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It's been a funny week. Warm and overcast a bit.
It's Friday as I'm composing this post and it's pouring rain.
(The river needs it as the last picture will show)
On Wednesday I decided a beach walk might clear a fuzzy head.
I headed east and parked up at Mossyard beach car park.
(I need to go back and find the ring marked rocks, Castle Wilkie and the Standing Stones of Newton, don't ask why I didn't have my map with me ! ))
It was very quiet as I walked east across the rocks and sand.
This fella seemed to be looking for lunch.
There were a lot of oyster-catchers around.
I kept my eye open for anything worth photographing.
This stretch of coastline from Auchenlarie to Gatehouse of Fleet is very popular with holidaymakers.
Cabins and caravan sites thrive in the summer and although there was no activity on the beach I could see plenty of people either setting up camp or doing maintenance on their mobile homes.
Standing over a rock pool, it wasn't my intention to take a 'selfie', but when I saw it in the LCD screen.......................
...................I decided to take another.
Shoreline and rock-pool plants.
Leaving the shoreline I took a short walk through the Cardoness-Estate-Holiday-Park. Here there are 182 owner occupied holiday homes, 38 chalets and lodges and half a dozen sites for tourers. As you drive pass the entrance on the A75, you can't see any of this. It really is a hidden gem.
Alongside and to the west was a path through the woods marked as a nature trail.
I decided to take a walk through for my return to Mossyard.
Here's a Meadow Brown.
By far the most widespread in Galloway is the Ringlet.
As I climbed up a an incline I came to a bench with a view and a memorial plaque.
I've touched up the photograph of the name plaque, the paint is flaking off.
Apparently Geoffrey was a skilled surgeon and died within ten weeks of Rosemary's passing.
This is the view they enjoyed in the 40+ years they came up here.
Now to get back to the beach. I headed inland until I could identify whether the cattle I saw were bulls or otherwise.
This is a view of Newton Farm with the hill Mill Knock behind.
When I got close I saw they were inquisitive young ladies.
Across another field there were lots of gulls looking for easy pickings behind a ploughing tractor.
Back at Mossyard I saw this female blackbird trying to drum up lunch.
From Mossyard I now took short walk west to White Bay where I had a bite to eat and watched as a couple of youngsters fished off the rocks.
My book says this is a field digger wasp.
So ended my beach walk.
On Thursday I took a walk up to Glenamour.
There's a lot of lillies on the smaller Glengarren Loch
Here's a parasol mushroom and a welsh poppy.
Two pictures together of Glenamour Loch almost creating an optical illusion.
Lots of water lillies on Glenamour loch too.
Back in Newton Stewart the river is low. Normal levels will be resumed after today's downpour.
At least the weather forecast for our group's walk tomorrow looks good.
