My Featured Blogger this week is Jez Braithwaite of Photos by Jez. Royal Navy veteran Jez lives in Scotland with his wife Susan. The two love to travel, and when they do, Jez captures “whatever catches my eye.” In this case, it’s the Kelpies, Falkirk, Scotland’s monumental horse sculptures, still-new (2014) and yet already legendary. Enjoy!

To see more of Jez’s work, click here.

With some time off over my birthday, my wife & I were able to get out on our first longish ride of the year (50km). Although we’ve been out on our bikes with the trailer constantly over the winter, to go shopping & run errands, this was our first chance to really get out. Over my whole time off we had strong to gale force winds & horizontal rain for much of it; we did, however, get a break last Monday & so headed to one of our favourite places, the Kelpies.

Owing to part of the canal path being closed, we had to follow an “alternative” route, one that was clearly not thought up by a cyclist. This involved following very rutted tracks that had been turned into swimming pools by the recent rain; you know it’s deep when the water comes over your wheel hubs (we have 28″ wheels, bigger than normal).

This next shot shows one of the better stretches of the path…

… but with a great view of the snowcapped Ochil Hills.

We finally arrived at the Kelpies in beautiful winter sunshine, and pulled up at some tables for well earned coffee, muffins & empire biscuits. This bit’s my entry for Xingfumama’s Pull Up a Seat Challenge.

Again, because of the large amount of rain, a large puddle had formed in front of the Kelpies, giving some unique reflections. I was lucky with my timing, a few minutes after I took these shots, another photogapher went to get some similar shots, only to have a crazy labrador go full speed through the puddle & destroy the reflections 

Just before leaving, I went to have a quick chat with a pair of swans; one unfortunately had a damaged wing, but seemed perfectly fine otherwise & their mate always stayed close at hand.