A Pleasant Sunday Walk.

After a lazy morning lounging about, and catching up with TV shows I somehow managed to get in the shower and freshen myself up.That done and some lunch I decided to attempt a walk up Meikleholm Hill and get some much needed exercise. The day was dull but reasonably mild which made walking a pleasure.

It was quite a pull up to the gate and on to the water reservoir but fortunately it's not to far and my planned route after that was all down hill.

It was nice to see and hear lots of small birds flitting about in the bushes.

 "A Wee Bit Toon"

 The water reservoir. 

One of many patches of snow still on the hillside despite it being quite mild.

 I find the contrasting bark on the birch very attractive.

A rather dull view towards Potholm.

The quarry at Peden's View is eating away at the hillside.

Along the way I noticed the what I thought was vegetation being eating by hungry deer but I quickly realized it must have been done by one of the modern hedge trimmers that can be attached to tractors as it continued the whole route on both sides.

Catkins a sure sign of spring, I'm sure we called them lambs tails when we were children.

The road winds on down to......

.........the main road to  Westerkirk and  Eskdalemuir

Asit was starting to rain I didn't dally too much but managed to get some shots along the way.

I've put this shot on to illustrate the litter I encountered along the way, I can reluctantly understand litter on the roadside as some people absentmindedly throw rubbish out of there vehicle as they travel rather than deposit when they get home, but what I couldn't understand was the litter along the track on the hillside especially the television that had been thrown into the wood  quite a distance up the track..

I managed to stop and take the odd shot of some lichen on the way home, maybe some of my more learned readers can enlighten to what they are

A nice touch of Spring as came back into town

Langholm as I saw it today.

All in all it was a good walk, although it took a bit of self motivation to get off my backside and get out, which I must do more, but it was well worth the effort, hopefully we'll get better weather and brighter photos.

Not the most exciting of posts but a very pleasant walk nevertheless.

Year of the Dog

My main intention on Friday was to go and see the Chinese New year celebrations that were being held in Carlisle city center, apparently it's the year of the dog according to the Chinese zodiac.  This was a very colourful and entertaining event with lots of crowd participation and impromptu lesson's for the younger members of the crowd although some of the older ones got involved too. It turned out to be a lovely day but cold at times. Full credit must go to Tully House Museum for organizing the event, definitely one to be repeated next year.

These two little guys were totally carried away with the event, I had as much fun watching them as I did the performers.

After the parade I had time to wander round some of the old parts of the city centre.

The Kings Head, in Fisher Street

Theses are on the gates at the main entrance to the cathedral.

 

This tree trunk looks like giant legs

The Fratry 

West Walls

As the Langholm skyline is blighted with the scaffolding on the Erskine Church.........

Courtesy of Gavin Graham

......Carlisle has to suffer the derelict Central Hotel near the city centre, It's a disgrace buildings are allowed to get to this state.

Being Distracted

I've just realized that I haven't posted for about ten days, the reason being I've been distracted with having my bungalow renovated with the idea of moving in as soon as possible, but I still found the time to go for a stroll with Tootlepedal on a couple of occasions, so this is a very basic post.

The following shots are a selection I took over the last couple of weeks.