Chasing the Bullet...

I have not had a motorbike for 5 or so years now.
With anything retro being cool these days-post soon on my new commuter bike, the itch to save and buy a British motorcycle has returned,
Having escaped death over 20 years of riding motorbikes i`m happy these days to look at a bike to plod along country lanes.
Although i used to ride rip snorting 600cc Enduro motorcycles on the road (and off) i always fancied a Bullet in pre65 trials trim for said plodding along lanes.
Maybe some 25+ years after they went on sale in the UK i may buy one once i save the pennies.
In the meantime here is a cool film on the Motorbike that originally launched as an offroad trials bike won more competitions than any other British Motorcycle...




More soon...

Archie Mathieson, Scotland`s first Countryside Ranger...

Some times of year means emotional times for some of us...
This post is looking back on my late father who passed away on 2014.
The picture above is from the early 1980s of my dad when he was Senior Countryside Ranger for East Lothian Ranger Service, Dad was Scotland's first Countryside Ranger.
That blue Landrover is probably as well known as my dad by many in East Lothian who saw it around the County for over 18 years as he did his rounds of the car parks from up in the local Hills of the Lammermuir Hills at the Whiteadder, to Pencaitland  Railway Way walk to the coastal car parks between Barnes Ness and Musselburgh Lagoons...

Big bro and dad...

Our dad wrote a weekly Nature article for the East Lothian Courier Newspaper for i think 18 years,
I have most of these cut out the paper in boxes under my bed, maybe i or someone will one day scan them onto a PC and they could be printed in a book or something?...

Dad was awarded the British Empire Medal for `Services to the Countryside`,
Dad took hundreds of children, and their parents on nature walks at Yellowcraig and other coastline areas and had a kind of magic that captured the interest and magic of nature that has stayed with those who went on his nature walks...

I know as i have been told this by many people who met my father,,,

He met a lot of influential people, and probably influenced them,,, like Prince Bernard from the Netherlands, here with Lord Weymss..,

And was a core member of the setting up of East Lothian`s John Muir Park in the 1970s...

But he was also our dad and some of him lives on in all three of us...

Teenage Years...
I spent just over a year during the warmest driest summer on record cycling daily down to see Dad at Fidra Nursing home and we talked a lot about Dads life, from as a teenager growing up in Ayrshire where he escaped home life  to the countryside where he poached fish and went out in the woods and camped with friends...

 Later Dad helped the local Gamekeeper Donald Campbell on Mountgreenham Estate and was taught how to fish and shoot by a WW1 Sniper Veteran called Will Grant...

Leaving School and National Service;
Wil Grant and Donald Campbell were a big influence on dad and his shooting skills would see him be a gunner in a tank regiment during his 2 year Army Service,  Dad could run a 5 minute mile in full army kit!, and he had been told that if he had been called up for service he would have been selected for Sniper training, such was his excellence in fitness and training and sharp shooting...

His love of Nature and the countryside brought him to the East coast and East Lothian in 1970 when he accepted the position of Countryside Ranger...

Job advert;

My Dad taught me everything i know about being outdoors and he always said `If you can read you can teach yourself anything `...
So you can blame dad for my love of East Lothian , and esp our coastline as it is he who taught me all i know...

Thanks dad,,,

Some links about my Dad,,,

Life on the seashore

http://www.el4.org.uk/el4-cd/ranger.html

http://www.eastlothianmuseums.org/content/pages/exhibitions/on-line-exhibitions/parklife/workinglife.php

http://www.scotsman.com/news/nuthatch-has-a-crack-at-life-in-lothians-1-989690


http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/roundup/articles/2014/03/07/490872-sad-death-of-first-county-ranger/

Sunday Morning Saltmarsh cycle

Best thing about weekends on at work is the sunrises, and this winter has been superb for sunrises...

Work done and it was home and stick a Pugsley on the car and head for a half day ride- today around where i grew up at Aberlady...

The coast has so much variety despite having next to zero hills....

Someone who found inspiration for many of his books while taking walks here from his nearby house...

Here at Aberlady Bay the salt marsh is a sensitive area, so ideal to cycle the path through it to Kilspindie on a fatbike...

I first cycled along here on a mountain bike in the autumn of 1987 when aged 16 when i rode a Raleigh Maverick SE home from North Berwick i swapped a 26" wheel Raleigh road bike for, and after climbing up Gullane Hill amazed at the ease of this with the (then) latest 18 speed triple gears with a (then) tiny 26 tooth inner chain ring!,  i descended to the Reserve then along through the salt marsh and home to Craigielaw. The worm had turned for me right then, cycling off road away from traffic,  and the circle was complete when i got my first Surly Pugsley 7 years ago...
And i love to cycle here on our coast even more now as i get older and appreciate what is on our doorstep here in East Lothain... The Surly Pugsley is my inspiration...


You can still see where the old road crossed the bay here, old road you say?, you can read about it here on a previous Blog post...

And about this stone here on that blog post...

The Bay is known for it`s old fishing boats, moored in the bay and left to rot for artists to draw and paint- well so i read once somewhere...

Here is some old pics of the boats from around the turn of 19th Century...

Like the other large area of salt marsh at Tyninghame this area was all sand too...

And not that long ago as this 1930s pic shows when Aberlady Bay was described as a bathing beach in the 1934 AA road atlas!...

Birds still come to the coast here, though mostly feathered types, like Curlew...

and Shellduck...

If your a resident of the old Customs house at Kilspindie, dating from when Aberlady was the port for Haddington then you may want to copy this old pic of an early motorists gathering!...

Other remnants remain visible in the mud from the days of the port here like 2 sets of cartwheels...

Anyone any idea what this is?. kinda looks like bones, and a metal object?...

Here is a wee film i made while riding to Kilspindie using the Go Pro...
Song is `Sick Times`  by Boards of Canada





I rode along the coast below the golf course...

Kings Kilt rock...

And a boat mooring ring on a nearby rock...

A lot of sand has covered a lot of the rocks here making it a lot easier than normal to cycle over...

What a fantastic day!, been a great winter for blue skies!...

Crab Isle...

From here i headed around Shell Bay for some beach combing, always something to find washed in here...

And there is some amount of driftwood washed in, i need to do some shuttling down here with the Fat Bob Trailer soon!...

Some is ready to burn!...

Hee hee!, the 1970`s iconic Tonka might truck toy has been trumped by the Pugsley!

This is off one of the original Tonka trucks. I have a minted one in my living room shelf for books!...

Quite a lot of sea coal washed in too...

And here is why we call this `Shell Bay`....

I could go on along Gosford Bay but got other stuff to do today before Francis is home from a ski trip!...

Great to spend sometime along the coastline today below Craigielaw where we grew up and played as kids...

More soon...