Saturday 14th April 2012

First stop this morning was Ballaugh plantation for a walk through to Glen Dhoo. It was a pleasant walk with patches of primroses and bluebells at the side of the path but unfortunately, in shadow. We arrived at the cottage and the walked a little further up the valley. Dave mentioned how he had walked beyond this point in the past to make a circular route.

On the way back to the car, we experienced a brief hail shower but, it soon passed over. We then headed up the Druidale road to Killabrega

We returned to the car and had some lunch whilst deciding where to go next. As we were on the Druidale road anyway, we decided to carry on to Montpelier

After leaving Montpelier, we decided to go to the coast. However, we couldn't find safe parking where we wanted to go onto the coast so headed to Peel for ice cream instead.

6th April 2012

As I am working on Saturday, we decided to go out on Friday instead. Though it was dry first thing, showers were forecast and it was grey and overcast - unlike the day before which had been nice and sunny.

Firstly we headed to Ballaglass to see if the bluebells were making an appearance and to see the beast in his spring attire

Though there were a few Bluebells, it will be a few weeks until we get the blue carpet in the glen. We did see some Primroses and Marsh Marigold

After leaving Ballaglass, we headed to Garwick. Whilst on the beach, we had our first few spots of rain

We had lunch at Garwick and took a few long exposure shots of the sea - I'd carried my tripod down there and was determined to use it.

We left Garwick and headed to Onchan harbour, we had walked past this a few times in the past but hadn't been down. By this time it was getting dark despite only being a little after 2pm so the pictures weren't very good. We left Onchan and started heading north, we called into Laxey, contemplating an ice-cream but, decided it was too cold and damp so headed home for coffee instead.

31st March 2012

Today we drove down south to Port St Mary. The plan was to walk the coastal path to the chasms, over the top to Cregneish, a visit to the mull circle then back to the car.

As we walked through Port St Mary, it was a little dull. We set off, hoping for brighter weather. It stayed dull as we walked across the cliff path with Dave commenting how sunny it looked in the north of the island! There were lots of spring lambs about.

After some time, we reached the chasms. We walked down to the cliff edge and watched the Kittiwakes taking off from the Sugarloaf, circling round and landing again.

After some lunch, we headed back up the hill and down towards Cregneish

We carried on through Cregneish and towards the single track road leading to the mull circle. Finally the sun was shining and we saw bits of blue sky



We then headed down a footpath that would eventually lead us back to Port St Mary. The one that Dave chose was rather muddy in places with me ending up in mud that almost came over the top of my boots at one point

As we got back into Port St Mary, the tide had started to come in and there was a bit of sunshine