New Year's walk

 Last night the new year stormed in with a gale..and carried on through the day!

The usual barrage of fireworks was one brief burst from one person.... thankfully.

By late morning it was still windy but warmer.. unseasonably so.

We didn't think it safe for a bike ride, and the alternative was an hour's walk around our end of the village then out past one old mill site, past the stud fields...empty of horses today... and back past another derelict mill.

Coming up from the last mill I walked on the road and Pirate walked along the field side of the hedge, collecting a carrier bag of litter that had been thrown over the hedge. There is a lot less than there used to be, thankfully, but some seem to resent the fact that some of us in the village do litter pick.

Happy New Year to you all. Hoping for a kinder, thoughtful, constructive one

It even feels like it..

Spring,that is...
Before they left, I had a walk around Hannahston with The Oily one and his fellow worker..result a feed bag which we filled with litter.

 Mare's Tail (Equisetum) then Wood Anemone

 Coltsfoot,showing flowers before leaves

 The view to home from the reserve's high point

 rubbish! It is improving, there must be more people lifting litter as they walk. but there is no reason to drop it in the first place.

I've got three loads of washing done and dried on the line,including towels and bedding and to top everything I went out on the bike for two hours!

At this point I regretted taking this route

 looking back down..a couple of places where someone lost the road...

 Above Cumnock on the way to Auchinleck..abandoned lines

 wood fired power

 and the Barony A frame, a memorial to the closed coal pit

 A fish ladder at Ochiltree

 and, three miles from home, "I see the sea...." River Clyde to be exact.

All other jobs have been left..you only have a certain amount of energy, if you want to do things every day!

litter

Two big bagfuls collected, one on our walk around Hannahston woodland path, the other on our way to and from there.

We've returned to chilly and damp,with intermittent sun...makes a change from snow.

grabbing some fresh air

 not a smart drinker

 sun..over there

 sheep...

 and more snow

 one bagfull less of litter on the paths

more hedge trimming

At home for a change...after trimming a friend's hedge in Ayr this morning...

Just after that, when I still had the camera to hand, a small car drew up over the road...lost?we thought?

No,changing the car air freshener and chucking the packet out of the window.
Not youngsters, a middle aged couple....who when asked topickit up,denied it and started swearing.

I wonder if they realized that I'd photographed car and numberplate?  Incident reported to the police....hopefully they'll be prosecuted and fined...the going rate is £75 I believe.

We're fed up of litter louts!!