First day of Spring

Well it's the first day of Spring and my birthday. Not quite as exciting as last year, no solar eclipse to wake up for but still a good.
Richard made me a lovely, lemon and lime birthday cake which I enjoyed with a cup of tea this afternoon.
Mike and myself went out for a walk. We've always wanted to walk to the end of the old pier near Redcastle but were unsure of how to get there. As we drove past the church at Killearnan we noticed a footpath so parked the car to go down to explore. We discovered the old quarry where was taken via the pier to be loaded on to boats and taken across the Firth to be used in the construction of the Caledonian Canal.
We walked past snowdrops and daffodils which were starting to bloom.
At the bottom of the path a large house , Quarry House, had fine views over the Beauly Firth. We walked by Quarry Cottage where the Author of  a book about the history of Redcastle lived.The book is one we have on the bookshelf.
We found the path that takes you onto the piece of man made land that sticks out into the water. It was nt too easy to walk on for me but I managed to make it to the end. There were great views back to the small village and you could see the remains of the castle through the trees. A female sparrow hawk flew past. Red kites and buzzards were flying high up , geese were coming into land and you could hear curlew and oyster catchers.