The next three photos are of some of the local houses which I particularly fancied the look of. The one below is so cute a wean/kid could’ve drawn it.

This one must once have been two flats, as you can see the window at the bottom on the left hand side was originally a doorway. The orange coloured roof tiles are called pan tiles and they were widely used on the east coast of Scotland but they originally came from Holland, they were used as ballast in ships which sailed here.

The one below is altogether much grander and as soon as I saw it I thought it looked very similar to the houses you see in France so I wasn’t surprised to see that its name is Marionville.

This one is of Elie taken from the beach in Earlsferry which is just off the main street there. They are nice wee places to visit but I really wouldn’t want to live there, they feel so remote and there’s not much in the way of shops at all. I don’t fancy having to travel miles to the nearest supermarket when we eventually downsize, so we won’t be moving to this area. The search continues!

This is a carved thistle at the beginning of the walk which has been made from an old tree stump. The path leads you to a wee stream or burn which is quite pretty as it tumbles over the rocks. I think this stream fed one of the many mills which used to make linen in the town.

The field on the other side of the burn is home to a couple of very quiet horses who are obviously great pals. They both came over to have a look at us but only one came down into the stream to have a nice drink. At the moment the wild garlic is just beginning to flower and the air is fairly pungent with it, it seems to be taking over the whole area.

The horses didn’t stay long and then ambled back to their favourite corner of their field.

At the end of the path we turned right and walked up a fairly steep farm track. The trees are still bare as you can see, apart from all the ivy which is galloping up their trunks and throttling them. I’d pull it all down if they were my trees. I’m going to go back this way in a couple of weeks just to see how different it all looks.

When you reach the top of the track there’s a good view of open fields, I think in a few weeks this place should be transformed when all the trees come into leaf and the crops start growing – whatever they are.

I don’t know about you, but I think this ploughed field is a thing of beauty. It must be quite a skill to be able to plough on what is quite steep and undulating land. It looks like it has been quilted.

This is another pair of horses which are further up the hill, they were too busy eating to even notice us, it’s nice that they seem to keep them in pairs so that they are company for each other.

The walk took us just over two hours but it was such a lovely day and there was plenty to see, it’s just great to be able to stretch your legs somewhere different after the winter. Don’t put your virtual boots away yet. The walk is only half done. Come back tomorrow for part two!

Anyway, I did take a couple of photos of a train on the bridge when I was there a couple of weeks ago but I didn’t get around to blogging about them. I just wanted to show the scale of the whole thing, fairly massive I think you’ll agree! The photo below is of a train just going on to the Forth Bridge.

If you look closely below you’ll be able to see the same train right in the middle of the bridge, it looks like a toy. As I said before, the whole bridge is massively over-engineered, deliberately so to give people confidence that it would be safe to use and wouldn’t collapse in a storm as the original Tay Bridge did.

Somehow it still manages to look elegant, despite the tons of iron which it’s made from.

This is what is left of St Andrews Cathedral. It’s quite difficult to take digital photos in a gale as you and the camera tend to get blown about. The cathedral stands above the sea and has been battered by the wind for about 1000 years. After the reformation it fell into disuse so the locals would have taken as much of the stone as they could for building purposes as usual. Well, you can’t blame them for recycling.

And this is St Andrews Castle, I have to admit that I took this one earlier in the year when the sky was blue. There are some great photos of the castle here, if you’re interested in seeing some more of it.

In no time at all it was a dark and stormy night – but that’s for another blogpost!

It actually looks far more beautiful in real life, there aren’t many parts of Fife which are very scenic but this area in the north of Fife is not bad.

I loved this gateway, it’s all dry stone walling, no mortar involved and this is one of the best I’ve ever seen.

This Spanish chestnut tree is in the grounds of the ruined Balmerino Abbey. It has been tested and apparently it’s between 400 and 435 years old. You can see that some of the branches are being supported by massive metal poles, in the same way that the Birnam oaks are.

On the left of this photo is part of the chapter house of the abbey and the huge cross is where the original altar was. Ermengarde de Beaumont founded the abbey and she is buried in front of the cross.

If you’re in the area it’s definitely worth a visit, Balmerino itself is very small but in a lovely setting by the banks of the Tay. It’s very remote though and you have to get into a car for the necessities of life as there are no shops, it would be about an eight mile round trip to buy a newspaper!

The Leven is just a wee river which flows into the River Clyde at Dumbarton Rock which you can see in this photo, but it’s still very dangerous and it seems that just about every summer some lads drown in it. They just want to have a lark but don’t realise how cold it is and it’s full of weeds which can fankle (entangle) you too.

I took this photo last week from the Fife coastal path at Kirkcaldy, just beyond Seafield Tower, walking towards Kinghorn. The rocks there are favourites with the seals and they were making themselves heard that day. Unearthly noises come from them at times, well they would be unearthly I suppose as they’re in the sea, but you know what I mean, positively eerie sounds.

I can quite see how the ancient sailors used to think that the seals were mermaids singing, especially when they hadn’t seen women for years!

I suppose it helped if they were in the water too rather than basking and looking enormously fat. It’s possible that some of these seals were about to give birth, maybe that’s what all the racket was about.

I can hardly believe that we had such lovely weather just last week. We seemed to be in a pattern of one lovely day followed by a wet one for a while but now it looks and feels like November and the schools are going back next week. That could be the cue for the sun to be splitting the pavements and a return of summer. Well maybe.

These photographs are of the Rest and be Thankful, a strange name for what is now really just a stopping/parking spot at the top of Glen Croe, which has a very steep climb to the top and if you were walking you would have to rest quite a few times before you reach it – and then be thankful you’d made it.

As you can see, there is a wee farm cottage right at the bottom. I don’t think I would like to live there, I imagine that when it is raining all the water is going to end up there. It must surely be damp.

This photograph is taken from the same place, different direction. I suppose the wee patch of water would be described as a lochan but compared with the many other lochs in the area it’s just a puddle. But the hills are lovely, especially when the sun shines on them.

It was golf. The end of the Scottish Open to be precise which took place at Loch Lomond Golf Club. The best thing about it was the scenery, they showed some lovely views of Loch Lomond and as I was brought up within walking distance of the place, it didn’t half make me feel homesick.

So when we went to Glasgow the other day we just had to travel back to Fife via Dumbarton and Stirling, stopping off at Balloch on the way.

The place was empty of people even although it was a beautiful evening but I suppose if you have that on your doorstep you do take it for granted – I know I did. It was only 7 o’clock with hours of daylight still left, but nowhere was open to hire a boat or anything – strange.

I must admit it did look even better on TV, this is just a teeny wee bit of the loch with the mountain of Ben Lomond in the background.

There are plenty photographs of Loch Lomond here.