Author: David Miller

This has been a strange season, because we have had so much rain it has been really fairly mild. Okay we have the heating on ticking over & on the last two full moons we have had frost’s, the full moon before this present one we went down to minus 3C one night & 8C the following night. This one we have so far been down to minus 1C but we are expecting a frost tonight.

So I think this has been giving mixed messages to the plants. Autumnal colours are appearing on the trees & I can assure you (having cleared the gutters once already) that the leaves are falling from the trees, but some of our garden plants just have not stopped blooming.

Rained ALL morning here, but a lovely sunny afternoon, so out I went with my camera to capture some examples to show you.

The hydrangea to me is the wimp of all garden plants, one sniff of a frost & it curls over & gives up. I would have it out but we left it for one more year & it actually gave us over a dozen blooms for the first time since we moved in.

Where as our beautiful Acer is in it’s prime at the moment, 15 years ago this was a small shrub but now it is splendid & creeps along the path edge, making you smile every time you pass it.

Okay it gets covered when we have a frost warning, but to see this Fuchsia still producing blooms this time of the year is a rarity for us.

As for Foxgloves this white one is still producing buds & looking fine. All the wild ones in the garden are long dead, but this one is something special.

Going back to Autumn colours this shrub is looking so attractive in the late sun & has hardly lost any leaves.

The tubs at our front door give you a real lift with the berries & variegated leaves, add as bit of colour to a dormant space.

Had a few Redwings & Fieldfare on the Rowan berries but nothing, not even the Blackbirds, have started eating these juicy berries yet.

Now for a couple more plants that should be finished weeks ago, this Harebell is a prime example.

This Clematis is still producing flowers as it has done for several months.

This plant certainly adds some colour to the garden, not sure I have seen it smiling this late in the year before ?

Rock Rose (I think?) is still attracting a few late Bees, though they have certainly reduced to what they were a month ago.

Of course the Winter Heathers are looking good & will add some colour once all those other plants eventually die off.

Captured a late Blue Fly soaking up the late afternoon sun, I, plus the sheep in the field in front of the house will be pleased to see the back of them.

All we can wish for is a decent mild Winter with not to much snow to clear from the drive.

Apologies for no posting for a while, but I had a week in Cornwall before returning & doing my couple of weeks at Loch Dunmore preparing for this years Enchanted Forest.

Now I know every year I have to apologies for the fact that (by about 1/2 mile) this event is outside the Cairngorms National Park, but it is such an important event for not only Pitlochry , but also all the surrounding area, which includes our little village. You can imagine the influx of just under 3,000 visitors every night to the area for 30 days makes a lot of difference to traders, whom normally are either preparing to close down for the winter or a very much reduced footfall to a radius of 20 or so miles around.

Traders, be it cafes, B&B, gift shops or even the traffic wardens, all report a wonderful number of day time visitors. Every hotel is full as families make a couple of days break out of it, not forgetting the transport companies. Due to the fact Pitlochry has limited parking spaces (hence the wardens wandering around every night until 10 o’clock) , many people from Edinburgh & Glasgow arrive in coaches or on the train, all extra revenue they would never have dreamed of 15 years ago.

This year was a particularly busy year for me as an awful lot of the show was on the water, with some very tricky builds, which the only part I had to do was row the boat, one to get the various equipment to its correct spot & secondly keep the boat still while the very talented engineers constructed it.

So for these reasons, let alone seeing so many people enjoying the show, I feel it is only right to share some of the images with you.

The theme this year to coincide with the anniversary of the moon landing, is The Cosmos. Here is my partial eclipse as seen by spacemen. The Moon is an 8metre diameter balloon & the Earth is about 4metres. with 3,000 twinkling stars below it stretching 100 metres back into the woods.

On the press night the water was so calm & showed such wonderful reflections onto the water, as you can see here.

My shot really does not do justice to this little area, 3 of the satellite dishes were scattered around the site giving off a signal into space, the strands were strips of LED lights that sparkled.

Again it is the reflection that I loved over the projected images of this & the next three. The projection has occurred the last 3 years with a different 7 minute film each time. The wonderful thing that most people do not realise is that the show is projected through a very fine, high pressure, water spray.

I just love this eye, so much detail.

The gasps of amazement & joy as this spaceman emerges out of the water is incredible, the following shot is the spaceman floating in space & waving, the number of children that were waving back just added to the magic.

Every now & then you have to accept that you knocked the camera while it was taking a long exposure, which is what I did here. But funnily I rather enjoyed this piece of abstract “art”. It just echoed the movement of the whole show. Sorry for any that are unable to visit the show, but after many years of attending, this was the best ever.

It just does not seem right that today is the first day of Autumn, mainly because up here , apart from a few days here & there, we have not really had much of a summer. The good weather always seems to happen when we have visitors from down South & they say ” I thought you said the weather has been really bad up here, this is lovely”. I am just hoping for a Indian Summer & September will be good & warm & Autumn is short of bad days so we will not be prepared for a bad winter.

Old folk tales state that if we have an abundance of berries, then it is going to be a hard winter & as you will see below, the Rowan are nearly breaking their branches they are so laden with fruit. One year I must make some jelly out of them, not sure if there is such a thing as Rowan wine, shall have to check that one out. I shall be very disappointed if we do not get a good show of Redwing & Fieldfares eating them this year.

As Autumn has commenced I thought I would put in a couple of shots of the Autumn Crocus that grow in the garden. Went out before the rain today & took these few, very surprised at the number of Hover Fly & other creatures that are attracted to them, never really noticed that before.

The ever faithful Rhododendron shrub at our back door has flowered from May & is still sending out the odd flowers which is good to see, plus the Herb Robert is still attracting the bees, most probably the best we have seen it for years.

It does not seem a year ago that I put up some photos of the Harley Davidsons going up to Avimore for the “Thunder in the Glen”, seem to be more than ever going up this year, even though we are a mile away from the A9 from Thursday until Saturday Morning & then Sunday night, all you could hear was the rumble & throb of the bikes, just a great sound.

Plenty going on in the village over the English Bank Holiday (not one up here) with the International Horse Trials going on at the castle. Plus the venture that is Davy at the Fish & Chip shop with his marque & live music . I have never been but all who do go love it, so I must get down to it next year & share some photos with you.

With the Horse Trials they had this year a Bird of Prey display & as I love them I have included shots of the birds, all just have had a bath, as that was one of those rare hot days. Of course we had visitors at the time. 🙂

There is nothing like village events that bring the competitive side out of people to make them popular & the annual church flower show does that. One good thing about it is that it is open to the whole village not just churchgoers. For the past 10 years I have judged (along with one other) the vegetable section, which is of course highly competitive. Two highly respected members of the church have an annual rivalry in this section, with normally one of the two winning the coveted veg cup. Last year both missed out as a newcomer, one of Atholl Estates gardeners entered his own veg & walked most classes. Fortunately he didn’t enter this year so it was back to the usual battle. As judges we are not aware of who entered what , as their names are in sealed envelopes, so how demoralising must it have been when one of them won the first 5 categories & then went on to be above the other in all other classes. Hope I get a pint from one & not to long in the doghouse from the other.

Of course it will be of no surprise to know that I entered two photos, where the theme this year was Scottish Views, I have a bit of rivalry with one of the girls who works in The Mill, who is a great photographer. She sells cards with her photos on within The Mill & also at other local events, all of which are excellent & professional. She also entered two shots into the field of 20 or so photos, I managed a 3rd & she was not placed, so of course I had to go into The Mill & have a small boasting session.

Below are the shots I took of the various sections & I do apologies, I did get a bit carried away. 🙂

Please do not worry, this is not photos of me having my annual bath, I don’t want to lose what readers I have.

No, this is a great sequence I caught this afternoon from my garden hide. Both my wife & myself had been busy in the garden, she decided to go indoors for a cuppa & my first thought was to grab the camera. We have had some rough weather this week & the next 4 days are meant to be even worse, so as the sun was shining I thought why not.

The hide is set up (at present) to focus on the area of my pond where most of the birds go down for a drink & bath, this part of the ponds plants had grown considerably since I last took some shots, so a quick snip with the shears was in order. Concentrated on the photo opportunity area & on looking through the lens all was clear for some shots. What happened, the first bird to come down for a drink, landed on an iris leaf bent it into the focus area & the stem never went back, hence the annoying section in the left of the first three shots.

I never have to wait long on warm days for something to appear on the rock & sure enough down came this young Great Tit. At first it just had a drink then must have thought to itself that the water seemed about right for a bath. I do not think I have ever seen a bird bathe with such enthusiasm as this one, it really went for it. Hence the reason I just had to share the sequence with you. A great 15 minutes of shear enjoyment, both for me & the bird by the looks of it.

By now you are all aware of my love of photography & wildlife, especially birds. Well when we are told about the birds, we are also told about the Bees & this time of the year and some decent weather has certainly made them come & take as much food from our garden as possible. Though we do not always pick the right sort of plants for them to feed on, we do try and encourage them in. The wild Foxgloves (though nearly over) have been a great source of food & wherever they set seed, we just let them grow, hence we have a fair few.

The majority of Bees in the following photos are feeding on a wild flower, that is not common in Scotland, but one we had in our garden down in the West of England & we were aware that it was a great insect attracter so we came up with a few potted up, just to try up here in the new garden. Fortunately it has taken well to this climate & as you can see is doing a fine job for the Bees. The plant is a Purple Toadflax, one that we find attractive & well liked by human as well as insect visitors.

Though when purchasing plants from local nurseries we do look for Bee friendly ones, we often find that wild plants, such as the two above attract far more insects than cultivated ones, I expect the experts will disagree, but that is what we think. In fact today when we were walking down to The Mill for a coffee, beside the village hall, we discovered that a colony (is that how you describe them?) of teasels is just coming into bloom and is covered with Hover Flies & Bees, so guess who will be taking some of the seeds before the Goldfinch get to them?

Photographing Bees is something new for me & they do not tend to sit around & pose for long, so after much effort trials & a lot of errors, here are some from yesterday.

At this time of the year the garden is constantly changing, mainly down to the wives hard work & dedication to make the display look good, me, well I can mow the lawns & the heavier manual work, beyond that I am useless. Many flowers are still going from when I put them on last month, I (the expert gardener) think it is due to the fact that summer was held back by the cold wet start to this month, but now the sun has decided to come out things are spurting on. I do like taking photos of the flowers, though I have said before I have trouble naming them, so will just put them up for you all to enjoy & leave you to know or make up their names.

Firstly I know this is meant to be based in the Cairngorms, just occasionally I may venture a bit further out of the Park to bring you something of interest, as I have done here. This is a story based on the River Tummel Shingle Islands about 6 miles outside the Park. The Islands are jointly run by Atholl Estates (who’s H.Q. is at Blair Castle so well within the Park) & Scottish Wildlife Trust (SWT)

Now like Marmite you either love Beavers or hate them, the chair of our local branch of the SWT loves them & organises these walks ( or should I say commando courses) deep into the vegetation of the islands to show off the dams & lodges of the Beavers. Yesterday was such a day, so as I had not been I tagged along with 4 others to see what we could find. Of course we knew we wouldn’t see the actual Beavers, as it was 2pm & 25C & no sensible Beaver would be out & about then, but we did see a lot of evidence of their activities.

First lets set the scene, The Tummel is a spate river & every year it changes course finding a easier route on it’s way to join the Tay. The islands are formed from the old river bad 20 -30 years ago & though they do flood in the winter are now just a trickle of their old roaring, raging river. This of course is an ideal flow for the Beaver & all through the island dams have been built to make the water deeper in order to make their sleeping/ living lodges. So it was these that we came to see.

As I said before not everyone likes Beavers, but now in Scotland it is illegal to kill them without a licence, a month or so before the legislation came in, around this area of the Tummel, two Beavers were found shot.

So of course my blog would not be complete without some photos & this was a particularly difficult shoot because the sun was so bright & lots of dapple shade, so I know they are not my best.

Just a few shots from what was an enjoyable two hour hike through the jungle of the Tummel Island

At last, just after the longest day, we have something resembling a summers day. Though we still have a fairly “brisk” wind, the sun is shining. My wife of course is straight out in the garden slaving away keeping it tidy & in my opinion looking splendid, she regards it as a mess, but I love the way everything looks so colourful & the bees are buzzing. Showing what a great gardener I am I went straight indoors & got my camera to catch the lovely light.

Most of you whom I know are pretty keen gardeners & know your Onions from your Osmanthus, so I will not show my ignorance beyond naming the Lupins, Foxgloves & Heather. What I like is the variety of colour in the Lupins I presume they cross pollinate so the shades are never ending.

So first the Lupins.

Loved those, now the Foxglove, White is getting very common in the wild & are all around us.

When we moved here I created a pond & our neighbour gave me some water Buttercups, I discovered that within the Buttercups was a single Orchid & every year since up it comes giving us such pleasure.

The only Heather out at the moment is this Bell one, I again love the colour.

In every house we have ever lived in, we have had the Rose Guinea, though it doesn’t do that well up here, what blooms we do get are a great deep red & smell incredible.

We have a very small wild flower meadow which is full of Rattle, a rare plant up here, but I do not know why as our plants are expanding through seed dispersion, a lovely little plant.

I have written enough dribble, will just add the remaining shots & you can decide what they are called.

Lastly for all you wine makers, it seems to be a bumper year for Elderflowers, so any finished liquid, yes please.

Last night sitting at our dining room table, my wife informed me that there was a Hare in the field in front of the house. As for once it wasn’t raining, or blowing a gale, or near freezing temperatures, I thought I might get some photos out of this. Little did I know it would develop into a story line that I could tell you all.

We have half a dozen steps down to our fence which you then have to climb over to get in the field. So the first couple of shots I took were from within the garden, some 50yds from the Hare. As I focused in on the Hare I saw there were two, not just the one. Got that shot in the bag (or at least in the camera)

Decided to climb over the fence now as I was just happy with the one photo. One of the Hares saw me & made a bolt for it.

But the remaining one didn’t seem bothered & carried on eating while I slowly advanced towards it.

It was so relaxed that it then decided it was time for a tidy up & proceeded to have a wash.

Eventually when I was no more than 20yds away it saw me.

And then decided it was time to run off. Though like the true pro the Hare must have been, decided that it would sit and pose for me on the horizon . So this was the last shot, but what an image to finish on. 15 minutes of shear enjoyment for yours truly.