Farewell to sun, sea and sand

Today’s guest picture comes from my brother Andrew who was beside the river on a sunny day in Nottingham.

For our last day beside the sea in East Lothian, we got continuous sunshine.  This was very welcome.  I put my nose out of the back gate to check the temperature…

…and found that it was still a little chilly with the wind coming off the North Sea.  Still, it was warm enough for us to go along for a coffee on the terrace of the Seabird Centre at the harbour where we enjoyed the company of a one legged gull…

…standing on a sculpture of a seal.

Then, to our great delight, we saw a real seal swimming along just off the shore.  I took many pictures but I only had the Lumix with me and for all its merits, taking long distance pictures of moving objects is not one of them.  This was my best effort…

…but I can assure you that there was a seal underneath that ripple.

Not long afterwards we saw several groups of what we took to be porpoises heading across towards the Bass Rock.  They were further out and I didn’t even manage to get a ripple from them.  All the same, it was very good value for the price of a cup of coffee.

We then went down to the beach where the wildlife was more co-operative.

Eider ducks

Cormorants in a typical pose

Matilda soon got down to the business of castle building…

….with a willing band of helpers.

As you can see, she was working hard…

….and her helpers felt quite exhausted watching her.

Sadly, the tide which was coming in and against which the castle and its ramparts had been built, decided to turn back several yards before it reached the castle so Matilda gave up work and devoted herself to having fun.

And then we went for lunch.   It had been a hard morning.

After lunch, the rest of the party returned to the beach where Matilda and her father paddled in the sea and her mother and grandmother did not.

I went out on my new bike for twenty miles.   The roads were still good and the views were satisfying..,..

And I even saw another doocot at Dirleton Castle.  The castle itself is hidden behind the trees.

The beach party had returned by the time that I got back and after a pause, we set out to have our last holiday meal in the town.  We topped it off with a North Berwick ice cream and then Matilda and her parents packed themselves and their belongings into their car and headed back to Edinburgh where they had an early start planned for a day full of activities tomoorow.

Mrs Tootlepedal and I took a final walk along the rocks at the harbour where the eider ducks seemed to have had a disagreement and were sitting apart.

Out at sea two yachtsmen stopped for a chat.

The light was fading as we went back to the cottage.

We have had a good week with plenty of sunshine and endless fun on the beach and the bonus of 60 miles on the bike for me, including two bike outings with Mrs Tootlepedal.

This will be the last flying herring gull of the day for some time, I expect.

Fittingly, as I wrote this post, we finally got a sunset to give us a proper farewell from North Berwick and the Firth of Forth.