Storms ahead.

18th.

As I write this we are in the middle of Storm Eunice, which this morning dominated the news, with all down South preparing for the end of the world, where for us it is a strong Northerly wind with a fair bit of snow attached. Went out to clear a path down the drive and the snow was sitting about 4″ deep, but easy snow to clear and now about 2 hours later it is starting to thaw a bit, so no real panic for us. From the warmth of our living room I managed to capture these two through the double glazing and of course the always clean windows helped.

As you can see the Pigeon was ruffled up a bit out of the cold and facing away from the wind, but it was definetly waiting for me to go out and feed it.

A bit blurred through the glass but this Red didn’t mind being out in it. Though they do not hibernate like Greys, more often than not on days like this they normally stay in the dray and it is rare for us to see them out in such conditions. It didn’t stay long ate a few peanuts and was gone, after all we all have to grab some breakfast whatever the conditions.

19th.

The snow on the hills looks spectacular enough under normal conditions, but with the sunrise it turns the snow this amazing shade of pink and pulling open the bedroom curtains certainly does start you day off wonderfully.

As an added bonus to the previous shot the sun shining on the hills and the near full moon just setting.

27th.

We had just as much snow on the hills as in the previous two shots just 3 days ago , butn rain and a temperature of 7C has got rid of all the low lying “stuff” and now just a dusting on the hills.

Went for a walk in the sunshine up in the hamlet of Struan and by the River Garry this shot doesn’t look much but for this section of the Garry it is high due to the snow melt.

This shows the snow melt spate a bit better, it seems incredible to think that in six months time the Salmon will be climbing these falls and weir so they can spawn, that is if there are any left in our rivers?

Just a little history lesson on my past life . 52 years ago the person with the spade in his hand in the picture below was in fact me . I was part of a group of fire fighters (fireman in those days) who went to a remote farm in Hertfordshire looking for the body of a Mrs Murial Mckay, who was the wife of the then News of the World editor. She had gone missing , believed kidnapped and all clues pointed to the fact that she had been murdered and buried somewhere on this farm, which had several ponds in the grounds. We were tasked with draining the ponds . Okay so that is history, but I have just read that the person who spent 20 years in jail moved back to the West Indies and wanted to put things right before he died, has informed the authorities of the exact place she is buried on that farm and her daughter (now 81) has asked the present owner of the farm for permission for her to have a private search carried out in that area and the land owner has refused, so she is going through the courts to get permission. Though Met Police are now looking into the case. So some modern day “firefighters” may have to carry out the task we did 52 years ago.