Scotland – Page 15 – where the journey takes me 2

September 20, 2018February 15, 2019

bEAching ~ calm after the storm

Welcome to my new followers – it is lovely to have you on board – I hope you enjoy the journey.

We are at the cottage in Scotland now for a few days (for anyone who is new to my blog – you need to read the story of the flood under the tab Beach Cottage and when I say at the cottage for cottage read caravan)

On Tuesday DH and I met with friends of mine who happened to be on holiday up here and had lunch together at Castle Kennedy Gardens in the revamped tea rooms, one of my most favourite places – so loved by my family that my daughter held her wedding there in 2016.

After a lovely meal and a good old natter we said our goodbyes to my friends and popped down the road into Stranraer for a bit of shopping – when I say shopping we actually bought a bottle of gas for the caravan and a few groceries – nothing more exciting.

It was still quite mild and quite calm so we decided to have a walk on by the harbour, through Agnew Park and out on the Broadstones Road – which runs along the side of Loch Ryan. This is a short stretch of some rather lovely big old houses with well-kept gardens and a view across the bay. There is often a lot of ‘remodelling’ going on as places change hands and I do love to have a bit of a nosy! Everything is beginning to feel cooler and a bit grey as you can see from the photos – but I actually quite like this as it makes it quite atmospheric. Beach finds It was good to be out, strolling along on the shore spotting bits of coloured glass and other things –is this is the new message in a bottle – message on a mobile? Broadstones

Broadstones

On the way back to the car the heavens opened and we had to make a run for it – but it was nice while it lasted.

Wednesday was a bit wilder – I was expecting worse – we had battened down the hatches ready for the forecasted storm. It was certainly blustery here on the Mull of Galloway and the sea very choppy, and although the caravan rocked a bit it was not as bad as the rest of the county – some places across the bay had no power and quite a bit of damage.

By the afternoon it had calmed down enough for DH to go outside and make a start on washing down the caravan ready for the winter – I believe it is called ‘winterising’ I even did half an hour weeding in one of the borders when the rain suddenly came lashing down and the wind picked up once again.

Then as quickly as it came it settled again and after tea we even managed a brisk walk – all togged up in my fleece lined Parker, woolly hat and a scarf and by choosing the more sheltered path to the village down the low road we kept relatively warm. As you might expect the place was deserted – I expect most of the villagers were keeping snug and warm inside (very sensible). Once back at the caravan I had a nice mug of hot tea and some ginger cake.

Today we were back to calm, very calm; the sea had hardly a wave and nothing stirring in the garden. We drove into Stranraer with a trailer full to the brim with bags of weeds from our last visit to take to the tip. I also took a box of bits and bobs from my recent decluttering to the local Red Cross charity shop, bought some fresh rolls and milk and the Stranraer Free Press (to get the local news) then came home for lunch. I have acquired a taste for Tesco’s fresh Cheesey rolls which we had with salad inside and I also bought one of their boxes of 5 assorted mini Danish pastries – five being an odd number for two of us we have to share the last one, or fight over it!

After lunch DH was back to washing another side of the caravan and I started on the weeding again – pulling out a million tiny seedlings (I exaggerate not!) that have taken root since our last visit – but only after going down to the beach to take a few more photos. Luce Bay Seawed Driftwood I can hear rain again now outside as I write this – who knows what we will wake up to tomorrow. Just in case I cannot go out in the garden I have brought one or two projects with me to be getting on with.

Have a good day x

August 8, 2018February 14, 2019

mEAndering ~ Glenwham Gardens and my garden

Yesterday we were both feeling a bit creaky and decided that a day digging in the garden would be a weed too far so we headed off to one of my favourite gardens around here called Glenwham.

I won’t go into much detail here other than to say this garden was created out of boggy moorland over 30 years ago when Tessa Knott and her husband bought 103 acres of land unseen and over the phone then subsequently on a visit to see the land discovered the ruined farmhouse.

You can read more of the fascinating story of how this garden was transformed here.

On one of the two small lochs they created they have a wooden cabin with a springboard attached to the jetty to jump into the water and a little boat tied up at the side.

Dotted along the banks of the Loch I noticed this dwarf variety of deep blue Agapanthus which I have made a note of in my notebook and will perhaps buy from their nursery another day.

Agapanthus

We had a very relaxing time just wandering up and down the many winding paths through these gardens. It is quite a sheltered place and very peaceful even with other people wandering around. There is a wonderful sense of calm and in one of the woodland glades there is a stone Buddha and a string of Buddhists prayer flags fluttering between the trees.

We have seen it develop over the last fourteen years and some of the shrubs and trees are quite large now and I noticed they have had to cut a few things back down to ground level and many of the borders have been overtaken by the more vigorous plants. We have the same problem in our garden trying to keep everything in balance.

Revitalised after our day off yesterday we were back in our garden today. I spent a good hour dead heading the rose and removing the dead leaves of the Fatsia that get caught amongst the branches.

Once I had finished I turned my attention to the patch of garden that we cleared last summer down by the stream bank in the lower wood. It is a difficult corner that catches the cold winter winds and I have been nursing an old Holly back to life – it had growth only on one side due to a neighbouring tree starving it of light and which has since fallen down in the gales. At last the Holly is sprouting on the bare side and will soon have a nice dense mass of branches and leaves.

The whole area has once again become overgrown with campion and nettles, so I set too to pull them out and clear the patch once again. The trick of course is to get some plants in quickly and not to let the weeds take hold again but sometimes it is just not possible on a short visit.

I was so busy today that I forgot to keep taking photos – but DH did take a special one for Joy at Diary of a (retired) teacher who wrote about her thistle putting down roots in a pot of flowers… well this is my thistle Joy!!

I am not even sure what it is called – we get one or two each year they self seed so we never know where they are going to pop up next. This year it has decided to grow out of a crack in the concrete paving just where we need to take the wheelbarrow round to the other side of the cottage – quite inconvenient but I wouldn’t chop it down we just have to work round it all summer and not get too close! When we had the flood in 2014 there was a picture taken for the newspaper of our flooded garden and one of these giant thistle was the only thing still standing in four-foot of water.

If anyone wants some seeds just let me know.

Tomorrow we are homeward bound so may not post again until Friday if I have time before we travel up to North Yorkshire on Saturday morning to visit my mum and collect Little L for the week. My internet connection has been a bit patchy here and I have not been able to read everyones new posts so I will have a bit of catching up to do along with the washing.

Back soon x

July 7, 2018February 3, 2019

mEAndering ~ a trip to the Isle of Whithorn

We had planned a day out on Wednesday as a change from gardening (and after all it is our holidays!) – but decided that a long drive up through Ayrshire to Largs for a trip on the Waverley steam boat was not a good idea for me in this heat. DH is as tough as old boots but I am too delicate in this hot weather!

So instead we opted for a run out along the coast road that takes us round to the other side of Luce Bay and down to the Isle of Whithorn, a picturesque village centered around the natural little harbour.

It is one of my favourite places – I could easily live here though it is some 22 miles to the nearest town of Newton Stewart where there are larger (but not huge) supermarkets and a range of independant shops. Down on the Isle there is only a community shop run in the visitor centre that closes at 4pm and no petrol station for miles.

It has some fascinating buildings – the Isle of Whithorn Church (a former Free church) is situated on the foreshore of the harbour just along the main street and is very much in use doubling up as an exhibition area when there are no services taking place.

The windows are clear not stained but an old repair here shows someone has added a patterned glass in one of them at some time which is rather cute.

This row of houses also built on the shoreline jut out into the harbour. The end house / houses (I am never quite sure if there are three or four houses in the row) are being completely renovated at the moment.

The larger house in the cluster with the blue painted windows has just been renovated and brought back to its former glory. The garden wall is decorated with black paint to represent castle walls. Look closely at the end of the terrace of houses and you can see a rather picturesque balcony.

I am curious to know what the three stones are for that jut out of the corner of this house!

This is the old Tower House just off the main street by the river with its tiny turrets on the corners.

I loved this little find – down one of the side streets. I thought I had found a use for DH’s old leaky wellies – DH just informed me that he had put his old wellies in the bin and that the bin men had emptied it this morning!

Either of these two cottages would suit me if ever they come on the market. they look out across the harbour and are quite sheltered.

I think that this might have been the former post office which is now located in the new lottery funded visitor centre.

It was too hot to venture over to the old ruins of St Ninian’s Chapel but here are a few pictures from a previous visit. St Ninian was the founder of the Whithorn Priory said to be the most holy place in Scotland. He is acknowledged as Scotland’s first Saint.

At one time the Chapel (which dates back to about 1300 and built on the site of an earlier chapel) was actually situated on an Island just off the mainland but after the redevelopment of the village and harbour the gap was closed and it is now part of the mainland just beyond the harbour.

The pilgrims to St Ninian’s Shrine at Whithorn some 3 miles away would have landed on the beach just below the Chapel and then given thanks for surviving the treacherous sea journey before setting off on foot to visit the shrine where it is said that many miracle cures and healing took place.

There is such a rich history in the area of early settlements and Whithorn’s development as a Christian centre. There has been many archaeological excavations and a lot of interesting finds.

With the hot weather and very little shade (there are not many trees on the Isle of Whithorn) we could not go exploring far but it was good to get out and about for a while.

July 2, 2018May 3, 2019

bEAching ~ down on the beach and down the garden

We’ve got Rag, Tag and Bobtail in our garden tonight chasing each other around in circles then stopping to eye up my plants.

The white one we named ‘Bunny No Mates’ (he seems to be an escaped domestic rabbit and the brown ones won’t play with him) has reappeared suddenly from behind the log shed – we thought he was definitely a goner and had perished during the freezing winter months. I am quite glad he made it – I was a bit sad thinking he had come to an abrupt end.

Gentle Hermione Chamomile In between the weeding I went down to the beach. Since the flood took away the little wooden bridge that went across the stream our neighbour has made these little steps to get down the banking. I think they fit in very well and I love the Daisies growing on the treads.

Today I was in the garden at 9 o’clock to weed in the trellis border whilst it was in the shade and before the sun moved round – this is the very dry border as from ten o’clock it has the sun all day and is far too hot for me.

At the end of the summer last year we visited the Elizabeth MacGregor Garden and Nursery (click to link through to her website) in Kirkudbright and she gave me a whole tray of Valerian for my garden that she was getting rid of and for which I am so grateful. Her nursery has some wonderful cottage garden plants all grown at Ellenbank and you can order them on the internet from her extensive catalogue.

I really like the look of the Valerian against the grey stony ground in the patch facing out to sea and hope it will seed around the sea-side garden. I dug over a small patch and then had to accept defeat and move to a shadier part of the garden down in the jungle. I will try again tomorrow and show you the results another post.

It is actually all looking a bit of a jungle at present – the result of going away to Italy at the exact time when we would normally be spending a lot of time in the garden before the summer. But we wouldn’t have missed the wedding for anything even though we are struggling to get the garden back into shape now. I have pulled out Campions that are 7 feet tall today. I swear I can hear them growing as soon as I turn my back.

After lunch there was a welcome mass of cloud appeared in the sky– I haven’t seen clouds for days…and a breeze. It certainly helped cool the air temperature down a degree but the patch I was doing before lunch now had midges circling ready for attack – so I had to move yet again.

This time over to the Pine tree border. There is a slab of concrete just under the largest Pine tree which is the base for the old greenhouse (before the gales of 2010 demolished it). We really must break it up one day and remove it – the tree roots have lifted and cracked the slab and the pine needles collect into a suitable compost that the Campion love to seed in.

It may look pretty but believe me I have learnt that in this garden you cannot leave Campion as pretty as it might be it will seed everywhere and then it chokes out the plants I have bought and planted. I do have some wild areas but this border is not meant to be one of them.

This is after the clean up – I had almost forgotten there is a path there. I filled eight bags with weeds and sweepings for the tip just from this patch which is no more than about eight feet square!

The Foxgloves are allowed to stay – in my eyes Foxgloves are like the cows in India – sacred. No matter where in the garden they decide to grow it is OK with me as they are one of my favourite flowers.

And (just for my follower Mary) these pictures below are older ones so you can see what it used to be like when we had a greenhouse. To the left is the border with the three Olearia shrubs, newly planted, in front of the wind break – now the masss of Olearia is the wind break!