A Glorious Day Out

I thought I'd show you some photos of our day out last Sunday - a trip we've been meaning to make for a long time - and I'm so glad we made the spur of the moment decision to go when we did.

It was a boat trip to the Isle of May, a national Nature Reserve and bird sanctuary situated at the mouth of the Forth, just off  the coast from us in Fife. We sailed from Anstruther harbour, in a little boat full to the brim with 100 passengers.

See the vintage cars lined up on the pier? It must have been a rally.

And this was why I was glad we made the trip that day - the river Forth is hardly ever as calm as this - and that is our destination ahead. It took just over an hour from the mainland.

The Isle of May is a summer home to tens of thousands of seabirds - puffins, fulmars, guillemots, cormorants, terns to name a few - and there are spectacular close up views of them nesting on the narrow cliff edges.

The island is uninhabited now, apart from a nature warden who is stationed there over the summer, but it used to have a manned lighthouse with the keepers' families living there. This was a steep little path up to one of the lighthouses which the keeper had to trudge up every day. They aptly named it Palpitation Brae.

In summer the island is covered with pink thrift and white sea campion, totally unspoilt and beautiful. A little bit smelly though with all those seabirds and very noisy too.

We came across this quite magnificent driftwood sculpture near a ruined monastery - not made by long gone monks, but more likely a recent warden who had long evenings to fill.

There were well marked paths all over the island and visitors were asked not to stray off them because the birds were nesting in the grass all around. This female eiderduck was incubating her eggs right at the edge of the path and totally ignored us as we passed just inches away.

The females stayed on the nests while their stikingly marked mates enjoyed a splash about in an emerald green lochan.

On the far side of the island, the side exposed to the wild North sea, there were dramatic cliffs, stacks and huge caves, every tiny ledge crowded with nesting seabirds.

We sailed back to Anstruther in the early evening and with all that fresh sea air giving us an appetite we headed straight for the world famous fish and chip shop!

We have been working too though. This week has been busy on the website, as well as orders coming in every day from our stockists.

I did an evening shift in the workshop tonight ( Wednesdays are always late nights for some reason) and this was the sight that met me when I stepped out of the workshop at nine o'clock - the most glorious sunset.

Sadly my photographic skills didn't do it justice.

And then I swung round 180 degrees to get this shot of the fresh new shoots of the wheatfield right outside our kitchen door. I love this wide open space.

Well as I said, Wednesday nights are always busy, and I'm procrastinating. There is a pile of orders needing to be packed up before bed, and they won't pack themselves up. Hey ho.