Cairngorms Life

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.

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.