A Spring Garden

Spring bedding display at Balcarres, Colinsburgh, which was open under Scotland's Garden Scheme.

Daffodils were beginning to fade but it was still a colourful display.

 A display of hellebores.

A patch of primroses in the woodland garden..

 Ferns beginning to uncurl.

My favourite bulb, fritillary.

Fritillary bulbs natualised in the grass.

Low Tide at the End of the Pier

Walked to the end of the pier at low tide - a very sad sight - just a collection of concrete bocks and boulders.

One of the huge slabs of concrete dislodged from the pier.

Looking at the same slab from below.

Looking at the end of the pier from the other side of the harbour.

Aftermath of the Storm

The recent storm nicknamed 'the beast from the east' has caused further damage to the Lower Largo pier. The end of the pier has now disappeared, leaving only a mass of boulders.

 The east side of the pier has also suffered further damage.

Just for comparison, a picture looking down on the pier taken in May 2008. Even then the tip of the pier had been damaged by storms in March of the same year, but had been repaired by that October.

 The easterly gales also drove a mass of seaweed onto the beach.

 Seaweed in the gap behind the Crusoe Hotel cutting off the way down to the beach.

A Walk in the Snow

Snow in the small wooded area between the two paths in the Serpentine Walk. Snow and woods always reminds me of Robert Frost's lovely poem - one of my favourites.

 The Largo burn in full spate at the junction of the two paths.

The snow on the path up to the main road was around a foot deep in places and we were glad that other people had been there before us and we were able to step into their footprints. The exit at the top was blocked by snow, that had been cleared from the road, but we managed to find a way up the side of the field and then down the bank onto the road.

Disappearing Gnomes

Over the last few days gnomes in the garden have gradually got buried in the snow. One is up to his neck and only the hat of his little mate is visible. Guess we'll know that the thaw is setting in when they start to reappear.

A robin photobombs the picture.

Wild Weather and Rough Seas

No-one on the swings at the Massney Braes.  Two days of heavy snow showers had left around 10cms of  snow underfoot with some drifting in places.

Looking towards the West of Largo Bay, waves crashing on to the shore.

Down at Lower Largo Harbour, the sea was pounding the pier, which was already in a parlous state.

The sea was channeling behind the Crusoe Hotel and  coming onto the road, leaving behind stones and other debris.

Looking towards the East of Largo Bay

Ring Around the Moon

Cold night but the sky was fairly clear. The moon appeared to have a ring around it. There are two different phenomena. A halo is caused by refraction  when moonlight passes through thin clouds of ice crystals high in Earth's atmosphere. As moonlight passes through the ice crystals, it is bent in a way similar to light passing through a lens. The shape of the ice crystals causes the moonlight to be focused into a ring.

However, this looks more like a corona.  This happens when the light of the Moon, is diffracted on small drops of water in the clouds, so by diffraction of the light and not refraction. A whitish disc with a coloured rim becomes visible.