The best way to build a railway
A video from my old friends at WCCTV showing a time-lapse images of railway construction in London.
Archive for ‘October, 2019’
The Yawn
The Lagonda
The Jaguar
The Kite Surfer Chap
The Boys in the Boat
The Chicken on its nest…
The Russians are coming!!!
The Queue of Chickens
Queue might just be the newest collective noun…
The Rusty Old Bollard
The Surfer Chickens
The Rock Chickens
The Weed Chickens
The Bunillidh
….not sure how you pronounce that one!
The Pointed End
The Morning Star
The Deveron Dog Walk
Where the River Deveron flows into the Moray Firth
The Ocean Way (rest and repair).
The big sea, the little surfer…
The sea really is very big…
The Wave Watcher
The moment of SPLOSH!
The Warning (2)
Don’t say you weren’t warned! See previous post. There is nothing at Troup Head to stop you falling over the cliff if you get too close to the edge.
Troup Head is a RSPB sanctuary not far from where we live in Banff. Some magnificent scenery and the sanctuary is teaming with birds and other wildlife. So good that we have these protected sites in the Scotland.
The Warning (1)
The Sheow
At first we thought it was a sheep but then, look at its head, it looks like a cow. It must be a cross between a sheep and a cow and so it is a sheow!
The Surfers
The Beach Photographer!
There were two of us out and about with our lenses rampant!
The Beach Runner
The Surfer Girl
The gap between waves…
The crest of a wave…
Brave surfing folk swimming in the cold Moray Firth waters off Banff.
The Old Railway Track
The Woman (3)
The Woman (2)
The Woman (1)
The Old School
They just don’t build them like they used to…
The Fishing Boat
The Sea State in Banff…
A little windy today and yesterday…
The Vape’n’Phone Shop
A curious combination?
The Test of Time
Houses in Scotland….built to last. The Romans couldn’t take on Scotland and win and nor, it seems, can the weather. This house as solid as a rock (well, more than a few rocks in fact).
The BIG Question
The Secret Society
I can’t help thinking that the Masons are, in some way, linked to Harry Potter! My father was a mason. He kept all his wizardry tools in a little brown leather suitcase and we were never allowed to see what was stored away in his secret suitcase….sandwiches and a magic wand perhaps? If I turn into a toad after posting this, you’ll know why!
The meaning of ‘GR’
If you visit the United Kingdom and see a post box (like the one below) with ‘GR’ on the front, this means that the postbox was installed during the reign of King George V (1910-1936). In those days we British folk used to build thing that would last for a long time. The ‘G’ stands for George of course and the ‘R’ stands for Rex (Latin for King).
The post box below is still very much in service and it is located near to Banff High Street and long may it remain there. Let’s hope this post box and many other things can survive the complete pillock who is currently living at No 10 Downing Street.
The ‘out of puff’ street…
Bounding up this street in Banff with vigour is out of the question these days. A slow, up-hill crawl, in low gear, with frequent rest stops is a better strategy and the ‘slo-mo’ approach is easier on the creaky old knees! Going ‘down the way’ (as they say here in Scotland) is much easier.
The Beach Walker
The Son of Anarchy
The Hills
The Farm
The Dying Trees
We’ve noticed quite a few trees up here in the Cairngorms that appear to be dying. Disease? Polution? We’re not sure but a pity to see trees dying off…
The Town
Grantown-on-Spey in the Cairngorms.
The Magic Spotted Mushrooms
A strange spotted mushroom found in the Cairgorms today whilst out on a dog walk. No sign of any red squirrels yet…
The Strange Dead Old Tree Picture
….it just turned out the way it did…
The Cairngorms (1)
The Old Railway Track…
Until Dr Beeching came along, Banff was connected to the rest of the United Kingdom by a railway line. The railway line to Banff finally closed in 1968. A pity. Given the general state of the roads in the UK (overcrowded and often in disrepair) and the need for us to reach climate targets, perhaps greater use of modern railway trains might have helped us in the longer term. But then, UK governments (especially the so-called Government we have in place now), can’t seem to plan beyond the end of the next week, let alone a year or more’s time. Long term planning? Forget it!!!
Where there were once railway tracks, there are now walking/jogging paths. Every cloud has a silver lining…
The Patient Rock
It occurred to me that this Scottish rock has been waiting patiently for, perhaps, millions of years for me to happen along with my camera. I can’t help wondering if anyone else has ever photographed this particular lump of broadly unspectacular but colourful rock. It is a bit of a geological jigsaw puzzle…
The High-rise
Twice a day the sea rolls in and covers these rocks which, it turns out, are high-rise blocks for marine wildlife. Also, something of a smorgasbord for the local sea birds when the tide rolls out…
The Harbour (2)
The Harbour (1)
Banff harbour, Scotland…
The Coastal Defences (2)
It takes more a little more than a King Canute type approach to hold back the tides and the sometime furious seas here in Banff, Scotland. Ironically, we have a number of politicians about us these days who think they have supernatural powers – but, it turns out, like Canute – they do not!! It is quiet clear (especially from the image below) that, thankfully, our coastal defences are more effective and in much better shape than the grubby crop of duplicitous politicians we have to put up with these days…
The Coastal Defences (1)
Serious coastal defences needed in Scotland where the wind surely blows…..
The Four-Paw-Drive Dog
Katy needs four-paw-drive to get through some of the fast-flowing, mountain-fed, streams here in Scotland…
The Pipe
The Sea Chicken
One of the many sea chickens we see around here….
The Small Boats…
The harbour in Banff, Scotland…
The Harbour (from afar)
MacDuff Harbour taken from Banff, Scotland…
The Uncooperative Chickens…
These somewhat dim chickens are clearly lining up for a group portrait but why did they choose a rock so far away?
The Lobster Pots
The Fishing Boat
The Scottish Orange Legged Chicken
The chickens here in Scotland seem to be well-adapted to living in the shallows where they dig up worms and other tasty morsels. Some of the Scottish chickens even fly!
The Tail Waver
A seal waves its tail in the air whilst sitting on a rock close to Banff, Scotland.
The Gathering Clouds…
The clouds gather over Banff, Scotland
The Lobster Boat
The dog on the rocks…
Katy enjoying her new home in Scotland. Long walks along the beach overlooking the Moray Firth…
The fishing boat…
The town by the sea..
Our new home, Banff, Aberdeenshire
The walk without a camera!
I’ve returned to Banff after two weeks away in England. We went on a long walk to Whitehills (the next small town along the coast westwards from Banff) and back with the dog today. You can see our GPS track in the image below (total distance 6 miles). We enjoyed a lot of meandering when we were throwing the ball for the dog (who has never got the hang of ‘fetch’) on the beach. We also saw grey seal basking on the rocks at Whitehills, curlew and a heap of other sea birds were dishing about like wind-up toys on the beaches. There were heaps of other seabirds diving into the sea with ferocity in order to catch their breakfast. The Scottish landscape is beyond breathtaking and we find ourselves living in a small town which must be one of Scotland’s best kept secrets. And, by the way, Whitehills famous for this.
Note to self………remember to take the camera next time!
