Last blog post from our holiday in Dumfries!

We visited several other places on our recent holiday in Dumfries. Here are some of our photos - first from Struan Loch

Next from Otter Ponds on the Blackwater of Dee

where the only otter we saw was this one

and Clatteringshaws Loch

which has a lovely visitor centre with a coffee shop that looks over several bird feeders (though for some reason I have no photos of that!) and this lovely bug hotel

On the woodland walk near Clatteringshaws there were lots of insects. including this wonderful display of wasps and hoverflies

which includes Leucozona glaucia (new to me but we saw several on this trip) (this individual below was photographed somewhere else than the plant above.)

We also visited Caerlaverock Nature Reserve - the weather had become overcast

 and very windy - this tall grass was swirling around wildly

We had tea and cakes under this tree near the Caerlaverock Castle Coffee Shop

We stayed there even as it started to rain as we were engrossed in watching the swallows (over 50) that were sitting in the tree and flying round. In the UK, we're more used to seeing our swallows sitting on telegraph wires as they gather before migrating back to Africa but where there are no telegraph lines they use trees (as they must have done in the days before telegraph poles). Crafty Green Boyfriend  captured some of the swallows on camera

And finally we couldn't resist making friends with this cat who we met in Dumfries

So we had a wonderful holiday and I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of our photos!