Let’s start with the nice things about Blackpool. The Blackpool Tower is lovely. Great architecture, wonderful decor, stunning views from the tower’s observation deck.

The Blackpool Tower Ballroom was particularly nice and surprisingly large inside. It was nice to be able to wander about freely and enjoy people partaking in tea or dancing.

Blackpool’s got a pier, which was pretty basic but you’ll not find me saying a bad word about piers as I’m a bit of a fan of piers. Why not see for yourself by checking out other piers I’ve liked?

It also had some lovely trams that ran at night, lit up, very pretty.

The rest of Blackpool was a shithole.

Cardoness Castle was an abandoned tower house, originally built in the 15th century, and now cared for as a protected monument. On the day we visited we were the only people there and the only other car in the car park was, we think, the ticketing staff member’s. There was quite a hike up to the top of the tower and we’re not fit people but we’ve never refused a tower climbing challenge yet.

Dundrennan Abbey was a Cistercian abbey, now ruins, though with some well-preserved details. For its part in history it was the place in which Mary, Queen of Scots spent her last night in Scotland in 1568 before she headed to England and was captured.

When we arrived at the abbey we saw a few other cars present and some people heading through the entrance as it had just opened. We approached the entrance and spotted a sign that indicated we should turn left to buy tickets for entry but we were confused as nobody else was. Nevertheless, we obeyed the sign and headed down to a hut, entered, and asked for tickets. The man inside was shocked and remarked that most people ignored the sign and that it was nice to have someone pay for a change. We laughed about it and explored the ruins, noticing that the people who’d not paid were universally older and all Scottish. Some comment about stereotypical tightness might have slipped our lips.

As befits a place named the Lake District we headed directly for a lake in order to get out and take a look around. Blue sky, blue water, and vibrant green grass made for some lovely views and opportunities to take plenty of photos as we stretched our legs.

Once we’d had our fill of fresh air and bright colours, and once I’d sated my need to take pictures of the landscape, we jumped back in the car and headed out of the lakeside area towards Grasmere where my wife remembered she’d bought gingerbread as a youngster and wanted to do so again. The weather changed significantly between our walk along the water and our arrival in the village with us being forced to run for cover between buildings but our quest for the gingerbread was a successful one.

There wasn’t a huge amount to see as the ruins of Threave Castle itself are quite small although its location and views were pretty good even under not the prettiest of skies.

The main thing for us, though, was that Threave Castle was on an island. We’d guessed there would be a bridge to it but we soon discovered it could only be reached by boat. As a fun element to the visit the boatman would only come to ferry you across when you rang a bell so we duly did that before our trip to the castle’s keep. After we’d returned to the mainland and explored the garden areas for a bit we passed the pontoon to get across to the island again and saw a group of people standing there, waiting, looking across the water to the boatman who was simply looking back. They hadn’t realised the bell needed ringing. Luckily for them my wife walked down, struck the bell, and we wandered off as we heard the boat finally start up and head towards the sheepish-looking visitors.

Unlike Threave Castle in the vicinity there was no need to make use of a boatman to get us across to the castle’s interior this time as the moat was fairly narrow and easily crossed by a small bridge. The ruins of the inside of Caerlaverock Castle were not so all-encompassing as to prevent plenty of wandering around, up, and on.

Outside the castle were a few siege weapons. Caerlaverock had been besieged a number of times in its past and reenactments are a regular occurrence at the Scottish castle. I’m always partial to a nice trebuchet although the one we saw was pretty small.

We had a very enjoyable visit to the Merseyside Maritime Museum in the dock where there was a fascinating exhibition showcasing pictures from Shackleton’s 1914 Endurance expedition to the Antarctic then set off for some general exploration. The architecture of big cities in the north of the country is always impressive as they didn’t suffer from bombardment during the war unlike Portsmouth so I always love walking amongst the huge, imposing buildings they have.

Another thing we don’t have in Portsmouth is a Chinatown but the one in Liverpool was very attractive and very similar to any other you’d see in a big city.

I had been hoping to find many of my old haunts from my university days in Liverpool but things had changed much more than I’d hoped. One of the night clubs I had fond memories of was still present, though: the Blue Angel. Situated over several floors and playing a range of music from the alternative stuff we liked back then through to the dance music we found a tolerance for once we’d had enough to drink.

Liverpool’s famous Cavern club was also still there, naturally. When we visited and had a drink the venue smelled strongly of urine. You’d think that such an obvious tourist attraction might have clean toilets but you would be wrong. I pointed out the stage to my wife where in 1992 I and several friends had got up in front of a packed club and waved, accepting the happy cheers from everyone. That was the night we’d pretended to be Danish just after Denmark had won the European cup and the DJ had invited us up. Good times. One of my friends spent the evening telling girls his name was Fleming but that all his friends called him Flem. No, he didn’t get anyone to kiss him.

During the days we went exploring the Dumfries and Galloway area, driving around the park, visiting the nearby towns, and taking in some culture afforded by the historical buildings we happened upon: Cardoness Castle, Threave Castle, Caerlaverock Castle, and Dundrennan Abbey. We had no direct plans and just drove where the roads took us or where we noticed signs of interest which also led to us heading down single track roads and finding ourselves with occasionally gorgeous photo opportunities of the Galloway countryside and lakes.

All the photos here are from a couple of lunchtime walks in Chilgrove during September, 2010. I didn’t have a macro lens at this time but the telephoto did well enough for landscapes and closer shots too.

This time of year saw the sunflowers out in abundance and over one hill near our office and down the other side there was a large pumpkin patch ready to be fully utilised for the oncoming Halloween period.

I love seeing insects doing whatever it is they feel compelled to do around plantlife. In later years I would have a very good macro lens for getting far closer to them and capturing far more detail.

Being out of the city also meant there were some insects you don’t normally see such as this Brimstone Butterfly. We tend to only see far more common varieties in our garden but I love the camouflage that has developed over millenia on creatures like this.

As you might imagine, where there are insects or any other small creatures for that matter, there will be birds. The two main types we saw at Chilgrove at this time of the year were the impressive raptors hovering high above before swooping down on mammals and rodents…

…and the unbelievably moronic pheasants. I don’t know how a bird can possibly evolve to both run instantly at the sight of a human yet also see or hear an approaching car and think to itself “I’ll just step out in front for a closer look at that”. A very regular occurrence was turning up at the office or arriving back home and spending a few minutes picking bits of pheasant out from the grille or washing down blood around the wheel arches where another suicidal avian had decided to interrupt the countryside drive.

Not all birds met their ends with automobiles, though. While it was attractive out in the countryside around Chilgrove nature would often remind you that it can also sometimes be a little unsettling too.