Finally! A brief report on last week’s walk with our Ranger…
A party of ten set off from Villafield and walked down the track to the NW. Dominique gave us instruction to have our cameras out and use them – and we did! Beginning with the cows immediately to hand,
and snapping wild flowers as we went,
we came shortly to a ruinous cottage at Mires
– with a rotting wooden post just before the cottage attracting much attention.
We spent some time around Mires, variously snapping Bird’s Foot Trefoil, Marsh Marigolds, Bog-cotton, orchids, timid rabbits and the odd ruin (like each other). Then we moved on to the cliff top, to photograph more wild flowers, the seascape, abundant fulmars, boulder beaches, old rotting carcases. . . It is truly amazing just what will draw the photographic eye!
We plodded on, to Boloquoy – pausing to look at and photograph lichens, and to take many and various shots of an abandoned ladder in a field.
At Boloquoy we were treated to a little talk on the history and function of the mill from Mr O Driver. We also ate our lunch, leaving a disappointingly short time for shooting the actual mill, which sports a water wheel that remains in astonishingly good shape.
While we dawdled at the Mill I was persuaded to whip out both my zoom lens and my polarising filter – to good effect.
With the promise of a cup of tea waiting for us at Lonnie, we made our way up the slight rise from Boloquoy – finding a few photographic subjects on the way. There included another ruinous cottage (with a strikingly well tended garden for contrast) and a delightfully aged red tractor.
After a lovely cup of tea and tasty cake from the equally lovely M.at Lonnie, we dawdled the last few yards back to the cars – deeply content after a simply smashing outing. The weather was kind and the company was delightful.
Here is the route – just under 2 miles but it took us 3 hours due to all the shutter action.
I took a whopping 239 exposures and a set of 87 images made it as far as Flickr. The group of walkers are sharing their favourite shots via the gallery on the Sanday web site. Not all images are up yet but you can view the ones that are in the album here.
Here is my Flickr set, as a slideshow (if you have the stamina!)