Tag: Mossyard Bay

Recharging and Renewal

What do you need to do to recharge your batteries? That’s the question posed by Egidio, in this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge. And my answer is the same as his: I need to get out, to surround myself with the natural world.

Living in France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, the mountains grounded me in many ways. The sheer scale of them put me in my place – in a good way: reminding me how little my own concerns counted in the great scheme of things. Here’s a quiet scene from a lakeside high up the slopes not too far from our house.

Or these, from le Cap du Carmil …

There, lakes provided the solace that being near water often provides. Back in the UK, it’s the sea.

For the everyday recharge, it’s greenery, plain and simple. Local woodlands.

…or just a little bit more distant – Coverdale.

There’s just one place I need to mention though: one I’ve talked about before, more than once. A special afternoon and evening in l’Albufera, just beyond Valencia, where there is nothing but the lagoon, the sky, and wildlife … and peace. That’s my featured photo, and my best recharge ever.

Midweek Monochrome of Mossyard

Google photos has a happy habit of reminding me of what I was up to this day one year, two years, three years (and so on) ago. Today it pointed out that in 2020, just after the worst of Lockdown was over, we escaped briefly to Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland. And there we discovered Mossyard Bay.

Let’s take a virtual trip: there’s not a fairground ride, amusement arcade or kiss-me-quick hat in sight.  There’s not even a chippie.  Just us, the rocky shore, and the sea, advancing or retreating with the tide. Happy memories, translated into monochrome.

For Bren’s Mid-Week Monochrome #106, and as suggested by Sarah, of Travel with Me fame. Bren herself takes us to the Nidd Gorge, my back yard when I lived in Harrogate: while Sarah, for her post, is in her favourite city, Paris.

New Kinds of Standing Stones

Dumfries and Galloway is good at pre- and early history. I took you to Cairn Holy a few days ago. And apparently their long tradition of standing stones lives on. I had a walk along the beach at Mossyard Bay, and this is what I found – standing stones, no higher than a school ruler, erected – oh, as late as September 2020.

This one is for this week’s photo challenge: something less ordinary beside the sea. The same shot, just above it, has been squared off for Kinda Square.

2020 Photo Challenge #40

#Kinda Square

‘Beside the Seaside, Beside the Sea …’

Dumfries & Galloway is our new favourite place.  We felt as though we’d discovered it and had it all to ourselves.  We explored the wildly beautiful and seemingly remote Cairnsmore of Fleet National Natural Nature Reserve. We found ancient cairns.  We slogged up hills for the sake of views over the Solway Firth. And we enjoyed the beaches.  We’ll take a virtual seaside trip today: there’s not a fairground ride, amusement arcade or kiss-me-quick hat in sight.  There’s not even a chippie.  Just us, the rocky shore, and the sea, advancing or retreating with the tide.

Let’s begin at Mossyard Bay.  I sent you a postcard from there just last Thursday.

A rocky shore
So many shells.
The tide’s just gone out.
There’s sand as well as rock.
This seemingly ancient labyrinth was constructed in 1990 on a small island that develops every time the tide comes into Mossyard Bay.
Plants cling to any dry shard of rock.

 

Near Mutehill, Kirkudbright, early one morning.

Finally, Carsethorne, near Dumfries. It’s a small hamlet now, but it used to be a busy port, shipping people to Liverpool, to the Isle of Man and to Ireland on their way to a new life in the New World.

Six Word Saturday.