Friday 15 August 2014

A Bike Ride Round Avoch.

Our holiday is starting to seem like a long time ago. Schools here have been back since Tuesday, I started on Monday for an in-service day and haven't stopped all week. I'm absolutely shattered and at the moment have serious doubts as to whether I can cope with the demands of planning, preparation and marking. It has taken over my life. Admittedly this week I have had no time off from teaching, which as a probationer teacher I am due, plus there are staffing issues at my school which means extra planning for me. The children in my class are lovely, there is one lad who is a little troublesome for me at the moment but compared to others he's fine really. I'm just sooo tired. I've not been to bed till about 1am all week - 2am for one night (morning!). I'd been led to believe this year should be easier than the PGDE year, so things should improve...

Anyway, enough of the moans. Here are some photos I took of an evening bike ride I had while we were visiting the Black Isle for the week. It was fairly late on in the evening before I left and the setting sun hid behind low cloud for much of the ride before making a welcome appearance towards the end.

Tattie dreels. The cottage we were staying in is the one on the left, the owners of the cottage stayed in the one on the right. I got chatting to one of them and it turns out we both grew up in the same small town - cue lots of reminiscing about various people and places. 

 Some kind of umbellifer.

 Thistle

 Shadow shot.

 Gorgeous purple umbellifers/umbelliferae, whatever...

 Again, love the clouds at the bottom of the shot.

 And again, yeah, likey lots.

 Those clouds. Wondrous!

 Rosebay willowherb to fore, rolling hills behind. Living in a dairy part of the country we normally have lots of green fields around us so the golden fields here did look special.

 Zooming in on the hills a little - I like the rows of little trees along the field boundaries.

Now down to the beach at Avoch.

 Then to the harbour.

It's a very steep climb up the hill back to the cottage - too steep for me to cycle. The lane up the hill is lined with wild raspberry plants: every few feet I would stop and enjoy eating a handful of the delicious, sweet berries.

 Nearly at the top, the sun is escaping from the clouds....

 ...for a lovely sunset.

A last look the other way down to the sea, then "home".

9 comments:

Hazel said...

Lovely post. Teaching is hard work. I teach in a small independent school with small class sizes. Pay is hardly anything but the stress is reduced significantly and I love teaching now. Not so at the last state school I worked at. It does get easier though as your planning gets done. First two years hardest I'd say. X

RedSetter said...

It is hard when you are the newbie as you want to fit in but not set yourself up to be trodden over, its a hard call.

These are fabulous photographs and you've captures the views and details impressively.

Laughing at the journey up the hill powered by ripe raspberries and wondering if the journey down the other side was powered by 'wind'....?

RedSetter said...

It is hard when you are the newbie as you want to fit in but not set yourself up to be trodden over, its a hard call.

These are fabulous photographs and you've captures the views and details impressively.

Laughing at the journey up the hill powered by ripe raspberries and wondering if the journey down the other side was powered by 'wind'....?

Mereknits said...

The troublesome ones always have something going on in their life we do not quite know about. They need a lot more love. Sounds like the bike ride was exactly what you needed.
Hope you can catch your breath this weekend.
Meredith

CJ said...

It sounds utterly exhausting for you at the moment. Hang on in there, and I do hope it improves very soon. Try and get as much sleep as you can, it will help more than anything. Beautiful photos from your bike ride, I love the umbellifers with the clouds, quite stunning. And the scenery is wonderful. CJ xx

Angela said...

Beautiful horizon line. Gorgeous photos.

Lyn said...

Love those cloudy skies! Xxx

Anonymous said...

Gorgeous images, thank you.

I am going to Argyll in September - I am so excited!

blueskyscotland said...

Interesting to read your comments as teaching is one of the main growth industries in Scottish towns and cities these days it seems. Glasgow has the massive Collegelands project centred around the high street and I've recently noticed Clydebank College, Greenock's James Watt college and Paisley's Reid Kerr are now merged together as West College Scotland.
One thing about work is that you really appreciate any holidays away from it more :o)

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails