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Mull of Galloway - Port Logan - Glenwhan Gardens

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  It was my birthday last week (goodness knows how I've made it this far), and Ishbel treated me to a couple of nights away, staying in a shepherd's hut in the glorious  Glenwhan Gardens . Being so early in the season, and with only a shepherd's hut and a lodge available to rent, we had the whole place to ourselves. Early spring is a time for yellow flowers. This is no accident. Yellow (and white) flowers reflect more of the precious sunlight onto the leaves, giving them the edge over darker flowers. They are also highly visible at a distance which helps to attract pollinators, particularly bees. The gardens lie just about at the gateway of a peninsula called The Rhins of Galloway, at the bottom of which is a lighthouse. This is the southernmost point in Scotland. On the way in, we observed a few roe deer, who paused in their grazing to observe us. Up on the headland itself we were accompanied by a host of birds and... ... what appeared to be a wild haggis. (it turned out t...
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Grasmere - Town End - Dove Cottage

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Today, I'm going to take you to the little hamlet of Town End, a grandiose name, for the town in question is the village of Grasmere in the heart of The Lake District. We're going to visit an early 18th century alehouse, which was converted into a cottage later in that century. In 1799, a brother and sister from Cockermouth moved into the renamed Dove Cottage. They were both amateur naturalists, although better known as a poet and diarist respectively. Their names were William and Dorothy Wordsworth. An extract from one of Dorothy's diaries, and one of William's poems, will give a flavour of their life there as the 19th century was ushered in: " William had slept badly – he got up at 9 o clock, but before he rose he had finished with the Beggar Boys – & while we were at Breakfast that is (for I had Breakfasted) he, with his Basin of Broth before him untouched & a little plate of Bread and butter he wrote the Poem to a Butterfly! – He ate not a morsel, nor p...
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Location: Grasmere, Ambleside LA22, UK
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Seaham

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  I thought I'd take you over to the east coast this week, to the delightful little seaside town of Seaham in County Durham. Lord Byron lived, and was married here in the 19th century, and his daughter, the mathematician Ada Lovelace, was born here. Seaham was a less attractive place in those days, as Byron wrote in a letter to a friend: " Upon this dreary coast we have nothing but county meetings and shipwrecks; and I have this day dined upon fish, which probably dined upon the crews of several colliers lost in the late gales. But I saw the sea once more in all the glories of surf and foam." Let's head down to the beach. I'm looking for these things, called variously; hag stones, worm stones, or holey stones. The holes are made by marine organisms and they make ideal, natural fishing weights. The beach is also famous for sea glass. There was a large bottleworks in the town at the end of the 19th century and waste glass was dumped into the sea. Over the years, the...
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Location: Seaham, UK
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Ravenglass

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  In between the wind and the rain (Cumbria's default setting) we actually had a fine day on Saturday. Cameras in hand, we tootled down the coast to the village of Ravenglass where three rivers meet in a rather splendid estuary. Last month the snowdrops appeared, and this month the crocus were in full bloom. There were even a few daffodils open. The winter may have been wet and windy, but it's also been very mild. I thought that we may see large flocks of overwintering birds on the flats, but there were mainly singletons and pairs. A lone Redshank was probing the sands, and a Little Egret took flight at our approach. Meanwhile, in a nearby tree, a Greenfinch was calling with his characteristic 'dzeeee' at the end of each phrase. There's a fairly good path (not wheelchair accessible, for those of you who need to know) with lovely views across the estuary. There was a small flock of Herring Gull, a pair of Shelduck, and the odd Curlew, warbling away. Lifting a small s...
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Location: Ravenglass CA18, UK
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