those with streaks and stripes of black.

bird tracks

fossils? sea-worms?

fossils? sea-worms?

miniature world

cave face

Roan dematerialises

Roan rematerialises (eating a leaf)

A wildflower border around a long stretch of clifftop field, absolutely alive with bumble bees, hoverflies, many tens of butterflies - small tortoiseshell, red amiral, peacock, green-veined white, a grayling.

wildflower field margin - why doesn't everyone do this? Hundreds of insects, many tens of butterflies.

sunflowers, poppies, thistles, vetches, Roan's head

wild carrot - note the single purple bloom at the centre of so many white

We stopped and painted - Roan too. Perhaps soon we'll have to think about a Mother & Son & Son exhibition.

mother & son (photographed by other son)

 Brother Roan:

courtesy of Roan du Feu - watercolour

courtesy of Roan du Feu - Boddin Point drawing

 Mother Susan:

courtesy of Susan Smith - Boddin Point mixed media

courtesy of Susan Smith - mixed media

courtesy of Susan Smith - Langley Park horse head

See mum's work at www.susanmcsmith.com

Read Roan's words at www.queenofnothingkingoftheworld.blogspot.com.au

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A cycle to the graveyard above double-sea-arched Elephant Rock. Explored the stones in the bay there and painted a view towards the limekilns.

Boddin Point limekilns

As Calvin and Hobbes say, there's treasure everywhere.

the trunk

Elephant Rock - a rock that looks like an elephant

All the seabirds were around, plus a kestrel, house martins, linnets.

kestrel

yellowhammer

Before breakfast I'd stood on the dunes and watched a group of 12 or more dolphins swimming south, up down up down up down, jumping full clear of the water.

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terns on the shore, mostly common

adult feeding young

 

the Bell Rock lighthouse, taken through binoculars

Waiting for my return train at the end of the week I watched an osprey fly high above the Basin. It was constantly mobbed by agitated terns and swallows and martins at the same time as I was constantly divebombed by a territorial pair of lesser black-backed gulls. I stood by a lamppost so they couldn't have any effect other than to give me really good views. Everyone else kept at the other end of the platform.

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caravan self-portrait, to be continued

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 How to get there


Montrose is easily reached by rail. It's on the Glasgow & Edinburgh - Aberdeen rail lines and trains are frequent.

Ireland, Courtown, July 2014

A week in Ireland (Republic of) with dad, Roan, dad's partner Anne. Staying by the sea in Courtown, County Wexford in Anne's family bungalow. Anne and her siblings grew up in nearby Gorey where their parents ran French's pub. Now Anne's brother Jim is proprietor.

Our days were relaxed - reading, sketching, chatting, Scrabble. Active - walking walking walking. Social - meeting Anne's relatives. Unexpected - visit to hospital (dad, by ambulance, false alarm, turned out to be a digestive pain). Expected - a Guiness in French's, traditional Irish drink, traditional Irish character, traditional Irish characters.

One of the best was day one, the journey - Linlithgow to Courtown and my 30th birthday. Modes of transport used - foot, train, train, train, bus, ferry, car. Duration - fourteen hours. Level of enjoyment - very high. Long journeys by rail have always been a highlight of our family holidays, reading weekend papers, playing cards, spotting landmarks, spotting wildlife. When we were young dad used to read us novels aloud, quietly, but I'm surprised that crowds didn't gather. Especially when it was The Lord of the Rings. This trip there wasn't much reading aloud but we did have the Saturday Guardian and Herald and I made a start on my birthday book (Life, Words, Pictures, biography of Tove Jansson, Moomin author and much more).

We window-watched: prison at Carstairs, Lake District hills and farmsteads, steam engines lined up outside a station at can't-remember-where; passing into Wales, the station with the longest name - Llanfair­pwllgwyn­gyllgo­gery­chwyrn­drobwll­llanty­silio­gogo­goch. Seriously. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch ); Conwy Castle imposing above the rails. We holidayed here twice long ago.


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On the Crewe to Holyhead train we made friends with Ged, travelling Europe from New York. Chatted enjoyably - healthcare, environment, guns. Comparing countries. We stayed together on the ferry too, Holyhead to Dublin. This was the Ulysses, the biggest in the Irish Sea and fantastic if you want to be outside. I want to be outside.

Three and a half hours showed common, lesser black-backed, greater black-backed, black headed and herring gulls; rafts of razorbills and guillemots on the water, one puffin among them; black guillemots whirring close to both Holyhead and Dublin; scores of manx shearwaters skimming the waves; a few cormorants, a gannet, common terns in colony around Dublin harbour entrance.



Sea watching is extremely addictive, also quite tiring on the eyes. I looked and sketched and looked and looked. The sky was clear, the sun hot, the sea calm. Two porpoises swam, rise and fall, rise and fall, smaller-than-dolphin bodies and much shorter-than-dolphin-fin fins. I saw them twice. Much further off the long dark head, back, nose, fin, tail of two whales. Then rose again. I don't yet know how to identify whale species.


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Ireland, Courtown:
Much further south than the lands I'm used to. Much hotter, plants noticeably bigger, butterflies and moths seemed greater in number.


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Courtown birthday evening:


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The walks:
 
A looping walk from Ballymoney beach - sandy shore, fields, up nicely forested Tara Hill, return via country roads. Cornered by a large group of inquisitive cows. Whilst waiting for them to realise we weren't very interesting a flutter of pigeons flashed light dark light across our field. Suddenly a peregrine on long sharp wings, ruler straight tail. Rose and rose, plateaued, hung, started to fall: tucked wings in, plummeted! One single pigeon... Wham! Connected mid-air. My first not-on-a-screen viewing of a peregrine stoop.


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Glendalough monastic site, fairytale tower in rich wooded valley by small circle lake. We walked the length of the valley along the shore of much larger Upper Lake then through ruined miners' village strewn with boulder fall. Looked and listened intensively for ring ouzels, no sign; up slope, sika deer and goats on the skyline. The deer, long necks silhouetted, looked like giraffes; followed impressively sturdy studnailed boardwalk the length of the hillside, views over the lakes; return down 600+ boardwalk steps.


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Taxi to Cahore then long walk back to Courtown along the coast. Uninhabited stretches, lots of birdlife. Inhabited stretches, lots of humanlife. Secret bays, rocky headlands, lots of scrambling and wading. Magpie moth, yellow and black. Whimbrel, first one I've seen for certain. Very obviously different from a curlew, whimbrel has significantly shorter beak (though still long) and bold dark eyestripe. Sanderling, ringed plover, redshank, godwit. Gulls, gannet, butterflies, more moths.


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Coming home:

My expectation was high after such a perfect outward crossing. This time were on a swift boat, a modern catamaran. I was extremely disappointed - only two outdoor areas, both at the rear, both small, both loud engine noise, both being used for smoking! Tall bars disturbing the view, engine fumes hazing binocular vision, access forbidden during departure and arrival. There were birds of course but I was mostly too frustrated to persevere with looking. One thing I saw well was a helicopter, hovering low by another boat.


The trains: cards, reading, chat. Arrived at dad's in Linlithgow 11pm. Next morning caught train to Montrose for a second week of family - in the caravan with mum, Roan & Ian.

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A cake Roan made, a nap Roan had:


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