CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

The Southern Upland Way is Britain's first official coast to coast long distance foot-path. It runs 212 miles (340 km) from Portpatrick on the south-west coast of Scotland to Cockburnspath in the east and just 9-miles from Dunbar, where the John Muir Way begins and takes walkers 130 miles (215km) to Helensburgh in the east. The route takes walkers through the beautiful village of Abbey St Bathans in the Lammermuir Hills alongside Whiteadder Water.  The path follows the river for a mile before heading east towards Cockburnpath. On Saturday I walked this small part of the Southern Upland Way and also through the village itself in the warm spring sunshine.  The colours of leaves and wildflowers were breathtaking and the only noise came from the wind in the trees, the bird song and the bubbling of the water on the rock in the nearby river. There are also some walks on the bank of Whiteadder Water that are not part of the Southern Upland Way but are worthy of me...

While walking along the Southern Upland Way near Abbey St Bathans yesterday I came across this iron sculpture made from old farm tools and mechanical parts. It looked like an ostrich to me and it took about five foot high. The sunlight coming through the trees created pools of light on the sculpture and highlighted the head.  The iron had started to rust and the textures and colours in the metalwork were beautiful.   I took a few shots of the head using the 56mm f1.2 lens at a wide aperture to give a shallow depth of field to concentrate the viewers attention on the head of the sculpture. Images taken on a Fujifilm X-T1 + XF56mm f1.2R ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE By clicking on the adverts you are helping support this blog - thank you. ---------------------------------------------------------...

During yesterday's walk along the Southern Upland Way near to Abbey St Bathans in the Lammermuir Hills I came across some Rhododendron bushes that were covered in white flowers.  A further along the trail there were bushes covered in pink and purple flowers as well. This time of year Rhododendron's are in full flower and are quite beautiful, however Rhododendrons are not native to the UK and they are quite destructive in killing off native plants and local eco systems.   Steps have been taken in parts of the UK to clear Rhododendrons in an attempt to restore the natural habitat.  The shrubs can be thought of as gigantic weeds and hopefully they can be brought under control. CLICK HERE for more information on the damage caused by Rhododendrons ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PLEASE SUPPORT THIS BLOG BY VISITING THE ADVERTISERS ON THIS PAGE ...