Monthly Archives: May 2014

Logging on Laurieston? Stick with me – I’ll get there eventually. I decided to change the oil and filter on the Ten today. It’s almost two years since she had an oil change but with only 2500 miles covered in that time while I was attending surgery she wasn’t coming to any harm.

A pleasant afternoon spent fiddling around with my spanners was all the excuse I needed to take her out on ‘test’ this evening.

A bike ride keeps me out of the pub and also means I don’t spend my evening cooking and eating. Pays dividends on the waist line —

I started late so I didn’t go far – round to Gatehouse and over the hill to Laurieston was enough running to check for oil leaks —

and that brought me to the Laurieston Forest logs – I told you I would get there —

It’s a shame that straight mature trees like that find themselves chopped into short lengths and turned to pulp or chipboard but it’s the way of the world —

I can see where all this bike maintenance is leading to – one of these fine days the Ten and I will probably be loading up and heading off somewhere. That is providing I get the all-clear on my next visit to the surgeon in July 🙂

Logging on Laurieston

Hi Ho Silver – I’m the Lone Ranger – Not. But it certainly felt like it this evening.

That’s not Silver enjoying the late evening sun —

and this isn’t the Lone Ranger —

But that is Bruce’s Stone he has his foot on. King Robert was fighting a guerrilla war in these parts and he is supposed to have fallen asleep while leaning against it —

It was lovely in the forest tonight —

and real nice out of it too —

The Ten went off to herd some sheep at one stage —

while I messed around with the camera —

then we had fun on the dirt —

The Ten likes to pose —

and I really like this shot —

but I’m spoiled for choice tonight —

so I will stop —

while I’m ahead 🙂

Hi Ho Silver

Everything is relative but for me it was a late run to Luce Bay. After a day spent pottering in the garden and dodging showers the evening looked promising for a bike ride. West is always favourite and I had some idea that I would reach Stranraer but a new road (for me) beckoned as I passed Glen Luce.

It said Stairhaven on the sign but this isn’t it —

Ahh – this is more like it. What looks like an old Millhouse plus a handful of new houses. There’s still some for sale if anyone wants to live at the back of beyond and brave the winter gales off the Irish Sea —

The poser in the pic will pass on staying in this remote spot although they are a public spirited lot and have provided a toilet block so maybe it does get busy round here in the summer but I can’t imagine why.

Unless it’s the views on the way in —

Out of the hamlet and over the hill leads to Luce Bay as I know it. A nice beach and a wide grass verge to park on with views all along the coast when you are not squinting into the low evening sun —

Dead ahead is the Isle of Man which will be a Mecca for motorcyclists in a few weeks time —

This coming weekend sees racing on the public roads of Northern Ireland up by Port Rush. But – I’ve done all that many years ago and my little Honda VFR400 NC30 got a 3rd place there in the early nineties so I don’t see the need to go back there again.

The A75 along which I travelled tonight will be busy with bikers as they make their way to the ferry port at Cairnryan. Crowds in the region of 100,000 are normal and most of them will have travelled from the UK. It all means a big police presence on the A75 this week so I didn’t give them much to wag there fingers at. It was different in the old days when a big Irish police sergeant with a pistol on his hip pulled me in and gave me a severe dressing down.

I was lucky because some of the stunts I pulled while racing for the last ferry of the day should have had me in the Maze Prison. No worries – the big fella was ‘broad-minded’ about it all and I lived to tell the tale 🙂

Late Run on Luce Bay

Holy Hailstones! Sounds about right. I watched Lewis just do enough to win the Barcelona FI GP for Mercedes before I slipped into leather jacket and jeans for a trundle wherever the sun was shining.

There were black clouds round the Galloway Hills but enough blue between them to take me all the way to the old viaduct before the first drops of rain appeared on my visor. It was a case of hauling the wet weather gear out of the panniers or back-tracking and following another gap in the clouds to the ancient ruins of Anworth Church. I chose the latter —

The sun may be shining on me but that is a dangerous looking sky back there —

I quickly snapped the cottage across the road and gave the Ten her head for home hoping to reach the coast before that cloud did. It was a dead heat!

I caught the edge of the hailstone shower on the hill above town but managed to park the bike and get indoors just as things got serious.

Anworth Church was built around the year 1600 in time for the trouble and strife brought to the region in the name of the Covenanters. It was used as a place of worship for approximately 200 years till 1826 when the current church was built about a hundred yards along the road.

A famous minister at Anworth Old Church from 1627-36 – the Rev Samuel Rutherford must have done something wrong and found himself banished to Aberdeen. Strange as it may seem – I have come in the opposite direction from my birthplace in Aberdeenshire to Anworth almost 400 years later.

Here I am pictured with my dad when he returned after four years of war in 1946. I was a very shy four years old and I doubt if I had any idea who he was – never having seen him before 🙂

Holy Hailstones!