Author: David Miller

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.

Being “old”, each day blends into each other, every day is a weekend & it can turn out good or bad. The day started with a wake up to a light dusting of snow, which had not settled on the roads, which was good as I needed to be in Pitlochry by 9am. Just getting ready to go & a huge snowstorm developed & in the 5 minutes it took to get my coat on, everywhere was covered in 1/2″ of snow. Now the advantages of living remote & up a hill are way in advance of the disadvantages, but this was one morning where such a storm was a disadvantage & it took me a while to get down our steep hill in virgin snow, but I made it. Coming home the snow had all melted off the road, just an hour later, so that put me to thinking “well it might be a good day after all”.

And of course it has been, in between the occasional flurry of snow the sun made an appearance, making for a perfect photography light. The higher hills to our South were nicely covered in snow (as you can see below) & the garden had a light dusting. Plenty of hungry birds in the garden today & no sign of the Sparrow Hawk yet. So good to see the Snowdrops fighting all the elements to give us a show, what hardy plants they are sometimes completely covered in snow & wilted because of it, but then back they come again like wounded soldiers suddenly fit again & up here it is a battle that they always seem to win.

On top of all this, the day is made better by the fact that the Monday soup lunch in the village is improved by making it a Burns meal. Haggis Swede & mashed tatties, what more could you ask for? Just one thing that you could ask for & I got, was a second helping instead of a dessert, just yummy. Plus the Haggis had only been shot over the weekend, so lovely & fresh, though purist say it should hang a few days before eating. So after a difficult start, the day has turned out to be a good un.

I knew the minute I wrote yesterdays post that I was tempting fate & sure enough the weather came in and bite my bum.

It started at 7 am this morning , carried on until about 9.30 am & has dumped 2 inches of the dreaded stuff on us. Yes it has snowed, with some of the biggest flakes I have ever seen. Went out at half eight to clear the drive & no sooner had I shovelled one strip down the drive & looked back to see it had nearly covered that clearance. I think the shot below will show you what I mean, first plough down showed tarmac but see how that had filled in.

The main problem is at weekends we are low on the rota for the road to be cleared by the council snow plough, week days it is cleared as the school bus has toi pick the pupils from up the glen up. So of course we always get a good dump of snow at weekends, so it is left to us “old un’s” to clear the road. It has now stopped & the sun is trying to come out , so better get at it.

Firstly Happy New Year to you all, may we all have 20/20 vision on life in 2020.

But what a weird start to the year weather wise it has been, just totally unpredictable from one day to the next. When I look back at photos I have taken on previous years around this time I can see that it was more or less what you would expect. Long periods of cold weather, plenty of snow, okay not always down to our level, but always on the Munro tops. I would say that since winter has begun we have seen far less snow at any level than there has ever been in the 14 years we have lived here. having said that I expect we shall have a load of snow dumped on us in the next couple of months & I will be on here saying “what an unbelievable amount of snow we have had this winter”. It is that unpredictable that on the Cairngorm slopes they are using snow making machines to cover even the higher ski runs.

I for one should not complain as I have a 50yard driveway to clear in order to get out with the car & at my age it takes me a longer time than it did 10 years ago, but then it is added exercise to going to the gym, so it does burn a few calories.

Enough of my perfect body talk , what I wanted to illustrate today was just how weird these weather patterns are. Yesterday morning we woke up to minus 5C temperature & everywhere looked beautiful, the sun came out & it made for what I would say is a perfect winters day. The temperature rose to a barmy zero for most of the day, but by the time we went to bed the temperature had risen to plus 5 and it was raining. Now past years the warmth would not have happened & we would have woken up to a couple of inches of snow, that would have drifted with the strong wind we now have. But oh no, at the same time (where 24 hours earlier it was -5) we woke up to plus 10 & still raining. Barmy, totally barmy.

Just to show you what things look like when we have a cold snap I have attached some shots I took yesterday morning, I have not put any on from this morning because it is just depressing to look out at it.

I am not aware of what is the general routine in your household on Christmas Day, but with us it is up & have a small breakfast, get the Turkey in the oven & then go for a walk, before coming home to a welcome glass of bubbly. Christmas lunch (if just the two of us) between 1 n& 2 pm , finished in time for her maj.

With no snow underfoot it was an easy walk up into Glen Fender,though I took the car up the steep section & SWMBO walked up to meet me.

Such enjoyment by just seeing the deer, but we walked on up towards Loch Moraig , though we didn’t go quiet that far, (my excuse was got to get back to baste the turkey) we did have a very enjoyable ramble up the road. Normally we meet our normal herd of cows, but they had moved on, so, on the way back, the wife carried on home, while I took a small diversion. This was mainly to see what was on the small pond on the way to Lude House, but as I approached the resident Heron gave out an alarm call, flew off & frightened the dozen or so Mallard into the weeds, hence no shots of them.

But opposite the pond is a field & that was full of all Ludes bulls (5 in total). Now I am a semi country boy & I was always under the impression you could not keep bulls in a field together, yes young ones, but not fully grown ones. But wherever they house these bulls, they always seem to get on well together. here are just three of the herd, the two big boys & my “Little White Bull” (a reference to a Tommy Steele song for the youngsters of you) (Who is Tommy Steele they are asking now). I have a fair few shots of these magnificent creatures & have never looked at them as steaks, though I do look at the deer as venison. 🙂

On the way down I spotted the sun shining on these distant hills & the contrast between the dull meadow in front of me & those hills was wonderful.

Back home after a wonderful Christmas dinner captured a flock of Goldfinches eating the seeds of our Potentilla (not sure about the spelling) , took this & the next shot through the double glazing so the quality is not as good as I would have hoped, but a wonderful sight.

To finish, one of my absolute favourite birds the Long Tailed Tit always pay us a visit especially in the winter. Over this Christmas we have had 4 or5 visit daily & you cannot do anything but smile & admire such a delicate fabulously coloured bird as this.

All that is left is to wish you all a wonderful 2020 & as I have seen elsewhere may you have that perfect vision for the year ahead.

I presume the current weather pattern we are having is due to Global Warming, but it certainly is topsy turvy all over the place. Looking back at some photos on Facebook 7 & 9 years ago we had heavy snow here, in fact 7 years ago there is a shot of me up to my knees in a snow drift. This winter we have had a flurry on the hills & high places around us, but I have been spared the task of clearing the drive. Last Saturday & Sunday we experienced extremely cold nights, on both nights going down to minus 9 C. Yesterday was just on freezing with treacherous road conditions with loads of black ice until the gritter came up, which coincided (luckily) with me going out. Now today it is plus 5 C so in two days a change of 14 degrees, just barmy.

Though it has been cold, one thing I love doing is taking shots of this environment, even if it is a quick run out of the house & get back in the warm as soon as possible. Frost patterns on glass have always fascinated me, so I have put a few shots of them up for you to look at. But a thing I have not seen anywhere else but up here is the Ice Hair, this is a phenomenon caused by a fungi in rotten wood that expands outward when the temperature gets really low. I suppose it is a bit like snowflakes in as much as no two pieces of wood look the same, I just love it & have taken a fair few shots over the years, you really want to touch it & see if it is like fur, but the minute you do it just melts. I hope you can get a good impression of what it is like from the attached photos, it is true Christmas magic.

Ever since a small boy I have attended Remembrance Sunday parades, initially in a county town in the home counties, where my dad was a councillor & laid a wreath on behalf of the council. Then on parade as a Sea Scout (short trousers can make you very cold in November). Followed by attending just as an adult in various towns where I have lived, culminating in what I thought would be the best, representing the Fire Services of the South West of England at the Cenotaph in London

But in actual fact of all of these the service here in Blair Atholl really is the best. I do not believe that many village services could have as good a turnout of residents than this one has. Led by our own local pipe band, followed by the Atholl Highlanders, the castles own private army. In fact the only private army in the U.K. that is permitted to bear arms, an honour that was given to them by Queen Victoria.

We have no minister in our local church but the service is lead by either retired ministers or lay readers, this year led by Grace Steel who did a fine job, with those present giving a very good rendition of The Lord is My Shepherd without any musical accompaniment. The memorial is itself very unusual being just a large piece of local stone. Wreaths are laid by various institutions, but to me it is lovely to see youngsters from the local play group .laying one.

Have included a few shots to give you some idea of the parade.

It was during the 1970s & 80s that all the top stars in sport had this mad idea to infest their money into coniferous forest & the U.K. , but mainly Scotland, started to be covered in these evergreen trees. They of course were so dense that no other vegetation survived under their canopy, not many birds lived in them, maybe Crossbills, Goshawks, that was about it. You would see the occasional Roe or Red Deer on the edges, but basically they were an environmental nightmare & I am not to sure that the likes of Steve Davies ever made a fortune out of them.

Move forward to the present day & those trees are now fully mature & are being felled & some areas are replacing them with native trees. What is worrying to me is that some estates are just leaving the ground full of roots & ruts where the felling vehicles have been working. Okay this wilderness encourages all the plants that have been dormant to sprout into the light they have missed for years & native trees will replace the conifers, but it really is more of a blot on the landscape than the conifers were.

All around the view from our house the felling has been going on , mostly using those magnificent machines that cut the tree down, strip the branches off & cut the trunk to the required length, all in a matter of three or four minutes. It is not until you hear & see the trees come down that you realise just how dense that wood was & just how much timber they get out of that collection. The machinery that cuts, collects the timber into a stack, plus those mad drivers that collect it & haul it off to the timber yards, seem to have been working for weeks (from very early morning on until after dark) again showing just how much there was.

Of course you hope that Atholl Estates will replenish the woods with native trees sometime in the future, but in the meantime it certainly has changed our view. Below I will illustrate this to you, I have searched high & low for before photos to add to this article, but as usual I know they are somewhere on my cloud but will not find them until this has been published.

So just a few days ago I wrote my blog, boasting about the mild weather we were having & how the plants were still looking great. Honestly I should not have written that piece, because what happened last night, we went down to MINUS FIVE CENTIGRADE , that’s right minus five. Of course that has been devastating for the plants as I will show you in the next lot of shots. On the weather this morning the coldest place in the U.K. was also in Perthshire at minus 5.6 so we were not far behind that. But what a beautiful crisp sunny morning we have had since, though this time of the year with the sun so low it doesn’t raise the temperature that much, in fact it is only plus 4 now (3pm). A mate in Somerset has just informed me that the lowest they have got to is 7C , so we are still pretty cold for those soft southerners.

Just wonder how long before I tell you about our first snow?

That lovely Clematis wilted with frost.

Not sure if these normally upright plants will recover?