Saturday 29 September 2012

Saturday Beach ride - Pugsleys

Friend Eddie came along for a beach ride today on his white Pugsley.
Today was the first real Autumn days beach ride - cool temps, clear skies, blowing a gale, and perfect for it...

Stubble fields full of geese now...

Gullane...

Strong side winds across Aberlady reserve bridge...

The Old Road to Aberlady ...

Around the high tide line, more geese...

Gullane Point...



Gullane beach, a good day for Kite Surfers...


Not a good week for local Creel fishermen, strings of creels washed in after the big storm...




Cafe stop at Cake in North Berwick then return to Gullane along the trails through woods sheltered from the Westerly gale along the John Muir Way...

I took the old Tachyon XC sports camera and did a wee film, its in SD but i kinda like the old format...

Song is `Big Wide Sky` by Quantic...

Thursday 27 September 2012

After the Storm... Midweek Beachcombing...

After a wild 3 days that has seen widespread flooding and damage to many peoples homes throughout the UK Thursday dawned calm with clearing skies...




After the Apocalyptic Washout i headed for Belhaven Bay near Dunbar after work for some beach combing, what better bike to ride in post apocalyptic conditions than the Moonlander...



With its 100mm wide rims and  4.7" tyres it makes light work of very soft sand which Belhaven Bay often is after heavy rain and high tides.
See here how less a footprint the Moonie has compared to human footprints...

`The Bridge to Nowhere`...

Along the sands and the coastline is littered with debris...

Some small surf still and some folk getting some Surfing Lessons...


If you want to feed your plants in your garden then gather some of this kelp, shred it in a leaf mulcher then dig it into your garden, people have gathered Seaweed for hundreds of years for agriculture and gardens.
We have several old roads marked on old maps as `Ware Road`.  This means it originally was a seaweed road, there is one east of the Knowes farm to Hedderwick, and in North Berwick...

Seaweed Feeds are still available and used on Golf Courses here in Scotland. It is still one of the best organic feeds.
Here is a picture of farmers from Castleton farm at Dirleton Village collecting Seaweed in the 1950s down on the coastline at Yellowcraig...


Loads of sea life has been washed up, including Lobsters...


Sea Urchins, i found two together, then looked up and their was loads of them, hundreds even...


Various types of starfish...

Sea Potato...

Flounder...

All these Sea Urchins in a small area...


And of course sets of creels...

I put this wee fella under some kelp so hopefully he will make it back into the sea at the next high tide...


This slick tyre made by TORO is a off of a Golf Course greens mower. holes for ropes in the sidewalls ...

Around the point of Spike Island and into Hedderwick sands, really soft sand out here is no problem for the Moonlander...


Washed up was this old bottle , this is the second time i have found an old bottle intact here after a storm and spate of water into the Tyne Estuary, It must have unlodged the bottle  from its years of lying there...


R, Douglas Ltd, Kirkaldy & Dumfermline , i googled this but no results, must be a very old company...

No shortage of free firewood now -:)...


Not much left after 70 years but this pile of steel...

Was once one of these...
Matilda II Tank...


This bike is fun when the going gets really soft... more beach combing on Saturday...






Tuesday 25 September 2012

First big storm of Autumn - North Berwick

A big swell came ashore from out in the North Sea last night  and today and a crazy storm has battered the UK.
Aong with howling gales and rain were some huge waves on the East Coast.
The BBC Met Office have announced it the most extreme storm in September since Met Office records began - a months rain in 24 hours. Again this year produces another weather record.
Bizarre weather after such a lovely weekend...
Finished work i went down to North Berwick Harbour with  friend Andy to watch...






East Beach is littered with dead sea birds washed up on the morning high tide...









Victorian Harbour wall still doing its job...





I love being on our coast in all weather in all the seasons, esp when you see the power of the sea on days like this...amazing...

1 min SD film i uploaded on Flickr...




We headed for a coffee and a blether on North Berwick High Street.
Between the Police Station - which did B&B when we were boozed teenagers  at weekends -:) , and a gift shop is an alley decorated in memory of a famous author who once visited North Bewick and was inspired by the sea here to write some very famous books...











There is also the small memorial to him...


Looking forward to the weekend and two days beach combing on the fat bikes, with 25mph+ winds on Saturday its going to be a classic tail wind assisted ride to NB on the pugsley, then Sunday i will be going more mission specific beach riding somewhere on the Moonlander to see what gets washed up over the next few days.
Winter beach riding and post storm beach combing has arrived early with this extreme weather this year, canny wait!