Author: David Miller

Following on from the last blog, we have at last had some decent rain & all the garden has benefited from it, new growth everywhere, especially the weeds, which seem to come from nowhere. It has been said many times before that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place, I can assure you the wife does not agree with that, she would say a weed is something that is determined to take the garden over & if left it would. The worst this year seems to be between, what we call Milkmaids & wild Garlic or Ransom to give it it’s correct name. As neither of us like Garlic you can see that this is a bit of a problem, though it is said that wild Garlic is much milder than the “real” stuff. I hopefully will never know.

Of course along with a bit of rain & sunshine the grass starts to grow, which in turn means that it has to be mowed, I personally hate doing the first cut because you then know that for every week from then on it is going to need cutting, true to form mine has had two haircuts, though I am keeping it fairly long until no chance of a frost to damage it.

I also stated last blog that birds were starting to pair up & most have, we realised that the Blackbirds (who are always the first) were still queueing up at the back door for their early morning sultanas, but were in fact storing them in their beaks instead of eating them. So we therefore knew they had babes somewhere (the first year for ages I haven’t found a nest) & today we got our first fledgling Blackbird of the season. The beauty of this (if it survives) is that after a few weeks the parents bring their youngsters to the early morning sultana feed & we can see how they are progressing, I will try to get some shots of this when it happens. So below is that first fledgling hiding, thinking I cannot see it, don’t worry I had my long lens on & was well away from it, social distancing you might say.

Also last blog I told you about the Sparrows nesting, I think the majority of last years sites are now taken, but do not think there are any additional ones. So below are some shots of those sights & two of the most established ones you will see are so full of debris I am not sure what room there will be for eggs, let alone babes.

Well we might still be in lockdown, but we have a lot to keep us entertained & I hope that you are suitably occupied during this difficult time, just all stay safe, obey the rules & we will ALL get through this.

Okay we are still in lockdown & living up here in the wilds, I consider myself very lucky to be surrounded by beautiful countryside, nature at its best & so better off than those poor souls locked away in a high rise flat in the middle of a city.

Mother Nature is sure putting on a show at this time of the year, though we are having some cold days, mainly due to the North winds, the daytime has mainly been sunny & though like farmers we always find something to moan about weather wise it is a cracking Spring. We have not seen rain for sometime & none is forecast for a week or so and that is making it hard for the gorgeous spring plants, but a gentle watering in the evening is helping them to keep giving us a magnificent show.

The birds are really active, chasing mates & defending their territories especially our Dunnocks, there must either be a shortage of females or a surplus of males, as you cannot go 5 minutes without seeing or hearing a dispute amongst them.

Today is a wind free even warm day, even had lunch & lunchtime snooze out in the garden, which is a first for the year. One advantage of such a day is plants stay still to get some decent shots of them & we have the emergence of butterflies & bees. One thing I must confess I am not very good on my insect identification, leave that to my youngest son who goes miles to locate a certain type of butterfly or moth & though I of course taught him everything about photography, he takes far better photos than me of such things.

If I had to choose where I would want to spend lockdown then I would not change from where I live now. We can go for our daily exercise up the glen or even down to the village & not see a soul, no self caterers in the holiday lets, nobody looking at an O.S. map & not having a clue where they are, just us locals, keeping in touch but socially isolating a bit more than normal.

Forgot to mention we never have sheep with us during the winter, they go off somewhere a bit warmer or less bleak, but this week they have returned to our field, roughly 100 of them & so good to see.(still a bit of snow on the hills)

The view looking the other direction to the sheep showing what a lovely day it is.

A closer view of yonder hills.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker, a regular visitor to the garden, either on the peanuts or eating from the jar of peanut butter which it loves & always goes up to this branch to wipe the surplus of his beak. (You can tell it is a male by the red bit on it’s neck.)

Male House Sparrow calling for a mate to come to the nest box hotel, the box it is standing on, plus the one above , have 3 sections in each as these birds love to nest in a colony. We never had any House Sparrows here when we moved in & over the years have slowly built up our own colony last year they used 5 nest boxes, two in the hotel block, one above my bedroom window, one in an artificial House martins nest & one on the end of the garage. Noisy whatsits in the summer early morning, but worth it.

Finally on the bird front, my wife’s favourite bird the Wren, seems now to be in the habit of arriving at the pond 5.30ish each evening , having a bath & disappearing again, must be a female to have such a set routine.

As I said do not ask me to tell you which species this is, eventually my son will answer my email & tell me.

How full of Spring is this a lovely little butterfly on Primroses, plus sunshine, perfect combination.

I know back to the last topic, but on a sunny day daffs certainly shine out & cheer you up, along with the other Spring flowers of course.

Hope this has cheered you all up, unless you are stuck in that flat, but we will all get through this if we obey the rules & try & smile each day. At least if you are in that flat, you have not got the long list of outdoor jobs my Mrs has been giving me:-

Workshop tidied. (tick)

Rotten gate fixed. (tick)

Lawn fertiliser down. (tick)

Blood, Fish & Bone on the shrubs. (tick)

Still to do :-

Mow lawns, tidy woodshed, chainsaw next winters wood pile, the list is never ending. 🙂

And so it goes on, a complete lockdown, just out for exercise & food etc.

The number of cases is slowly rising in Scotland, but outside of the cities the rural population seems to be taking it more serious , even in our small towns people do not feel so cooped up, it must be so hard in a inner city flat with children. A garden is certainly a helpful addition to stop one from becoming to bored. To prove that the majority of my photos today are concentrated around the garden, as we start to see a steep rise in the amount of colour that is appearing. Colours lift spirits rather than dull dead greenery that winter has given us, the lighter evenings now the clocks have changed helps as well & that wonderful bright full moon last night made it seem like a summers day as it was fairly light even at 3 in the morning.

Birds are starting to pair up, we have Blue Tits investigating the many choices of nest boxes within the garden, though out of maybe a dozen to choose from they nearly always seem to go for the same ones as last year. Heard a fact yesterday that 70% of British birds are monogenous, which I was unaware of. Blackbirds are definitely sitting on eggs somewhere nearby ( always like to find at least one nest to photograph each year), how do I know. Well 2 females have a routine, they come straight to the back door maybe twice a day, feed, then bathe, then disappear again, where all winter they have just hung around waiting for us to offer them more sultanas. Our group of Dunnocks are skitting around the garden flirting with each other, while the House Sparrows just steal the House Martins artificial nest & fill it with whatever junk they can fit in to overflowing. Male Pheasants have a habit of sitting under our bedroom windows flapping their feathers & calling out, usually at about 6.30 in the morning, which can be annoying, but they realise that shooting season is well over & they are safe.

So what am I photographing in these entrapped times, I would love it to be those huge Trout that I would have caught if only we were allowed to fish, or scenery from further afield on a day out, but no I have restricted myself to within the garden this week. Mainly Spring plants, but also the noisy frogs in my garden pond, not that easy to get decent shots of because the slightest movement & they just submerge themselves for what seems ages under the water. Hope you like the few I have included? Two huge lumps of frog spawn in the pond already.

In these times of lock down there are fairly few things an old man can do to relieve the boredom. In my case it is fly tying, with the hope that sometime this season I MAY get out onto the waters & catch a few trout, but there are only so many flies I can tie to fill my boxes even fuller with flies that will most probably not see the light of day again. Watch some telly, which are mainly repeats as no telly is being produced at present. Listen to the radio, well even The Archers has made no mention of the virus yet, so that shows how long ago the episodes were produced. Or go out on your daily hour of exercise & of course take your camera with you.

The forum that I belong to & love is for members that purchase the Canon EOS Magazine and a wonderful source of all things to do with the said cameras, including of course photographs, I have been a contributor to these from the beginning & through comments & advice have learnt so much about this magical artform.

Over the last few days I have placed on the site shots that I have taken on these walks & the usual group of misfits have encouraged me to take some varied shots to show them the area that I am so lucky to live in. So I thought while I have a minute, no hour, no wait all day, I would share some of these shots with you

Firstly my favourite tree, I think I have put this particular tree on before but it just suited the mood of that first walk damp, miserable & lonely.

The little Lochan we walk past fairly regularly always got some ducks on it & in summer teeming with small brown trout, one day Alistair will give me permission to have a play on it.

I always have a smile on my face when I have the precious site of seeing the first of this years lambs, temperatures down to minus 7C but these hardy little beast’s just get on with it.

Add to that calves jumping about in the sunshine & how can you not enjoy Spring?

Such adorable creatures, almost & I said almost, makes me think why do I enjoy beef so much, even better a proper welfare produced piece of veal (sorry).

Looking at this beast makes me think I wonder if he enjoys being surrounded by such beauty, surely he could not have a more picturesque view?

Much the same could be said about these two young Highland bulls.

This lady appears in a fair few of my shots & as I am in confinement with her (& her with me), would I dare say anything detrimental about her.

My Rockstar Games bird, she has only tried playing one of the GTA games once & that was so funny I still have the video of it.

A cracking view down to Blair Castle & beyond, to think jets come through this Glen below the height of those hills before climbing up roughly in the middle dip. I love watching them.

We also get these beast’s flying very low over us, this one caught us by surprise on one of the walks, hence I didn’t get the whole craft in.

Our house tucked into the little hamlet we live in, both the brown wooden & the stone cottage behind us are holiday lets & the roof on the right is our friends second home, but they are all very empty with this present lock down & with only 3 of the 7 houses permanently occupied it is very eerie up here.

A very frustrating site the water where I go Rainbow Trout fishing is off limits at present, which I cannot understand, as you can see it is fairly big, at the most you may get 5 people fishing & if that, plus the exercise in casting isn’t social distancing, then what is?

A walk along the River Tilt was a worth while trip today, so tranquil.

As you know I go on about the Watermill, it’s bread, its hot chocolate, its scones, its staff & owners, Well today should have been opening day for the season, but for justifiable reasons Kirsty & Rami have decided not to open. So a well marked date on the calendar has been postponed, making us even more determined to obey the rules & stay home accept for our daily walks & keep well.

I finish with that same sentiment to you all, stay well & we will get through this, honest.

Did it yet again, the day after putting the blog about Spring, overnight our clear skies sent the temperature tumbling down to MINUS 7C. One consolation, what a cracking morning, as seen below.

Okay so we have had a few flurries of snow in the last couple of days & the temperature has gone down below zero overnight, but the days are getting longer & we are getting woken up earlier by the male Pheasant flapping it’s wings & calling out to its ladies (5am today) , so Spring must be coming, hopefully.

Another sure sign is the movement of plants, now don’t be silly I do not mean dancing around the garden, I mean they are coming into bud, well at least the spring ones. Though I have not seen any insects taking advantage of the brightly coloured crocus offering early nectar, at least they are amongst us. Walking around the village yesterday, keeping away from everybody of course during these confined times, I did notice that their crocus are all out fully, even some daffs showing yellow, but us further up the hills (nearer to heaven of course) are a wee bit later than those plants in the warmer climes of Blair Atholl.

If the current restrictions on movement for us over 70s gets any worse, we will most probably be glad our flowers are a bit later than elsewhere as this will give us something to enjoy in our restricted lives. As I say to a lot of folks, living in this little hamlet we are self isolated 365 days of the year anyway. 🙂

Below are some of our plants cheering up our garden at present & will keep you informed of their progress over the next couple of weeks , don’t suppose we will have much else to do.

First of all the Crocus, such a variety of colour , though the common yellow one does not seem to grow in our garden.

Other plants include (& apologies if I get their names wrong).

All that is left to say is stay healthy , enjoy your confinement & we will get through this, with or without toilet rolls.

Last week I placed on various social media sites I am on the above picture with the caption “Last of the Snow”.

How wrong can you be, went to bed last night with a small dusting on the ground, but woke up to the picture below.

As you can only just see the woods at the top of the shot I hope that portrays the amount of snow that was falling at that time, half an hour later it had stopped & as you can see below a lot clearer image & just how beautiful it was. Though somewhat annoying as I had a hearing test appointment in Perth that I had to cancel.

Do not get me wrong I am still a child at heart & love this weather, if I thought I could walk back up the field in front of me I would have the old sledge out in a flash. It has several advantages:-

1/ I get some extra exercise clearing our drive of snow.

2/ it produces some wonderful scenery, which in turn allows me to take photos, both of the snow & as you will see below, just highlights sites & scenes I either would not have seen or photographed.

3/ It gives me something to write & show you all on my boring blog.

Most probably under green conditions I would not have seen a pair of Roe Deer so close to me, I know there is only one in the shot, but the other was just to quick & out of sight for me to catch.

Now I am going to surprise you & get all “arty” with a few shots, not to everyone’s taste, but I just like the fact that the living plants below, will all be growing and producing flowers etc in the next couple of months , having survived the ordeal of late snow. Of course this does not apply to Rod’s fence, though he may paint it in the summer.

Dare I say it, “let us hope that is the last of the snow for this winter”.

No folks you have got the wrong end of the stick, I am not talking about the wife, though of course she is wise & most definitely OLD (well older than me). Nope I am talking about the feathered variety, to be precise a Dunnock, or Hedge Sparrow as they are more commonly known.

With all the hygiene statements that are being put around with regard the Coronavirus, this bird has learnt it all, as I will illustrate with photos from my hide.

First find a suitable piece of clean water, preferably cleaned by my filters & ultra violet light, only the best for my Goldfish & birds.

Next, check the depth is okay for a good overall cleansing.

Then proceed to have a thorough wash, ensuring every part of your body is covered in this lovely clean water.

If no tissues are available, then allow yourself some shakes , pruning & air drying, as demonstrated.

Any sign of coughs or sneezes go to house occupier, who will self isolate you in a warm, cosy hospital cage, with fresh food provided daily .

Some birds have decided that the way to avoid this present outbreak is to self isolate & fluff your feathers up as illustrated by this Siskin below.

Any fatal casualties will be sent to the food disposal officer below.

Hope this has been helpful.

Glen Fender medical officer.

We must consider ourselves lucky with regard all these named storms that have caused havoc all over the country. Yes our area has been affected by floods and to get out of the village with heavy rain, combined with snow melt made it for just one day fairly hazardous. But nothing that folks around here aren’t used to. We had 4″ of snow in a very short time, which even I got stuck in for a short while, but by 10am the snow plough had been up & I was able to drive up the hill, from just below the view I gave you of the road in my last post.

I think most probably the worse aspect of the storms we have felt has been the strong winds. Fortunately no structural damage to the house, no trees uprooted, just some very scary noises and of course the picture below of my upturned (tied down) homemade bird hide, a few minor repairs & it is as good as new & awaiting me to brave the cold & snap the many hungry birds that are flocking to the garden.

Talking of hungry, if we look roughly West from our house , beyond the hill is open moors, which if we walk up you can see stretch a good five miles of hillocks & heather. Checking the Ordinance Survey map the top of the hill is a mile away and in between two separate woods is a sloping section of the moors coming down to the farmers field with cattle in. In winter when we have had snow hanging around for a while (like this last week) we often see herds of Red Deer stags coming for the shelter from this side of the hill, plus some available grass as being on the leeward side is not so deeply covered in snow. We have seen well over 60 beast in this area in past years. But yesterday we could only see roughly 15. ended up a fair challenge to take a (photographic) shot of them , so below are the best I could get from a mile away.

Though Roe Deer are not uncommon in the field below our house, the bad weather does make them a bit more desperate for food & they tend to linger longer than normal. As you can see below the snow has all gone but this Buck was 300yards away & stayed long enough for me to get a few shots off.

All you brainy followers would be aware of this, but this old **** has just come to the conclusion that, every time we get a full moon in winter the weather turns colder & we are more likely to get snow. This is the third full moon that it has happened with us, so the penny has dropped for me. Started Monday and here we are Thursday morning & still small flurry of snow greeted me at 7am, plus the fact that temperatures went down in the night to minus 5C. I think yesterday morning was the worse as Tuesday saw a slight thaw & the snow ( all 4″ of it) began to melt, but in the late evening it snowed again, just a dusting. But then it froze overnight, causing the water under the snow to turn to ice with a layer of snow on top of it. This made our single track road difficult at first light, but that was soon resolved by the snow plough being up just after nine that morning. Although we do not get it at weekends the service the council provide (especially compared to down south) is first rate this is why we never get stuck up the glen very often . My problem is they do not clear our 50yd steep driveway & with the underlying ice it took me twice as long to clear it, in the end I was so knackered I only did two tracks wide enough to get the car tyres on solid ground, must be old age slowing me down. 🙂

I wrote last blog about the wonderful Snowdrops & what joy they are this time of the year, yesterday morning I went out & they looked dead after the heavy frost, but sure enough back they bounced as you can see.

Added a few shots from the last few days.