The Ayres

Not hiking . . . yet.

Friday 21st March, 2014.

Tim isn't feeling ready for a longer walk yet - so it has been another week without a hike.  

I have been doing some boring chores in the garden - mainly cutting back dead stems of Japanese anemones, weeding and cleaning old leaves out of the ditch.  I wanted to get the ditch completely clear before the overhanging ferns unfurl their new fronds but my timing wasn't very good.  I was only able to admire my good work for two days before the gales on Wednesday night ripped more leafy twigs off the holly trees and blew them into the ditch.  Now I will have to don wellies and do the whole thing again.

The ducks have been back a few times.  On Thursday morning I woke early and went through to the kitchen at about five thirty.  It was just starting to get light - early morning twilight - and I saw the shape of a large bird on the grass.  It was the male mallard.  The girl friend was pecking around in the flower bed under the bird feeder.  I wasn't suitably dressed to go outside so I threw her a slice of bread.

The faithful overwintering small birds have been joined by some siskins and this morning we saw a gold finch in the tree near the bird feeder.  The great tits have been checking out the nest box, too. So spring is really starting in earnest.

It was a lovely sunny morning - but cold because of the strong wind - and we decided to drive out to the Ayres to see how much the water had subsided since our last visit on  Tuesday 4th March.   We have enjoyed a dry spell recently.  Yesterday was the only day of heavy rain since our last hike.

The road through the nature reserve to the visitor centre was dotted with large puddles this morning which was an improvement because two weeks ago it was under a knee-deep lake.

I climbed up the steps to the observation platform.  The edge of the sea was still discoloured.  It was more likely to be clay and soil from the crumbling cliffs, churned up by the waves, than silt washed down from the rivers.

On the inland side of the low dunes, there was no sign of the shallow lakes that covered large areas during our last visit.  

We stopped on the way back from the visitor centre, so that I could take a some "comparison photos".

21st March

4th March

Then I asked Tim to stop again so that I could photograph a remaining "lake" near the road.  When I got home, I realised that I was reflected in the wing mirror and had inadvertently taken my first "selfie"!

The small car park near the entrance to the Ballaghennie Ayres was still under water.

We walked along to check the condition of the top path.  It looked too slushy for comfortable walking.

But we did see a rabbit.

On the way home we stopped so that I could photograph one of my favourite sights of early spring - the magnolia blossom near the cottages at Milntown.  The big wooden gates into the yard were closed but there is quite a good view over the high stone wall.  There is another magnolia tree in a garden further up the glen road but it flowers later, after the leaves have emerged.  It is the early flowers on the bare branches that make this tree so special.