Sunday Morning Bike Ride...

I'm a little late posting this, let's see what I remember...

Hmmm, the weather didn't look too promising at first - what we would call a smirr (very, very fine rain).
Daffodils are out though, brightening up a little view across grassy fields.

Off up the hill past one of the many pylons (and a section of pretty railings).

About halfway up, a nice row of little beech trees lines the road on the left.

Looking back down the hill, a lovely view (despite the pylons).

This is how I would paint sheep - round white woolly body with black legs, face and ears.

Cows, being nosey as usual.

The rain has gone and the views up here are fantastic and clear - my photos fail to capture the clarity and beauty of the distant hills. Skylarks are singing.

More hills in the distance behind more sheep.

The avenue.

Probably my best photo of The View (clicking on any photo enlarges it for a better look)

The little black dots on the hillside are cows. In one of the fields behind me some men are flying model aeroplanes.

Aside from the aeroplane enthusiasts I do not meet another car or see another person for about 8 miles or so along these little roads. People have left signs of being here though...

Much of the roadside is blighted by fly tipping. Why these people drive miles out into the countryside instead of taking their rubbish to the local council tip is beyond me.

Beyond the bath and at the brow of the next hill I come across two hares bounding along the road and across the field, I'm too slow with my camera to capture them though.

Then I head towards home, I enjoy the long downhill and don't even think about stopping for photos.

Back on the flat and I take one last picture. Normally I avoid taking photos of houses, there are plenty about - we stay in a well populated area (for Scotland anyway). I like this shot though.

Now onto a short random photo diary collection...

Our toddler group held a fundraising event. I baked the weighty cake - 2 lb 9 oz, my scales don't do metric.

Also tiffin, chocolate caramel shortbread and tablet for the homebaking stall.

This morning, I had a quick look at the garden in the rain. We've lots of lupins.

And I just planted this white mossy saxifrage at the weekend.

I like how jackdaws perch on the roofs of the neighbouring houses, there's always one right at the very point of this one. Our flowering currant in the foreground is almost a flowering flowering currant.

Just had a busy couple of weeks. Things should settle down a little now, although school holidays start this weekend, where is the time going - it's just zooming by!

To The Cloch And Back.

On Sunday afternoon we felt like a visit to the beach. We are within 20 miles of access to the beautiful west coast.

Our destination was a little beach with sand, pebbles and shells,

rock pools,

fantastic views,

and even swans.

From the beach we took a walk along the coast road,

admiring the views of the Cowal peninsula through the trees...

...to the light house.

I then had to carry N all the way back, he fell asleep in my arms.

This is the view from the play park we stopped off at on the way home. Not bad at all.

Nearly home and A, N & I waited in the carpark with long lashed cars while hubby visited the chippie to get tea. I always have a fish supper & hubby a haggis supper. The children share ours, unfortunately for me they seem to prefer fish over haggis.

So not quite bikini weather yet, but we all enjoyed our trip to the seaside.

Friday Morning Bike Ride

On Friday morning I got to get out on a bike ride (hubby being stuck at home with a broken collar bone does have its baby-sitting advantages!)

After arranging to meet up with a friend for the central part of the ride I set off along the cycle path.

A suitably locomotive sculpture; the cycle path is a disued railway line. Beautiful blue skies.

Over the river.

Tractor and trailer heading home to the farm.

Snow on the hills.

Early lambs getting big.

Two bikes for this week's bike shot. I am not alone...

Trees, hills and sheep. The landscape still looks a little wintry, but the brightness of the light indicates Spring (so I think anyway!)

Back on my own I leave the cycle path for the roads.

Umm, still more trees, hills and sheep!

A little bit of ruined castle.

I came home along a road I'd driven several times but never cycled. It looked promising from the car, but once on the bike and able to take in the views properly I wasn't too impressed, hence the lack of photos for the journey home.

Just as well I did get out on my bike though as there's been a bit of baking happening here.

Mmmm cakes. A few calories worked off on the bike, and topped up again once home.

The chocolately one was an experimental tiffin recipe and it was yummy - better than my original tiffin recipe. I'll attempt it again and will post the updated recipe, all being well.

Today we went to the seaside, photos to follow...

Crochet, Flowers and Sparrows.

Today we have...

1. An almost finished crocheted something or other, to be revealed very soon - I've almost run out of yarn which is the determining factor as to how big it will be.

2. A poor little sick girl. She started to perk up by teatime though so I think it'll be back to school for her tomorrow.

3. The real reason for this post. I finished my Japanese Flower Scarf a week or so ago by adding on another three flowers. And that'll do it because I ran out of yarn in certain colours and I really wanted to work on something else instead!

I only got round to photographing it today.

I notice that Lucy of Attic 24 (responsible for popularising this pattern) has just done her Ta Da post for this scarf today too.

Mine is 18 flowers in total (just a scarf), she did 46 (for a shawl).

We had the same idea of photographing it on a garden chair though my effort was rather half-hearted, a bit of a jumble. Notice the sunshine though and lack of snow, woo hoo!

I haven't blocked mine. After seeing Lucy's post today I'm wondering if I should after all. I'll think about it...

While in the garden I check on the crocuses to find that most of them have survived the snow.

We also have our first dwarf daffodil.

Now back inside, and looking out the side of the living room window we can see the bush beloved by sparrows (and much disliked by me as I have to trim it every year and it's about 7ft tall and very round)

Looking closer, I catch two lady sparrows posing beautifully. Despite being only poor little sparrows - no colourful feathers have they, I think their markings are very pretty.