I love secrets and I have got one that I will reveal to you towards the end of this half months blog, I will just say it is taking a lot of preparation and in this time of COVID let us hope we are fit enough and able to fulfil it.
At present the month has started off with yet another power cut and warm (12C) days followed the weather man says by a cold snap again, so strange and very unseasonable, let us hope the weather reverts to a pattern that we would expect this time of the year.
1st December.
A lot of people you know are aware that within Perthshire we have some great authors that live here, up to a couple of years ago J.K.Rowlings lived in Aberfeldy for example. As you are aware I love my angling and also within Perthshire is a well known angler, writer and newspaper columnist called David Profumo and thou I have read articles by him I have never read any of his books. Within the Radio Times was an article about the book programme called Beneath The Covers and next week Pru Leith is on it. Now I did not even know that she was a fisher, but in the article she states that her favourite book is the one above by Mr Profumo. So I looked it up and it has received some terrific reviews so for an early Christmas present my wife has given it to me and I am so looking forward to reading it.
2nd.
At the beginning of the year I put a few footprints in the snow on the blog, but this is a new one for you. Looks like someone is telling you with arrows what direction to go in, in fact this bird is going in the opposite direction to the arrows. It is in fact one of two French (or Red Legged) Partridge that visited the garden today, where I normally have my bird seed in containers these ground feeding birds have a special area with seed scattered on the ground to keep them going. It is always a pleasure to see them and if they stay close to our house they are assured of not getting shot.
3rd.
Two totally different shots today, the first is the rickety old bridge down on the Fender that has not been used for years and is definitely falling apart, but looks even more dangerous to cross with the snow on it. Glad to say the river has dropped from it’s spate condition due to the sudden snow melt we had, a few nights ago we could hear it roaring though our double glazing and we are a hundred yards uphill of it.
The second shot was a quick grabbed shot, I could here a military jet doing manoeuvres way up in the sky but could not see it, then I saw the vapour trail from it going round in a semi circle, so I guess it was the Lewis Hamilton of the skies doing doughnuts.
4th.
Sure sign we are into December is the wife displaying the nativity scene that she has knitted. After Christmas she knits roughly fifteen sets and gives them all away, mostly to charities but also to friends, this is the original set over ten years old now but still going strong. When she takes them into places like the Salvation Army shelter she hears some wonderful stories of whom they have given them to, or how much money they have raised in a raffle really great achievement for her production line.
5th.
Staying with the homemade theme of Christmas this is a cloth wreath that my darling late sister made for us. She loved making anything out of recycled material and most of her family have something she made for them. Most have a rag mat for their bedrooms, all done in whatever design they wanted football club emblems, or fairies she would get the pattern drawn on the backing cloth and sit in the evenings and make them, bringing joy to us all. This will be a permanent reminder for us and goes in pride of place every year.
6th.
As we opened the curtains this morning to yet more snow and cold weather I saw the lights of this JCB driver digging trenches ready to replant another woodland (dead centre of the shot)and thought “maybe he is in a heated cab, but what about those poor engineers that are still having to climb electricity poles to re connect the people that have been off of the power grid for seven days now” can you imagine how hard that must be exposed to such elements, hard for those with no electricity but not a great environment for the workers.
Pleased to announce the shot below, at last I have achieved something I have wanted to do for a few years now, a half decent shot of a Field fare eating the berries in the garden. We have had plenty about for a month or so but they always hide in or at the back of the bush. Though the wife was not pleased that her window was kept open in the middle of a heavy downpour of sleet, I captured this shot One “Happy Chappie”.
7th.
Well the morning started off fine, no problem working outside, a bit chilly but that is what you expect now Winter is here. But just as forecast early afternoon in comes Storm Barra and the wind picked up, the sleet has come down for the last two hours. If it had been a touch colder it would have been a heavy snowstorm all it is now is a slushy wet mess, not that I have gone out in it to much. All this amounts to the fact that as you can see we have not got much of a view this afternoon.
8th.
Went for a walk down the River Tilt today with intentions of taking shots of the river in spat following yesterdays rain, sleet and snow from Storm Barra, unfortunately I came across this instead. A beautiful old Scot’s Pine fallen into the river, admittedly it was and has been for some time on a precarious spot on the banking which was being eroded by the river and that plus the high winds from the previous storm must have decided it’s fate. Perthshire is famous for it’s trees and is called “The Big Tree Country” but to lose a giant like this is such a shame. With rapid water of the Tilt it will be surprising how quickly the foliage and bark from the tree will disappear if of course it is left in the water, the powers that be might consider it to much of a hazard to leave it in the water as it goes well over half the width of the river.
9th
That time of the year to put the lights up and though this year I have left my artificial Christmas tree in it’s box I have put a couple of sets up around our natural trees, not necessarily for us but for the youngsters that are staying down the drive to make it a bit more festive for them. You can just see the blue set of lights that I have put on the gate and I would have loved to have shown you those but the security light is on (see the brightness in the bottom right) and stays on for five minutes after I had passed it and it is pouring with rain as I took the shot. maybe show you that side of the lights on another day?
10th.
Thought I would carry on yesterdays theme and concentrate on just one bauble. That is in fact me reflecting back out of the bauble along with the fairy lights and the branches they are all on. Just a little experiment, with one small problem, though we have had a bright sunny day it has been cold all day with a maximum of two C and when I went out to get this shot at just past 1600hrs it was below zero and the condensation on the baubles has in fact frozen, hence the little crystals forming luckily only really blurring me out, lucky you lot.
11th.
First hint towards the surprise tomorrow , usually I put the food for the birds in the wooden hollowed out log below the feeder. But the birds will not get enough food if I do that. All revealed tomorrow.
12th.
That is it, “my bags are packed I’m ready to go” as the song says. We are off to New York on Tuesday, having to go to Edinburgh tomorrow to get our lateral flow test, flying off Tuesday morning to Heathrow and beyond.
The feeder in yesterdays shot will be full today which should keep the birds going until we return, or, not need topping up by a wonderful friend to much. Strange how when we nurture our birds all year round we feel sad that the daily routine of feeding them will change, but hopefully such an industrial sized feeder should replace me.
We are away for some time but instead of Cairngorms daily life I shall be posting the rest of the year shots on New York daily life, most probably concentrating on Christmas lights and decorations.
I will publish this today as I will not have the facilities to write my blog until over jet lag, but I will keep up my daily shots to complete the year.