Saturday 12th May 2012

Well, there have been no posts for a few weeks as Chris and I have been off island. We went to Speyside, Norfolk and Derbyshire on holiday, including visiting friends. Had a great time taking pictures of different views and wildlife.

This morning Dave and I first headed to Cooildharry. He had bought a new lens whilst I'd been away - Sigma 10-20mm and we were keen to try it out. These were the first shots I took with it

There was lots of new fern growth and the garlic was flowering though large swathes of it appeared to be frost burnt

After Cooildharry, we headed towards Peel but parked along the switchback and walked to Whitestrand. The beach was completely empty and made a great spot for lunch. The first picture here was taken with my 17-70, the second with Dave's new lens

As we walked back up to the car, I noticed this intact dandelion clock

Next stop was to be Ballaglass (via Laxey for ice-cream!). Prior to my holiday the bluebells had only just started coming out. I hoped they hadn't gone over whilst we'd been away. On arriving at Ballaglass, though a lot of the greenery was flattened the bluebells were still in flower though, there didn't seem to be as many as last year.