Tuesday 27th March 2012

This morning the sun was shining again with blue skies so, I decided to head to the Ayres. A friend in Derbyshire had taken some pictures of Lizard this week so, I was hoping that I might get some as it was so warm.

On the way past Mooragh Park, I noticed that the lake was looking quite still so, pulled in for a picture

I parked by the visitor centre and set off across the heath. I was seeing a lot of green things skittering through the grass - mostly grasshoppers but, I kept on thinking I had seen something larger but couldn't locate it again.

I arrived at the plantation. Apart from the usual tits I didn't see anything unusual

I started heading back towards the car park and then I saw it again - definitely a bigger greener thing than before. I stopped to investigate more fully - Green Tiger Beetle, about six individuals on this one patch. The first ones this year



On arrival back at the car park, man who was on the tower hide said he had seen Great Crested Grebe. I went onto the beach and tried for a picture but, unfortunately it was too far away and moving all the time

Sunday 25th March 2012

Well, what another beautiful day! We were up bright and early and headed up the Druidale Road

We arrived at Montpelier and went for a short walk

Then Chris found a swing and just had to have a go on it

We then headed to Ballaugh shore and had a short walk

In the late evening, we decided to head up to the Point of Ayre in the hopes of a nice sunset. On the way, we stopped at the Grand Island to look back at Ramsey in the evening sunshine

On arrival at the point, there was time for a spot of tidelining before the sunset. Apart from the usual rubber gloves and odd shoes, there were a number of plastic forks. Other items of interest were a clothes peg and an articulated dolls arm

As the sun started to descend, we realised it was going to get lost in the cloud bank and not give us the spectacular sunset we had thought might happen. Still, there were still some nice colours in the sky

I've now got a week off - lets hope the weather stays like this!

Saturday 24th March 2012

As I was full of a cold, we decided on a gentler walk today, though Peel to St Johns and back was not quite what I had in mind when I got up! We parked at the Raggat and began walking along the old railway track

As we wandered along, we kept a lookout for a track that Dave recalled seeing on the map that went off to the right and met up with the road. We found the track and followed it, initially thinking we were supposed to cross a slippery weir but, then we found the path went on and led to a bridge.

When we got to the main road, we decided we were best heading into St Johns and returning along the railway track rather than going along the road.

As we headed back towards the Raggat, we caught sight of a butterfly. Luckily it landed - our first Peacock of the year! Unfortunately it was partially obscured by grasses

When we returned to the Raggat, it was time for lunch which we ate sat in the sunshine beside the river - very pleasant!

After lunch, we headed up to the Foxdale mines

On returning the car we decided we had done enough walking for the day and debated between going to the pub or for an ice-cream. As it was such a nice day and Peel would be busy, the pub won so, a short time later we were sat in the front beer garden of the Mitre in Kirk Michael enjoying a shandy



Sunday 18th March 2012

A couple of weeks ago, Chris and I celebrated our Silver Wedding Anniversary. Our present to us was a new car - an MR2. When we got up this morning, it was a beautiful day - blue skies and sunshine, just made for topless motoring! So, we dropped the roof and headed for Cornaa

After leaving Cornaa, we headed around the coast to Port Mooar, pausing for photo ops on the way

From Port Mooar, we headed to Port Lewaigue

From Port Lewaigue, we headed up to the Point of Ayre. I did go for a short walk here but, the wind (that I had been sheltered from in the car) was quite cold

After some lunch, we headed back into Ramsey. As we were passing the Trafalgar, we noticed it was open so, called in for a swift pint

Saturday 17th March 2012

We started off the morning by the pier, taking some shots of a beautiful morning at the beach

 Dave and I initially considered heading next to Port St Mary but, once we got onto the Mountain Road, it looked a little cloudy down south so we turned off to Sulby Reservoir instead. There is a walk you can do (apparently) from the reservoir, through to Druidale, along to Montpelier and back to the starting point. Both Dave and I have tried in the past to find the path from the Druidale end with no success so, we decided today we would try from this end

We crossed over the bridge but, could find no trace of the path over the other side. We decided to head back along the side of the reservoir and look the path up on Google earth when we got home.

On nearing the car park, we decided to head over to Druidale to see if we could catch any of this stage of the classic car rally that was on. When we got to the end of the farm road however, we found the stage had already ended



After some lunch, we headed down into Sulby valley and then into the Curraghs. We were lucky enough to see four Wallabies whilst walking around

On leaving the Curraghs, we headed for a walk along Ballaugh shore. The tide was out and the sun still shining