Saturday 20 March 2010

Down by the Quoile

Instead of just wandering around Castlewellan, we decided to go for a drive and since it was more or less St,Patrick's day, why not head for Downpatrick and visit Saul and related places.

We arrived in Downpatrick and picked up some usefull information in the Centre just below the church. This gave us enough information to head out along the Quoile to Saul and Raholp. The roads got very narrow round here and the traffic annoyingly busy so rather than try to park and visit on foot, we back tracked to the Quoile estruary for lunch.

Parked by the water-side and later walked up to the old quayside; this had been the main landing stage for sailing ships delivering goods into Downpatrick. Now with tidal barriers further down, the quay was surrounded by fresh-water and what had been the Quoile estuary was now a peaceful fresh-water lagoon, a thriving habitat for swans and other wildlife.

We returned to Castlewellan driving through Strangford just as the ferry was rushing to unload its cargo, Ardglass, where Pauline retraced her footsteps from a summer long gone, Killough, still unchanged from what I remember from my first outdoor experience in the youth hostel at Minerstown. and finally past Tyrella House to Clough.

Friday 19 March 2010

Pre-spring Castlewellan

Our first outing for the season with a new bike for me.

It had taken us much longer than we expected to get organised and issues with the van needing charged did not help. Something up with the electrics had been draining the battery till it was virtually flat while resting over the Winter. Several charges did not seem to wholly rectify things. This was going to be a "careful" trip as we judged how well the van was holding together.

First major test of the bike was the route round the lake; not at all too testing. The bike passed with flying colours, amazingly easy to ride even up the steep incline at the far-end. Despite its 18 gears a low-6 seems more than sufficient. Even able to get up the steep incline into the campsite.

The forst remains starkley naked though. So many of the solitary trees in the parkland showing quite clearly their characteristic shape. Some, like the Weeping Willow, just looking really cool. Took an age to get this image and it still does not really work to show the tree in its full glory.

We finished up checking out the Arboretum, I especially wanted to have another go at the Sequoia thinking the Fibonacci spiral would be further exaggerated with minimal foliage; which it was but images were not much better than the original.

Found still further surprises even at this time of the year with blood-red rhodadendrons well in bloom, a storm struck cedar broken in half and a variety of beautiful barks that normally go unnoticed, normally over-powered by their foilage. Discovered a marvelous Japanese maple which illustrates this well. This particular shrub had three sides draped, like a willow, with a network of fine, bare branches. On the fourth side, the normal growth receded and we can see into the main trunk. As far as I know, these maples are not trained, they are just naturally twisted and gnarled. Clothed in moss just enhances the image with better shadings. Struggled to get any other colour in though, perhaps a good thing to leave the focus on the trunk.

Abbaye de Saint-Savin

Abbaye de Saint-Savin from the river-side garden T he church bells announced 2 o'clock and there was already a sizeable crowd of fol...