Sunday 27th November

Today, as the winds were more westerly than they had been, Chris and I decided to head to Peel. We were hopeful of some crashing waves, possibly with birds flying across the sea which could make for some nice pictures with splashy bits.

As we started driving along the seafront, we saw some surfers in the bay. I decided to get out of the car here to see if I could get some action shots of the surfers whilst Chris headed over towards the castle to see if he could find the Purple Sandpiper's.

Initially, there were three surfers in the water. Two soon came out and sat for a while on the beach before heading back to their car

The other guy stayed in the water and, after some time began to catch some waves

I carried on along the seafront towards Fenella Beach car park where Chris was parked. We spent some time getting wet with sea spray whilst trying to catch the gulls above the waves

I decided to walk around the castle to see if there were any interesting views



From up by the castle, I could see that Chris had abandoned the safety of the car to try for some shots

As I carried on around the castle, I noticed a Jackdaw walking along the bank, ignoring me completely.

I carried on around the castle. Not too many birds around here but rather damp with the sea spray. Walking back towards the car park, the waves were continuing to crash against the sea wall
 though in the bay it looked fairly calm.

One last picture of the castle before I braved the walk back to the car park, risking getting wet as the waves came over onto the road.

I made it back to the car without getting wet. Now just needed to clean all the camera gear and edit pictures

Saturday 26th November

Once again, not a very good forecast though the 'showers' were supposed to be infrequent and not too heavy - how wrong that was. As the winds were south-westerly we decided to head over to the other coast and take a walk through Groudle.

We started walking up the glen, having decided not to take lunch but return to the car for it. We had done a circular walk from here some time ago, but it had entailed a lot of road walking and coming back along the coast path, neither of which were particularly appealing today. The going was rather muddy under the trees, with bits of the path eroded into the stream. As we were passing, we went up to Glen Coar station

There were no trains so, we headed back down to the glen. We walked around the bridge to get a shot of the little house from a slightly different angle than usual

I then headed over the bridge to see if I could get an interesting shot looking back across it. Instead I had a face peering through the gaps

On the far side of the octagonal seating area, I found a tree trunk with some intact fungus on it

As we walked up the path, we got closer to the house and water wheel. As this is a shot that everyone who goes to Groudle takes, I decided to photoshop it to make it look a bit different

We carried on up the Glen, with the sky above getting progressively darker

Though that tree looks black and white, it is in colour - you need to look really close to see it. A little further on, just before going into Molly Quirk's Glen, we spotted some fungus that looked like orange peel. By now, it was so dismal that to get a shot entailed using flash.

As we neared the road, we spotted a rope swing over the river. Dave wouldn't get on it so I could take some pictures though.
As we went under the tunnel between the glens, we paused for a photo. I'd carried my tripod up here, I was determined to use it!

There were still some splashes of autumn colour in the glen

As we reached the furthest point from the car that we were going to on this walk, the rain started. The cameras went under the coats and we headed back towards the car. It eased briefly but then came on, heavier than before

We got back to the car and ate lunch whilst the rain battered down and discussed what to do next. My suggestion of going to The Trafalgar in Ramsey was ignored so, after some time we headed west. Dave reckoned that it would clear there first. We arrived at Glen Mooar and the rain had mostly eased. We got out of the car and walked down to the beach

We then decided to go to the shore at Glen Wylin to see if the waves were still crashing on the rocks. No crashing waves but, a bit of colour in the sky over Peel



The beach was cold, windy and desolate but, I love beaches in winter especially in bad weather. We decided that due to the bank of cloud there probably wouldn't be a sunset and so, headed home.

Sunday 20th November

Today Chris and I decided to head into the Curraghs for a change. We parked at our usual spot and were gathering our things from the car when Chris saw movement - a Wallaby bounding across the road behind me! After seeing this one he suddenly noticed three others that were sat near the verge. He alerted me to their presence

The one in the road didn't seem at all bothered by our being there - he just carried on washing and ignoring us

We started walking along the path. There were lots of Royal Ferns that were a lovely golden colour and lots of leaves in the stream at the side of the path

We saw some nice reflections in the stream but I couldn't quite get into the position I would have liked to take the picture

As we walked around the loop, we saw a couple more Wallabies but, none as clearly as those out on the road. We did see some fungus that was still fresh looking

I found one fungus that was similar to one that I had photographed yesterday so, I had a play in Photoshop with it

As we walked around, I looked for interesting shapes. This ivy on a tree trunk caught my eye

As we headed back towards the car, we noticed the patterns the ripples were creating in the stream. Not a very exciting picture but, might make a texture layer..

We headed to The Lhen -this area is often good for Divers in winter. So Chris parked up and I headed to the beach for a spot of tide lining.

First find - a welly. These are surprisingly common on the beaches around the island



As I carried on down the beach, I came across a handle from a spade - the sort of item that had started us out doing this in the first place

Just along from the spade and quite near to each other, I found a lobster pot that had broken free of it's buoy and the remains of a fleece top.

A little further along and I found a toilet seat - how did that get washed up on a beach?

I wandered down to the edge of the water - I do love empty beaches in winter

And so, home and an afternoon of editing