Cranes in Faro Portugal

When on holiday in March this year, I visited Faro. When walking around sightseeing, I spotted Cranes nesting on top of a church and took this photo.

The Soldier's Pool Crawick

This is the Soldiers pool in the Crawick Water close to Crawick Village, Sanquhar.
When my mum was a little girl she used to play along the river and in the woods. The wood are called the Holm Wood's.
When I was young I used to swim in the Soldier's pool and when Hungary we used to light a fire and boil water for tea, we would use our Billycans (old baby milk cans) and when the tea was ready we would site and have our sandwiches that our mums had made for us.
You can see how clean the water is in the rive, and it must be the coldest river around Sanquhar to swim in.
I think that these days only a handful of people swim in the rivers around Sanquhar or Kirkconnel. That's a pity because they are missing out on just being somewhere that is so beautiful

The Birk Burn Kelloholm

In August 2010, I was in Scotland for the day through work. For my lunch, I had called at the Co-op in Kelloholm and bought a sandwich and a bottle of water. I then drove to what we call the Back Road, and stopped next to the Birk Burn. The last time I walked up the Birk Burn I was 17 in 1965. It started to rain only lightly at first so I thought" its only a bi of rain and my skins waterproof" so I set off with my lunch in hand up the Birk Burn. Little did I know, and you would think at my age I should have known better, that the rain would get heaver. Well it did!

I took this photo while sheltering under a Hawthorn Tree. Eating my now soggy sandwiches. An thinking to my self GOD I love being out in the country, in the good old fresh air. At the end of my short walk I was socked to the skin. Then again I have always been a silly sod and I don't see why I should change now.

Sunset over Alvor

After a rainy day in Alvor, there was this lovely sunset. I took this from the apartment I was staying at in 2009. Sometimes when on holiday even bad weather has its good side. I fell in love with Alvor in 2004 and go back on holiday every year. This photo always makes me feel at peace, and that even when the weather is bad there is still beauty.

Croy Shore

In October 2008 I visited a place called Croyshore. I had not been there since the Sunday School trips when I was a lad. Although the weather was cold and windy, the walk along the sands brought back a lot of memories of those sunny days, playing in the sea, or picnicking on the grassed area just off the sand, with all my friends.

The road down to the beach was the same, a very steep roadway down to the Croy Caravan park at the bottom.

Kelloholm

I was born and spent my first 17 years of my life in Kelloholm, a small village in the Nith valley in Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland. When I was young I spent most of my time walking and swimming in the Kello River, a tributary to the River Nith.
I also spent many a happy day walking over the hills to through the Euchan Valley and into the Scaur valley. Or walked along the back rood to Sanquhar and then up the Crawck.
They were happy carefree days, where it always seemed to be sunny.
Since then I have walked throughout the Yorkshire Dales, the Peak District in Derbyshire, the English Lakes, The Scottish Highlands, Switzerland, Germany and Iceland. But no matter where I have wandered My hart has always been in the hills of my youth.

Up The Kello

In October 2007 I went walking along the Kello River for the first time in 40 year's. I had no idea when I set out how much it would have changed. 40 years is a long time and it wolud appear that no one walks up this lovely valley any more. There were no footpaths anymore, as there were when I was a lad.

That did not matter as it was a lovely autumn day, the colours of browns, and gold’s stood out and made the walk even better than I had hoped. I wonder if like me other people remember when they walked, swam and played along the Kello River.