Cairngorms Life

So far as June starts we have had glorious weather, day seven of the month and everyday the temperature has gone up above twenty degrees C , the night temps have still been cold , but days like these are great. Garden is suffering but when you are on private water supply you just do not know just how much water to use on plants as one of these days with global warning we may not be able to cope.

2nd.

Got the moth trap out last night and it was very successful, had a load of small brown jobbies that are a job to identify, so I tend to just set them free and concentrate on the larger more easier to identify. So here are a few of what I caught. The above is a White Ermine.

These two are probably the most attractive I get regularly in the trap, they are Small Elephant Hawk moths.

When I let them go one settled on this plant, look how well they blend in so well camouflaged if it wasn’t for the white legs and antennae you would have a job to see it.

These two, as much as I looked through my book and on an app, I could not identify them, maybe one of you can help me out here?

7th.

Went for a walk today beside Loch Moraig, parked my car above the main car park which is hidden in the dip below these walkers. I took the shot as I presumed with an instructor they were going to climb the Munro Carn Liath (which is the distant path in front of them) and some of them were thinking “that looks a long hike to me in this heat, shall I make it?”

Plenty of birds in and around the Loch, just captured these Geese above the cows, coming into land.

Spotted this baby Pied Wagtail on the rocks , had to keep low to avoid it flying off, hence the blurred vegetation in front of it.

Of course not far away was one of the parents keeping a close eye on me and the youngster.

Not a great shot of a flying Heron , but the shot is a hard crop as it was a long way off.

8th.

For three days now we have had Army Air Corp Apache helicopters out of Leuchars airfield make low level flying over us. First day I didn’t have my camera set up for such an event, second day I was ready and got the first image, third day I was out in the garden with my camera on the back door step and achieved the shot I wanted (the second shot). on the last two occasions we actually got the guy in the back to wave at us and so low we could see him laughing. Hope you enjoy, I certainly did.

10th.

Okay, I have shown you plenty of Pine Martin shots, but this is a first. Actually managed to not take a shot through the double glazing of the living room window. It came at seven forty five in the morning and though I was still in my dressing gown I got the camera and sneaked out the back door and slowly advanced towards the feeding box. The first shot was taken through the garden flowers from a distance of twelve yards and well crouched down. I slowly advanced every time it put it’s head into the box until I got to within six yards and took the second shot, which I am well pleased with.

11th

I thought this might become a pattern for the pine martin so I set up my portable hide and got up bright and early, sat in the hide for an hour, no sign of the beast so took a few of our garden birds close up instead.

Collard Dove

Hen Sparrow.

Female chaffinch

Male Chaffinch.

To complete the trio one of their babies.

Male Blackbird

Baby Blackbird

All taken from this hide.

15th.

Had an interesting week with the people staying in the self catering let next door to us, four men staying in the cottage and another four or six within the group staying in motor homes in the lay-by close by. They were from a group of enthusiast amateur gold prospectors, going each day to separate known streams that gold had been found in before and either snorkelling and fanning and turning over rocks, or actually panning for gold. So far most have found gold in one form or another, some just dust or flour as they call it as in shot one. Or the champion of the week this guy (in shot two) who has found nuggets by just diving/snorkelling and fanning the water, as he puts not disturbing nature to much. in the file is gold and believe it or not silver. He got the silver out of a fairly local river and two fairly big nuggets within the Cairngorms. The gold and silver weighed in at seven grams and is worth one hundred pounds per gram,so not a bad weeks pleasure.

and here is his pot of gold, plus the silver.

One of the guys has made a You Tube treasure hunt. He has hidden pots of gold throughout Scotland and with clues people are finding them, there are at least two in this area one in Glen Coe and the other on Schiehallion, so that could be fun for younger visitors to the area, his sight is Faeriegold.

Since we moved here exactly twenty years this month May has always been a in between month, on maybe fifty percent of this month we have most probably had a very warm month, in fact a month that could be called our summer. But this year we have had some really cold nights, with frosts and even last night ( on the Twenty Fifth day ) overnight we went down to one degree C.

The reason I am starting this so late in the month is because I had a bug on this computer and switched it off until somebody who knew what they were doing (our youngest son) could remove it without me spreading it or losing “stuff” on it. I didn’t even import my photographs until it was fixed.

I spent a great weekend over at said sons house , one to get the computer fixed and secondly to celebrate my very old birthday. So some of the articles will be on our visit to East Ayrshire .

1st.

Woke up very early this morning and just couldn’t get back to sleep, so got up and got dressed and went out with the camera.

The first thing that greeted me as I went up the hill was this group of lambs just waking up but alert enough to hear me coming.

This beautiful Wheatear was the

These two kept me amused both on my way up the hills and coming home, they just stood on the wall preening themselves for the day ahead, the left hand one always standing on the one foot.

I love it when a sheep or lamb stands on the top of a hill and you get a clear background of just sky.

The view on the way down after what was a wonderful early morning walk and back in time for a hearty breakfast.

20th.

Went away for my birthday weekend to my son’s in East Ayrshire and had a great time visiting new places and long walks, plus a bit of fishing to complete a great time.

Visited a garden at Bargany House they are only open to the public during the month of may and are free with an optional donation. Full of rhododendrons and azaleas with a massive colour range, spent a few hours walking round and admiring the beauty. My son is (like me) keen on bird life and is particularly good at recognising bird song, which I am not, so it is good to be told which bird was singing.

So after this great morning we travelled off to the coast and went to a tiny coastal village called Dunure, mainly for a wonderful lunch, two of my favourites Mussels and Scallops, which were delicious.

The village has a great little harbour as seen below.

21st

Plus a castle

Then there is the view across to Ayr.

21st.

As we were not going out on my birthday until after coffee time I snatched three hours fishing at a fishery a quarter of a mile from where my son lives. I was on the water by seven fifteen and very first cast I caught this three pound beauty and straight away thought if this carries on I will be back in time for another breakfast let alone coffee. Unfortunately I only had one more trout on my line a magnificent trout of well over four pound, it only stayed on my line for about twenty seconds before getting off. After that I had nothing but very small half pound pike generally known as jack pike. a real pest when you are after trout.

Had a coffee out after that then in the afternoon we went to Ayr and Rozelle House Gallery and park. In the gallery is a collection of paintings by Alexander Goudie depicting Robert Burn’s poem Tam O Shanter. As the poem goes Tam had a bit to much to drink in the local Inn and travelled home via the churchyard, looking in through the door of the church he witnessed a party the devil was having and was shocked by the naked women and antics that were going on. But he was s[potted and the devil got all to chase him. A naked lady was close to him as he was riding off in terror on his horse Meg. She caught up with him on The Bris a Doon ( the packhorse bridge over the River Doon) and cut off poor Meg’s tail but the witches knew they could not go right over the bridge and Tam escaped.

What Tam saw in the church.

The naked “lady” grabbing poor Meg’s tail.

Tam when he was safely over the bridge.

The actual church the poem was about.

Not very often you see the devil in a churchyard.

The Brig a Doon.

Next to the gallery is Rozelle Park with some wonderful statues thread throughout the grounds, I am sure you will recognize most of them.

I think everyone of them are magnificent.

We then went onto the Inn where Tam got drunk and had a wonderful birthday meal. With a funny story attached to it , on another table was a lady celebrating her birthday as well, and the waiter came in with a cake and the table of six sang happy birthday to her. I got up and wished her happy birthday and told her it was mine also and why wasn’t I invited to her party? Ten minutes later her partner came over with a piece of cake for me and we all had a good laugh. An extra consolation was I was so full up after eating a starter and main course , plus a piece of cake I didn’t need a dessert.

25th.

The last bank Holiday in May is always the first Highland Games in Scotland and the first of the year is always held at Blair Castle. Such a bright sunny , warm day which I can assure you for these games is not always the case, so thanks to an old friend I got a free entry ticket. Always a well attended games in a great setting a great fun day for all ages.

Our village lad taking part in the games here throwing the hammer.

A competitor throwing the shot, look closely and you will see that it is not always true that a Scotsman doesn’t wear anything under their kilt.

The pipe band leading the Highlanders in to the arena.

The Atholl Highlanders the only private army in the U.K. granted by Queen Victoria , no longer active but are guards to the Duke of Atholl only now.

Behind the soldiers is the ceremonial canon which is fired to officially start the games.

Once the canon has been fired the Highlanders have a traditional fifty yard sprint and a true competition amongst then.

Good “old” sarge bringing up the rear at least he took part.

31st.

The end of the month has been a week of fantastic sunny weather, and my pond is crystal clear and the fish have been basking on the top of the pond, three of the goldfish stayed still for me to get this shot of them. But my pride and joy is the male and female Tench I have had in the pond for a couple of years, went in at six inches and are now (without a fisherman’s exaggeration ) at the ten inch size, soon be big enough to breed, though I don’t think the eggs will stand a chance as the newts will eat the lot.

Here we are nearly into May and boy is it still cold? In fact we have had a couple of snow showers and plenty of snow on the peaks, temperature going down to minus five overnight, which after last weeks spring sunshine was a bit of a shock to the system. To add to the mix the wind has turned to the North so the saying ” when the North wind doth blow, we shall have snow”. The long daylight hours are cracking and it means that the nights are shorter giving the Pine Martins less time to eat during darkness. An added bonus for us as they feel comfortable and safe enough to come to us around sunset. So below are two of the three we have had in the last few days.

23rd.

We think this is the mum of the two youngsters we have, she has a much brown coloured coat and is a lot bigger than the next one.

This is one of the youngsters in fact the bolder of the two and really a dark brown.

Our village hall has been out of action for six months being refurbished and it is so good to see it looking really great , new floor, new paint job and even bespoke lighting . it officially opens Wednesday but the table tennis club had the use of it tonight and we had a good turnout of loyal members. The above shots show the hall from each end, the first from the stage looking towards the entrance and kitchen, the second to the stage.

25th.

Showed you earlier this Martin coming to the garden before dark and thought it was a bit unusual, though the mother had come as well so it seemed okay. Well this morning at eight forty five it turned up and was starving hungry sniffing around for food, it was then that we noticed (as can be seen in this shot) it was resting it’s back end on the ground every few steps. It then tried to climb on the log feeder about a foot of the ground and promptly fell off, it was then that we realised that it’s left rear leg it couldn’t take any weight on. We therefore assume it is either broken or injured in some way. For a Pine martin this will be terribly restrictive as most of the time it is up in the trees but this one just cannot climb. Such a shame so it has lost its climbing and speed advantage when hunting. I shall of course keep you up to date with it’s progress or decline.

28th.

A miserable damp day so decided to sit at the dining room table and take some shots of the birds coming to the feeders below the window. They tend to sit in the trees/shrub first before descending onto the feeder when one of the perches becomes free. This gives me the chance to film them in a more natural setting. Just this week we have had a large influx of Siskins that have migrated in for the summer and the first two shots so different males . Followed by a Greenfinch, which I am glad to say seem to be making a recovery since the canker deaths four or five years ago. Last shot is of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker which I think is a male , though from this angle you cannot see the red stripe on the back of its neck.

For the short while I sat by the window birds were coming and going on a regular basis, but suddenly all went quiet so I stood up to get on with some work (before I was “encouraged” to) and on looking down onto the feeders I knew the reason why, as can be seen sitting next to said feeders.

Beautiful bird is the Sparrowhawk, but not welcome at the feeding station, look at those claws.

The Scottish government has given a big push to get rural areas better broadband and our area has had new cables fitted to the glen with fast fibre. about a month ago I checked the Openreach website and it stated it was available to our house. I then contacted B.T. and they informed me it was not available to my house, me being me informed them that it was, after about an hour consulting with three different departments they discovered that they in fact had been sending all my posted communications for the last twenty years to the address of our hamlet and had not included our house name, but because the postie knows our name he has just been delivering it to us. The only way around this was to put my application in as a house move and that would also allow us to keep our phone number .

A date was arranged for Friday the thirty first of last month. But, on the Tuesday before that we got informed that there was a fault on the line and fibre could not be installed on the Friday and that they would inform us of a later appointment when the fault was fixed. Only trouble was the right hand didn’t tell the left hand what it had done and Friday night at six o’clock our landline went dead. Contacted them on the Saturday and they then informed me that they could not reinstate our old copper line as it had been removed from the local exchange and we would have to wait for the fibre to repaired. to finish I have pushed it higher up the chain with executive problem solvers now on the case. Have got broadband via a mini hub but my mobile does not get a great signal so we are feeling fairly isolated. Why do I stay with B.T. I do not know.

2nd.

The frogs have arrived at our pond and old smiley face seems to be happy that we have a load of spawn nearby. Though with the snow and frost forecast for the near future I don’t ho;d out much hope of getting any tadpoles.

7th.

This is the Pine Martin that was giving us some concern with what we saw as a wound on its back. It visited us in daylight today and as the first shot shows it has spread, so having consulted some learned friends we think it is just moulting its winter coat.

The full moon at sunrise just about to sink below the hills but catching a faint orange glow as the sun comes up.

9th.

My usual visit up Glen Fender for the Easter Sunday sunrise. An early start leaving home at five forty five on a cold cloudy, windy morning, but so worth it. Surrounded by birdsong with at least six Curlews singing their beautiful song , but the isolation with talking with our Lord just fills me with joy. The cloud came over very thick after this shot and though the actual sun never came out to shine the colours were wonderful.

Then when I got home the sun came out and the blooms in the garden just made it a spectacular Easter Day. I especially like the old tree stump surrounded by the Spring plants and bulbs.

10th

Went for a walk today and captured this stunning Pied Wagtail just sitting on a barn door with the black blending in well with the background, bringing out the white so well.

12th.

Just when I show you all the wonderful Spring flowers you wake up to this scene of overnight snow on the higher peaks and Winter firmly puts us in our place. Fortunate enough it didn’t get down to our level, but just lets you know don’t plant any summer plants just yet.

P.S. 15th and still no phone.

That is us past the Spring Equinox, the clocks change twenty sixth, so let us hope Summer is around the corner, it has been a loooong Winter with a Spring of sorts. So good that daylight is now longer than darkness as it will save on putting lights on in the home and can start some good evening fishing.

23rd.

This fairly young Roe Deer Buck has been in the field in front of the house for a few days now, no sheep in the field so it is allowing him to chew on the new grass shoots that are coming up (that means the lawn mower will soon be out 🙁 ) and this morning he decided to just sit down in the early sunshine and have a rest. Note his antlers are still in velvet so as the breeding season will soon be upon him he needs to reserve as much energy as possible.

24th

Noticed when one of the (we think) three Pine Martins came for it’s nightly feed that it had a nasty wound on it’s back, asked some of the experts on a forum I am on and the conclusion is it could either be a fight with another Martin or even a bird of pray attack, though it would have needed to be a Golden Eagle or maybe a Buzzard.

25th

The weather forecast was for snow today but not seeing any or rain today, so decided to do some outside work. I have four wood stores and depending on the maturity of the cut wood depends on which pile is next. Decided to bring the first batch of next Winters wood into the old coal shed just to give it a final seasoning before it will get used. This meant wheelbarrowing it from outside our front gate to the side of the house, then stacking it. Moved eight barrow loads and that has been my workout for the day, if not the week, afternoon off me thinks.

26th

Clocks have gone forward, I lost an hour of my beauty sleep and we woke up to a very cold North wind and the saying was right we did have a flurry of snow. So it has been the same all day, cold wind, sunshine followed by a small fall of snow, not the day to venture out beyond doing the necessary chores.

Just wanted to show you how far we are behind with our Daffodils, most are in the state you see above, going to be good and sturdy bulbs, just not ready to unfold from their warm covers (bit like me this morning).

Some singular ones in sheltered places are a wee bit more advanced.

While others are trying their hardest to put on a show.

After all sitting in front of a glowing log burner is far more sensible.

27th.

This morning started off with a temperature of minus six, but the day turned out to be a super sunny one, with the temperature now plus eight, it felt the right time to go for a walk up Glen Fender. Just before we parked the car (you didn’t think I would walk up the steepest hill when there was a road available did you?) we saw another buck Roe Deer. So I walked back to get a few shots of it. If you zoom in or look carefully you can see it has a scar towards the back of its belly. Not sure if that was a scrap with another buck or jumping over a fence or something. If you think I got this close to it , look at the next shot and see the beauty of having a zoom lens on the camera, as this shows the distance away I was.

I did walk a fair way up an adjacent hill and got this wonderful view up the glen with Blair Castle bottom left.

28th.

Last night the planets were all in line something you will not see again until twenty twenty four, so as usual I set my camera up to late and by the time I looked up on this wonderful clear night sky, the Moon, Venus and Mars were still in the sky but no longer inline. I decided to take one of Venus hand held on a long exposure, bracing myself on the side of the house thinking I should be able to hold the camera steady with no need for a tripod. Below was the rather hilarious result.

Looks more like a cartoon of Roadrunner on the right and the Coyote just about to eat him on the left. Well nobody is perfect and lessons were learnt.

31st.

Went up to Blair Walker lochan today, and disturbed these two (I think they are Pink Footed Geese) , they were not happy with me and were very vocal, just to let me know it was their grass and water.

Up date on the Pine Martin, we have not seen it at the feeders since, but as there is plenty of peanuts for after we go to bed it might as a precaution be coming out later.

First of all I apologise for not publishing anything for the second half of last month I had a fair bit on and not a great deal of time for photography. Even now I am playing catch-up for this half of March, as I write this it is already the eighth of the month and not taken a great deal of photos but the weather has been changeable for the start of metrological Spring. The first set of shots I took on the first day of the month, dry, sunny and not to cold.

1st

Primroses looking healthy and adding colour.

Beautiful Crocus showing off their wonderful colours and praying for a passing early Bee to settle. Love the pollen on the petals in the last shot.

10th.

I think the above three images show how we progressed into the month, though unlike the area surrounding us and down South we did not get the downfall of snow, in fact my snow shovel remained at the back door unused throughout the cold snap. We have had crisp, sunny days ( proper weather for this time of the year) with overnight temperatures going down to -12,-11 and getting warmer-9 last night..

11th

I just wanted to demonstrate the wonders and resilience of our Snowdrops. this first shot was a clump of Snowdrops flat on the ground covered in frost at ten o’clock this morning at minus 8C,

By eleven thirty and at minus 3C they are starting to recover as a bit of sunlight hits them.

By twelve and +3 C they were back up to their full height again. Now they have done this for at least the last week with overnight minus temperatures every night. What wonderful hardy little plants they are.

Lazy Saturday afternoon sitting in the living room looking out with camera in hand and captured these two, the Collar Dove sitting perfect for me and the Jay trying to hide from me.

12th

Why did I put on paper that my snow shovel had not been in use, this morning we woke up to two inches of snow and the snow shovel got worn down a bit more. I cleared the drive to the house and also down the steepest part of our road out for over an hour doing it, now the temperature has risen and the roads are clear, so I should not have bothered.

Following yesterdays blog on the versatility of Snowdrops look at these with a good covering of snow today.

The driveway clear.

Plus the steepest bit of road up to the house completely passable compared to after Christmas.

16th.

On the bright side, we get such beautiful sunsets this time of the year and as you know, I love taking sunsets.

17th.

Just to finish this first half of the month on a real positive note Buff Tailed Bumble Bee on the heather today along with a fair few Honey Bees, so good to see.

I see from photos in the south of England that Daffodils and Snowdrops are out in bloom and though things in the garden are starting to move I would not dare say that Spring is here in the Cairngorms National Park, but signs of encouragement are showing.

Firstly let us admire the plants that have given us a smile throughout the Winter(well except when they were covered in the white “stuff).

3rd.

These three have been a great addition to the dull Winter colour.

Now small signs of life heading (hopefully towards Spring.

Snowdrops poking through the soil and blooms in sight.

White Heather that will soon be out.

Azaleas slowly coming into bud.

Clematis surrounded by dead stems and leaves showing some movement.

Even a few of our Daffs are trying hard to come up.

But a great find is the fact that there was a Thrushes nest well hidden in one of our shrubs and only came visible when the plant lost it’s leaves.

12th.

Went down to Dunmore Loch to see if the water was still frozen, all clear but a couple of trees are down, but found a couple of very unwanted visitors on the water, a pair of Cormorants, which no doubt had been feeding on the smaller fish in the Loch. Allowed them to stay long enough for me to get these two shots of one drying out on one of our platforms, before it got hastily frightened off, hopefully never to return.

13th.

What a difference ten days of good weather makes, in the entry above on the third I showed you the Snowdrops peeping through. Now look today there they are in full bloom and making you smile every time you see them.

Also looking great are a few Primroses adding some most welcome colour to the garden.

15th.

Wow what a surprise, my eagle eyed wife spotted this in the field three hundred yards from the house. The first time since we have lived here that Mr (I think it is a dog) Fox has been seen by either of us this close to the house. The first shot it was sitting eating a mouse or vole, that happened while I was setting up my camera, the second shot was when I whistled, it stood up and was looking for me. He was limping on one of his front legs as it walked away, so it did have some sort of injury.

16th.

Just to finish off this very optimistic blog, I would like to quote a statement about Scottish seasons that I found on the internet.

The order is:-

Winter

Fools Spring

Second Winter.

Spring of Deception.

Third Winter.

Actual Spring.

Summer (maybe)

False Autumn.

Second Summer.

Actual Autumn.

Early Winter. (repeat)

I saw an article the other day that started of the rhyme about how many days each month has, you know, “Thirty days has September, April June and etc” and after February it said,”plus January that has one hundred and ten”. Which is exactly how it feels, especially up here as since New Year we have had some pretty cold spells, down to minus ten fairly regularly and you really do not feel like venturing out except for essentials. At last today the thaw has commenced with an overnight temperature of plus three the snow (at our level) has all but disappeared and the ice has started to melt.

22nd.

Some interesting things happening on my pond, these three shots illustrate the slight thaws and the freezing of the water. Today there is a thin layer of ice on the surface , then the white sections are trapped air in between the layers where the ice was frozen but melted around the edges allowing the air to get under the ice, then froze again, helped by me pouring water on one particular spot to allow a breathing hole to oxygenate the water. The small bubbles below the ice in the last shot, I am not sure where they come into it but they are below the top thin layer of ice. As you can see six of my eight fish survived, but my two biggest Goldfish didn’t and I removed them on the last melt.

25th.

Just up the road from us is the famous House of Bruar retail development, they like to call themselves “Harrods of the North”, though expensive they do have some really cracking “stuff” and this includes the fishing department. Above is their impressive display of game flies, Salmon and Trout, beautifully laid out and many patterns that I have purchased one of and then copied any further ones myself. One of my favourite hobbies is fly tying and nothing gives a fly angler more satisfaction than catching a fish on a fly that you have tied yourself.

26th

A clear night and a great view of the Moon, it is called a waxing crescent phase and according to my moon app, is thirty eight percent full.

27th.

This weekend is the “Big Bird Count” in the U.K. run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) where households are asked to do a bird count in their gardens etc. Though I do not take part it gives the RSPB a rough idea of how bird populations are getting on. So I went out and fed the birds this morning and then came in and sat in the warmth of the kitchen and photographed some of the birds that came to the feeders opposite the window in a five minute ( the bird count is for an hour normally) and see what birds came to the feeders. here are some of the shots that were “okay” to show you, some were rubbish as the birds were quick to feed and get away before I could focus.

A female Chaffinch and a landing Blue Tit.

Male House Sparrow.

Male Blackbird saying “why are you photographing me?”

A patient Sparrow.

Female Chaffinch and Great Tit.

Male Chaffinch.

Coal Tit

As the cup get’s lower , the Blue Tit can just sit inside and eat all it wants.

Before the count on this cold morning we had this hungry Jay stay in the garden for a while.

1st February.

That is it, the loooong month is over and we are into the shortest, days are longer and Spring is around the corner, we hope.

Well all we can hope for is that 2023 improves from last year . Both in easing of the pandemic, cost of (sort of) living, industrial disputes and up here ,at the moment, the weather.

1st.

With regard the weather we woke up this morning to four inches of snow and minus six temperature, as you will see below.

My poor old car, when I eventually got the car back home a couple of days ago, I couldn’t get it in the garage so had to leave it out, unaware we were getting so much snow, hence this is the result.

Just to prove we had four inches here it is stacked on my wing mirror.

Looks stunning but only the four wheel drive and snow tyres will get you up the hill.

This grand old oak tree looks so wonderful with snow on it.

2nd

The sun has risen on this beautiful clear day, with present temperature at minus nine C, so we have still got all our snow. The first two shots are of the mountains to the right of our house as viewed from our bedroom and the last are the mountains to our left. Log burner will be on the minute I am dressed. brrrrr.

13th.

For the first time in a few days we have had some sun instead of continuous rain. So went up the hill to see the Munro’s, unfortunately the low cloud was still covering some of the tops but took a few shots anyway.

The first shot you can see the cloud , in the second the slightly lower hills were below the cloud cover, but you can see from these the snow level at the moment and the cover. It is slowly melting and the rivers have really been in spate.

The melt continues on the lochs as well, as you can see from the first shot beneath the trees no ice, in the second a small bay by the bank is ice free the remainder (a bit whiter) is still frozen.

When walking a ridge in the field I spooked six Roe Deer, by the time I got my camera up I just captured ones backside, can you spot it?

This looks like my neighbours back garden (sorry Rod) but is in fact another “mole city” up on the Glen Fender meadows.

Went off to Pitlochry after above photo’s and called into Loch Dunmore, where this huge Pine tree has fallen into the water onto the ice. As this is a very productive place to fish we are hoping Forestry and Land Scotland can get it cleared before the start of the season.

16th.

Not the greatest of shots, but this is a sight you do not see very often. About a mile away from home on the opposite side of the glen from us was this herd of Red Deer stags, I zoomed in on my screen and though very blurred I counted roughly one hundred and eighty deer, which is a fair old herd. With binoculars I could see they were all stags which is normal this time of the year as they congregate after the rut, while the females go off by themselves before they have their young. The reason the herd is this side of the hill is because with the sun being so low this time of the year the other side does not see any of it, so is frozen most of the time , where this side does get some sun and therefore it is easier to get at the ground below the snow. Does not matter how many times I see this sight it still excites me.

This is for most of us a busy time of the year and I am no exception to that, this year we are going over to East Ayrshire top spend the Christmas break with my son and his partner, plus our son is flying in from New York . Therefore this will be most probably the shortest post I will send out.

21st

With my eldest coming in to Edinburgh Airport he thought it would be great if we spent a couple of nights in Edinburgh in an extremely good hotel, which we willingly agreed to (obviously). So a pre Christmas break where we ate well and enjoyed a great time with our son.

Edinburgh was full of Christmas and many establishments in George Street had some wonderful displays plus an ice rink and this frightening ride that seemed to go very close to the buildings on either side of the closed off road.

The next two shots are the stars in the new St James shopping mall.

The next two are from Princess Street Gardens where the Christmas market was. I was a bit disappointed in this as it was mainly all food and not enough gift stalls.

Christmas Eve we went for lunch to Troon Harbour and had a fantastic meal overlooking the marina.

27th.

On our way home after having a wonderful family Christmas we had snow all the way from Glasgow and the journey home took us an hour longer than normal. Well I say home we made it , but the car did not. The following sequence of the journey up our single track road roughly two hundred yards from home. The secret to driving on compacted ice and snow is to keep a constant speed in the appropriate gear. We had good speed and got up the hill for three quarters of a mile, but this double bend was the end of our cars journey, so we had to park up in that turning on the left of the shot and walk the essentials up a very slippy road to home.

Bearing in mind these shots were taken the next day, you can imagine how bad it was with falling snow on it the day before. I managed to get around those two bends, but only twenty five yards further before having to “sort of” park it up the verge opposite that outbuilding.

29th

At last got the car home.

Our landscape with the mist rising off the river.

Well silly me I said I would not have much content for this blog, turns out I was wrong. See you next year.