Rosemarkie Beach

Up early and out in the garden to enjoy the sunshine. Beautiful blue skies and after drying the chairs and finding a spot in the sun it was quite warm, although I was tempted to go back indoors and get a blanket.
We've now got two baby robins and one baby starling who was remarkably quiet for a starling.
We went to the beach in the afternoon as the Groam house Museum had some activities as part of the Festival of Museums , a weekend of discovery.
Mike went on the walk to Cairds Cave with a group of about 20 people , lead by Simon Gunn, leader of the Rosemarkie Caves Project. I knew I would nt be able to keep up so I went for a walk along the beach and up to the path to see the bluebells. Very pretty and I sat on Willies green. bench. Plenty of birds around including what I think was a Spotted fly catcher.
I walked back along the top path now in fairly heavy rain and sat on a bench near the cafe to wait for Mike. I had watched a local photographer holding a photo shot on the beach and have now seen the stunning photos on Facebook. She's a very talented young lady :)
I watched dogs chasing balls, children in rain macs and bare feet paddling in the sea, I could hear laughter from the Play park behind me.
Further long the beach a group of people were making a large Mandala. I walked along when Mike came for a closer look. It looked wonderful. Therese Muskas was the artist involved encouraging children and adults to take part.The Mandala was made from anything collected from the beach and surrounding area,so lots of stones,shells of all shapes and sizes and plenty of seaweed, all very impressive. 'The word Mandala comes from Sanskirt and means circle. Mandalas are used in Hinduism and Buddhism as an aid to meditation.They consist of colourful patterns and symbols organised around a unifying centre, Buddhist monks traditionally make them out of sand ' (info from the museum website )
The sea will come in and wash everything away and returned to nature. The tide was on the turn as we left.
As we were walking back to the car I heard a voice behind me say 'Excuse me, are you a Blipper ?' and to my surprise it was 'Fundays' and her husband. It was soo nice to meet them especially as we've been blip friends for so long. 

I've been watching the web feed from Loch Garten and following the sad sight of EJ and her remaining chick waiting for Odin to return. It's very unlikely the the chick will survive now, it's soo tiny. What will happen next, will Cromarty the new male return, is there still time for EJ to mate again, will Odin turn up ? All interesting research although heartbreaking to see the poor little chick so helpless. Yesterdays weather could nt have helped either :(