Fair Ayr

Went for a walk along the seafront from Doonfoot towards Ayr town yesterday. It was decidedly bracing, especially since I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and gilet.

[Does getting older mean that the body can't cope easily with temperature fluctuations?]

The white splodges in the bottom left are part of a large flock of swans feeding in the sea. I suppose that is a benefit of all the sewage treatment work carried out by the council recently. The swan populations round the mouth of the river Doon and in the river Ayr have increased dramatically over the past few years. I haven't scientifically tried to count them, but I'd estimate that there must be close on 100 swans around now. The sound of wing claps as 10 or so of them took off from the waves at the beach was something to hear.


Just as surprising was the phalanx of swimmers going down and then back up the river Doon. Granted that they were all wearing wet suits, but it wasn't warm and the water conditions were decidedly choppy - the tidal impact at the mouth of the river is quite marked. I suppose it takes all sorts and I've no doubt many folks think I've got more than a few peculiar habits (no need to give me a list, thank you!).

Ayr's weather is actually not bad (especially when compared with Dunoon's Duffy), but I thought the first photograph would give a good impression of what it was like yesterday; no rain, just cloud.

We passed a new construction site down beside the foreshore. No indication of what was being built. It strikes me that we could take a leaf from some of our continental neighbours who require the building permit details to be published at the site, before work is started. That way we could check up (and object) on what had been approved.