Before the snow.

Good grief! It's been nearly a week since I posted something so I thought I'd better put a blog in before they scramble the air sea rescue of find me or give my job to somebody else. It's been a quiet time off, which on a national basis can be divided up into time of before the snow and time off after the snow and on a personal basis, time off before I hurt my back hoovering and time off after I hurt my back hoovering. A week last Sunday, I went for a wee walk along the coast to the lifeboat station.

The island in the middle of the above picture is Ross Island. Below it is a little bigger by the magic of technology. The lighthouse was first lit up in 1843 and is designed by Thomas Stevenson of the famous lighthouse building Stevenson family and incidentally his son Bob wrote Treasure Island and a host of other goodies you might have heard off. Lord Kelvin, he of the very cold temperatures, said it was one of the 3 best revolving lighthouses in the world. I'm sure most of the locals don't know that but they have no bother telling you that in 1960 one of the lighthouse keepers on Ross Island Murdered the other one - suspects 1, alibi poor.

A herd of lapwings I think. (and probably an oyster catcher wandering about in the top of the picture)

There would seem to be some argument as to whether the pheasant was introduced by the Romans or later on, either way it's here. Actually it was almost extinct from most areas of the country by the 17th century and is only common now because they have been reared by gamekeepers since sometime in the 1830s to take advantage of the birds disposition to leap out of hedges shouting, "Here I am!! Here I am!!" during the shooting season. In certain areas they seem to be everywhere and are certainly the most likely cause of orange feathers in your cars radiator grill.

You can get them in this rather fetching darker colour scheme too.

Since the last time I wandered out this was, somebodies grand design has spring up.

It might look like it's made from three big paint tins from the back but round the front it's all window. I should imagine that it's a lovely place to sit with your pre dinner G&T, admiring the sunset over Kirkcudbright Bay.

We all like to help our feathered friends in winter, but as payback we tend to put our feeders outside our kitchen windows so we can admire the dinners and feel a little smug about doing our bit without having to leave our central heating. Some kind person has put this well stocked bird town on a tree by the shore, a good 100 yards from the nearest house.

Concrete, boxy and absolutely practical - The RNLI collect money to fish folk out the water and not to put up architectural wonders - that such an essential service is can be run as a charity and with volunteers is much credit to all involved.

A last look over the bay before wandering off home.