An amazing day

Already the countryside is starting to have an Autumnal look

An amazing mass of Spear thistle seed heads  in the grass

An amazingly beautiful warm, sunny day and Grey Granite and Rufus were challenged to have an amazing day, so having the day to themselves, they decided to walk from New Aberdour down to the shore. The followed the track behind the school and then crossed a field to reach the shore between the Boat Shore and New Aberdour Beach.

There are fewer wild flowers in bloom than when we visited at the end of June. We did notice many field scabious flowers, Grass of Parnassus and knapweed. Grey Granite's mum used to say that if field scabious, which she called thunder flooer, was picked it would thunder, mindful of this and the need not to spoil a bonny day we left it well alone

Oyster plant, not yet in flower but it has survived the winter storms

There are amazing views, here looking down on the Boat Shore, Dundarg castle is on the right

After spending some time on the beach and after Rufus had a cooling swim in the Dower we returned  to the village past the  16th century ruins of St Drostan's Kirk . We rested briefly in the kirkyard, an amazing tranquil place, said to be one of the earliest Christian settlements in Scotland. The gravestones have familiar place and family names, there is an interesting doocot in the corner by the manse garden.

There are amazing mortality symbols on the older gravestones

This was an amazingly satisfying walk on a day of rare beauty. Grey Granite and Rufus returned home mid afternoon just as dark clouds began to gather . We wondered if someone had picked  a scabious but felt that we had made the most of an amazing day