Today’s guest picture comes from a visit that my sister Mary paid to Kew Gardens at the beginning of the month.
Today was the final day of our holiday in North Berwick and naturally enough because I had got the car back and was ready to tour the beautiful countryside, the traditional east coast haar (a cold sea mist) arrived and stayed all day.
Although it wasn’t as bad as a haar can be, it excluded any hint of warmth and as a result we had a grey, cheerless day with no view worth speaking of at all and the car didn’t get an outing all day.
What we did instead, was to walk along the sea front to the harbour, stopping to look at flowers as we went…
…in order to pay a visit to the Scottish Seabird Centre.
This is run by a charity which does its best to help Scottish seabirds and it makes money from a good restaurant, a shop and an interesting exhibition centre where you can learn as much as you want about gannets and other local seabirds.
They have a very good system of remote controlled cameras on local islands and the Bass Rock so that a visitor can study the local birds from the comfort of the centre even more closely that can be done from a passing boat.
Each camera can be operated in real time by visitors using a little joystick and I had a good time picking out puffins on Craigleith Island….
…as well as a host of guillemots, cormorants, shags, razorbills, kittiwakes and gulls. There was even a seal having a snooze on the rocks.
Being able to see individual gannets on the Bass Rock, sitting on little seaweed nests was a treat.
Matilda enjoyed the thoughtfully provided soft play area too.
We had a good lunch in the restaurant and then Matilda took her parents home while we had another look at the remote cameras. A helpful assistant gave Mrs Tootlepedal a mass of interesting information about the nesting habits of the gannets.
When we left the centre, we walked out on the rocks at the end of the harbour. It had been pointed out to me that the yacht “carpark” beside the harbour was the remains of the old open air swimming pool and the colourful doors at either end…
…were the old changing cubicles, now presumably used for storage for boat owners.
There is a well made path with handrails along the rocks…
…so we didn’t fall in and I was able to observe eider ducks going up and down.
…and a few brave souls going for a chilly and windy boat ride.
There was not a lot of activity on the beach today.
We got back and had a cup of tea and sit before heading off to the High Street for a last visit to some of its excellent shops. I was able to stock up on leaf tea of good quality and just resisted buying some good looking cheese as well.
To our surprise, we found the redoubtable Matilda and her father bound for the beach when we got back to the flat and i went along to join them. I built as big a sand castle as I could in a short time…..but with inevitable consequences.
Photos courtesy of Matilda’s father.
Matilda had great fun jumping off the castle, using it as a slide and knocking as much of it down as she could. Her mother came down to join us and we had a merry time. Her father had made a more structured castle based on the Roman fort at Housteads and Matilda gave that a good kicking too.
Mrs Tootlepedal had made us another excellent meal so in spite of the gloomy weather we had good fun and ate very well on our final day.
I did catch a flying gull hanging around the seabird centre today.
Tootlepedal's Blog 
Ah, traditional British seaside weather. Still looks good though.
North Berwick turned out to be a good holiday choice.
Yes, I was quite impressed by your reports.
The Scottish Seabird Centre sounds an excellent place to visit on such a day as you had, loved the photographs you took. I remember swimming in those baths in freezing sea water!
Was that glorious carpet of blue filled with English bluebells? Stunning!
It was and they are.
I’m sorry your holiday has come to an end. You made the most of your last day and provided us with more wonderful photos. I especially liked the one-girl demolition service ones and also the eider ducks.
I would have liked to have got better pictures of the eiders but either they were bobbing up and down furiously on the waves or strong sun made the contrast too much.
I can’t imagine a more beautiful landscape photo than that one of the bluebells, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.
Too bad the sun couldn’t have shone for one more day but all in all you had a good weather week. I think Matilda had a lot of fun.
I never thought I’d see a puffin that close up.
The remote cameras were astonishing to me. Mind you, we got pretty close to puffins on the ground when we visited the Isle of May last year.
I remember that.
The Seabird Centre looks excellent, and congratulations to Matilda for her demolition efforts in spite of the chilly day.
A shame to end your vacation in such a haar-d way.
🙂
Love your eider ducks’ images and glad you got to see gannets up close on Bass Rock. A fine holiday was had by all! I think Matilda can attest to that! 🙂
Castle smashing was her chief joy.
Great bluebell vista! I am looking forward to reading your seaside saga in reverse.
Love the pattern and color of the changing cubicles.
I might well have changed in one of them 60 years ago.
A cold, but wonderful seaside vacation for all of you, especially Matilda. The northern California and Oregon coast can be cold and damp too, even in summer.