Natural Beauty

Posted on August 6, 2010 by Susan

A burn runs along the bottom of our garden. The actual boundary between our garden and the farmland is in fact down the middle of the burn. Sadly, in order to keep the dogs on our land we had to fence off the burn. We had a 4 foot high fence built with 2 feet of trelace on top. About 4 – 6 feet of land is fenced off along with the burn. Our plan is to turn this into a little wildlife sanctury, but also to plant vigorous climbers on the other side to grow through into the garden (the dogs dig up anything we plant in the garden).

In the spring I planted some clematis, rambling roses and honeysuckle to grow through the fence into the garden. We had planned to keep the banks of the burn partially strimmed down to give us access. But the weeds took hold quickly and before we knew it there was a jungle out there. I am so glad we let it grow wild – the entire river bank is now packed full of beautiful 8 feet high flowers. No idea what they are, but here are some pictures along with the resident wildlife.

And of course, we mustn’t forget the other wildlife in our garden:

Raining Frogs

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Susan

I forgot to post this up at the time….

A week or two ago I went out into the garden to find that the lawn was alive with thousands and thousands of baby frogs. I guess they came from the burn at the bottom of the garden but the whole lawn (20 metres by 50 metres) was covered in them.

The next day they were gone. No idea where they went.

Baidland Hill Walk

Posted on August 4, 2010 by Susan

We both fancied going somewhere new for our morning walk this morning. Google turned up the Baidland Hill Walk which was described as a 2 hour, 5.5 km walk in the hills around Dalry with panoramic views over Ayrshire and of the sea. And only a few miles down the road from us – ideal!

It was a bit of a grey morning but a nice temperature for walking. The walk started out in the village of Dalry and then out along picturesque country roads for a while before turning off onto the “Velvet Path Walk”. At this point we wondered if we’d taken a wrong turn as the path was very overgrown – at places it was hard to pass through the brambles and stinging nettles. But Beanie and Biggles seemed to enjoy scrambling through the undergrowth so we pushed on. And in fact we did eventually emerge onto another quiet country road as described in the guide.

The surrounding fields were full of sheep and we stopped regularly for a good look and an occasional ‘aaarrrfff, aarrrrfff!’.

At time special measures were necessary in order to get an optimal view.

Can’t quite see…!

If I can just squeeze under here….

As the walk progressed and we gained height the scenery changed from hedgerows and fields to views over the Ayrshire countryside.

Eventually we reached a series of styles and Beanie and Biggles harnesses proved to be very handy for helping them over.

We were now on a wide track with fields full of sheep either side. The views really started to open up now. On a sunny day with blue skies it would be stunning. The photo below doesn’t do it justice as you can’t easily make out the sea and islands all the way along the horizon line.

By this point the guide said we should enter a coniferous forest but there was no sign of it. We’d already been walking for nearly 2 hours and according to our satnav there was still another 2 hours to get back to the car! Luckily we bumped into some workers some way along the track and they explained that the forest had been cut down several years ago to build a wind farm. The old route described in our guide no longer existed, but we could follow the wind farm tracks back onto the road to Dalry. So our 5km walk turned out to be 15 km and the 2 hours extended to 3.5 hours – but it was well worth the time and effort. Definitely one to do again!