Photographic enhancements on a dull day, and a poem by the bard

Tuesday the 24th of January. Quite a miserable day weatherwise but I'll head out and take a few pictures. The first one I took early in the day from my front door.

Picasa has a border application which I've used.Unfortunately I've made all the outer borders dark which doesn't work with an already dark background. Ah well ! It's a learning curve.

At the back of this view (if you could see it) is the snow capped Cairnsmore of Fleet

I went down the river Cree to Parkmaclurg.

Here I'm opposite the Carse of  Barr

Just to the right of this point the railway used to cross.Wooden stumps can still be seen when the tide is out

This is the view east towards Palnure with a misty Blair hill behind

Here it is on Clevr

                             Panorama of Palnure from Parkmaclurg on CleVR.com

This is the view back to Blackcraig

A little further south  the river's meander has created a large sandbank.

It's often a haven for various birds, today there's a lone heron

A zoom over to Upper Barr finds a flock of gulls and the Wigtown bus 

Added at the last minute with a light border 

Carseminnoch

It being Burns night tonight I thought an apt poem to accompany this post would be
 'The Flowery Banks O' Cree'

Here is the glen, and here the bower 
All underneath the birchen shade; 
The village-bell has told the hour, 
O what can stay my lovely maid? 


'Tis not Maria's
 whispering call; 
'Tis but the balmy breathing gale, 
Mixt with some warbler's dying fall, 
The dewy star of eve to hail. 

It is Maria's voice I hear; 
So calls the woodlark in the grove, 
His little, faithful mate to cheer; 
At once 'tis music and 'tis love. 

And art thou come! and art thou true! 
O welcome dear to love and me! 
And let us all our vows renew, 
Along the flowery banks of Cree.

Creeside

I took a little walk alongside the Cree today.
It meanders a lot just south of Newton Stewart at the Loop of Carsenaw and Carse of Barr.
I park my car at Parkmaclurg.(Since i haven't got a clurg to park lol).
My first stop was to look at where the railway line used to cross the river.When the tide's low you can see some of the bridges wooden supports.Looking back along the line towards Palnure,it looks gorse and bracken free.They're usually overgrown.
There's a nice view back up river to Blackcraig.
This wee Grey Wagtail looked as though he wanted the company.
He stuck close to me for a long while,jumping in and out of puddles along the track.
The ice wont thaw in this trough today...there's snow on the way.
After disturbing a large Heron,a noisy flock of birds flew overhead.This one was brave enough to let me get some photos...
...I think it's a Fieldfare,one of our winter visitors.

As the river nears Carty Port,it widens quite considerably.When i've seen this stretch from the otherside,there's often large quantities of birds.I disturbed a couple of ducks...
...and there were some quite small birds on the far side,but i had no binoculars with me today.

We've had one fall of snow as i write this.The east coast are bearing the brunt of it tonight.