Cairngorms Life

Due to the unfortunate death of a hard working local councillor our ward had to have a by-election yesterday. For nearly 20 years now I have always worked in the polling stations (or as they are known now polling place). So yesterday saw me going over to Tummell Bridge to work. Although just outside The Park I thought it would be worth telling you what actually goes into being a member of staff. Yes we do get paid as officials of the council, but when you work out the hours involved it is not a large sum. Before each election you attend a training session to update you on how the election will be run. I have to pick up the box the day before & check I have all the necessary paperwork.Then on the day staff have to be in place for  6.20am, to enable to set the paperwork, ballot box, booths in the right place & according to the rules laid out for us.

Tummell Bridge is a small village & roughly a third of the people work away, so have postal votes, others come to vote from over a vast area with most probably 8 miles away being the furthest one has to travel. So as we have to be there until 10pm it is a long day. Throughout the day you have party representatives coming to find out the percentage of those that have voted & also an inspector (appointed by the council) comes round at least 3 times during the day. His job is to check that all the correct procedures are being carried out, help with any crisis that may have arisen & check that we are all fine. They have the training, so if anyone is taken ill, they can step in the breach until a relief person can take over.

Of course we as polling staff have to stay within the perimeter of the polling place, but when it is as nice a day as yesterday we can sit outside & await the next voter. with toilet & meal breaks you can often be left to deal with voters, but me & my poll clerk are always aware of the sound of approaching cars & will normally be manning our desk by the time anyone enters. Having worked at Tummell for a fair few elections now we get to know most voters & have a good relationship with them, it might have something to do with the bowl of sweets I provide for them though.

At 10pm there are some 15 envelopes that I have to fill with all the different paperwork & make sure the accounts of voters balances, then take that all into Pitlochry where a council van collects all of it up from the area before taking it to the count. Then home to a hot bath relax for half an hour & crash out in bed.

During one of my breaks I took a few photos of the perimeter of the hall to show you what a lovely spot it is to work.

First is the hall itself, then the entrance.

Then to the side of the hall is the upper part of the River Tummell before it goes into the Loch, this is a very dangerous part of the river as it’s level is controlled by the hydro electric schemes & if water is discharged from the power station the water can rise really rapidly. In fact at this very spot a fisherman was drowned when the river rose & he got swept away by the current.

The next shot is one of the two power stations in the village. And finally, it wouldn’t be me if I did not include a bird in the post, so a very obliging Robin sitting waiting to have it’s photo taken.

 

        

 

No photos on todays blog, just a report on last nights Wildlife Trust talk in the village hall that I had arranged. The speaker was David Hethrington, an ecologist & author of a book on the reintroduction of Lynx to Scotland. The book is called The Lynx & Us, which was naturally the title of the talk, an interesting book with some wonderful photographs of Lynx in many areas of Europe. With facts & figures to back up the argument for their reintroduction.

A record attendance for a local branch talk with over 80 people attending, many coming for the first time & fairly anti attitude, but I must say that David put over such a convincing argument for them that many went away now converted, or at least with a different attitude towards Lynx.

The fear that they would dine on the many sheep we have up here was proven not to be true as their main prey was Roe Deer, which up here are very common. Lynx tend to live in woodland areas & though in some European countries it is normal for sheep to be in woods, ours tend to be out in the open on moorland or fields. Pheasants were another concern as shooting game birds is a huge part of the rural economy, but this was also been debunked by a leading person in Europe who has been studying their behaviour for years.

When it came to questions at the end of the talk I thought (as we are a rural farming community) that David would get a hard time, but no, he answered the questions well & without anyone going totally against what he had said. I do not think I will see or hear of Lynx in Glen Tilt or Glen Fender in my lifetime, if a book like this & an enthusiastic speaker like David can win over the sceptics. Then who knows, maybe one day.

Sorry been away in New York visiting family, will start writing again when over jet lag. For locals, do not forget Monday night in the village hall, with a Wildlife Trust talk on re-introducing the Lynx.

Twice a year the hall committee organise a tidy up for the village hall, both inside & out. After most events the hall gets a sweep round & a tidy, but on these occasions we tend to go to town & spruce the place up. This being the Spring clean up makes it looks good for all our summer visitors, who tend to photograph the detail in the buildings at this end of the village.Nine of us turned out this year which was a bit lower than normal, but it is a beautiful day & some may have gone off for the week leading up to Easter. As you arrive you are greeted by a table with a list of jobs required to be done & you just pick what you fancy. I, being the nosey one, picked cleaning out cupboards, obviously you never know what is at the back of cupboards, hidden away.

Some of the other jobs can be seen in the photos.

Firstly Rami picked cleaning windows, hid his face for the shot, such a shy person. 🙂

Alistair & Neil on tidying the car park & entrance.

Ron swept leaves & cleared up down the side of the hall.

Donald (walking through the next shot) along with Eric loaded a trailer full of rubbish & cleared up the boiler room.

Elspeth cleaned all the chairs & benches, then with my help mopped the whole of the hall floor.

While Heather tidied up the small hall & provided the wonderful spread you can see in the last shot. What more could you want for a coffee break than homemade fruit scones, a choice of ( also homemade) raspberry or strawberry jam, followed by yummee flapjack. Made all the hard work worth it & those who didn’t come, you missed out.

I am very busy for the next couple of weeks, so don’t expect much on here from me.

 

I have suddenly realised that after 70 odd posts in the last 8 months, I have never shown you around the different landmarks of the village. So as the sun was shining this morning (even though it was below zero C) I decided to go out & take some shots within the village. The village is divided by the River Tilt, the south end called Bridge of Tilt & North of the river which has the older buildings is Blair Atholl.

So the first three shots are Tilt end, with the main street first, showing the snow covered Ben-e-Vrackie hills in the distance that are above Pitlochry. The Tilt stores is on the right in the foreground & where all the cars are lined up on the left is where the garage (in the second picture) is.

Number 3 is the village Primary School, last time I asked there were just about 30 pupils, got a bit embarrassed taking this shot as it was a school & did not want the public to get the wrong impression of me, hence it does not show the real extent of the buildings.

Shot 4 is the single track railway that goes through the village, believe it or not, this is the main line between Inverness & Edinburgh, Glasgow & London, with night sleepers & all mainline trains. Everyday we have going up & coming back an Eddie Stobart train carrying Tesco containers travelling from Glasgow (I believe) to Inverness saving at least 20 lorries from being on the A9 daily.

The greenery to the right of that shot is what is to the left of the next shot of our golf course, in the distance is a huge quarry, that. When the A9 is upgraded to dual carriageway will play a vital role in providing materials.

Next is the village hall a lovely old building that we as villagers are trying to get upgraded with a series of grants. It was very busy today as it was the last of the soup lunches that have happened every other Monday throughout the winter.

Following that is The Atholl Arms hotel a very popular watering hole, they are connected to the Moulin Hotel in Pitlochry where they have their own micro brewery, Braveheart beer is my favourite tipple.

Atholl Estate provide a Tourist information center which is well laid out with things to do & interactive nature things for children to play with.

Last shot is one of two churches in the village, this being the Church of Scotland the other is the Episcopal Church which is on the Tilt side of the village.

 

 

 

 

I am on the committee of the local branch of the Scottish Wildlife Trust & I have organised a talk that a few of you might be interested in , details are all around the village on the notice boards, but in case you have missed it here is the posters. Should be a good, but controversial talk.

 

Yes it’s here at last, no not the long awaited spring weather, they say we are going to get more snow this weekend. No not the long awaited Lottery win, or even Premium Bonds. No something far more important than all of those.

Yes my new camera has arrived, so I have now got a much improved one, the same as my nephew’s & youngest son’s (don’t you just hate it when these youngsters know the one you want & purchase it before you). It is the all singing & dancing Canon 7d Mark 2, been out a few years now but was always the camera of my dreams since I started taking my hobby a bit serious.

As per usual could have done with it on our weekend away, as visited some great wildlife reserves in Yorkshire, but it is here now. Have rebuilt my little hide in the garden & first thing this morning I was out in it to capture the usual suspects near the feeder.

First the very colourful Male Chaffinch, starting to look good in it’s breeding colours. Second a Male House Sparrow, again looking good. We had in the first five years of living here no Sparrows nesting in the garden, so I made two Sparrow hotels for them (just 3 boxes in one block as they like to live in colonies) & it seems to have worked as the population has shot up, with up to ten coming to the feeders. they have also taken over a Blue Tit box & each year attempt to take on the House Martin pots before the Martins return, I now have to fill the pots with rags until I see the first Martin flying around.

The last one is of a Female Chaffinch, isn’t it strange that birds are the exact opposite to humans, with the males always the brighter coloured birds, where the human “birds” are always way prettier than us drab fellas.

Hope you can see the difference in the quality of these shots, as SWMBO states she can see no difference, married to a peasant me.

 

 

 

 

 

I have had a complaint that my blog this winter has shown The Cairngorms to much associated with snow, which I consider a bit unfair, cos that is us. When the people down south moan about temperatures dropping to a minus 6, hardly a week has gone by this winter when we have not gone down to such temperatures. A couple of inches of snow is nothing to us, it is only when we get conditions like this last week that it is getting close to unusual.

The snow came late to us this week, but when it did we had our fair share of it (still snowing today), 4″ one night followed by 4″ the next & down to minus 9C. Most unusually it closed the village primary school & Pitlochry High school, which spells bad news for us. The snow plough has a priority route of up our glen to allow the school bus to take home the remote children further up it. With the school closed, no snow plough for two days until the priority routes were cleared. This caused a very large drift on the road above our house & eventually when the plough arrived it couldn’t cope & took two snow ploughs & a JCB over an hour to clear the 100yds of the drift, to cold for me to venture out with the camera to photograph it, sorry.

Yesterday we had a small window with no snow & we walked down the village to collect some bread, as The Mill had baked. Hence the chance to get the shots below, walking along the River Tilt, very pretty it was to.

First four shots are of the gin clear water & the snow covered rocks, with hints of ice formed in the still flowing sections. The other is of the tree lined, snow covered walk beside the river, a most enjoyable walk. All photos taken with my old basic camera, ordering the NEW one tomorrow.  🙂

As we enter spring I hope to give you shots & items on things other than snow, but who knows the winter may not want to let go just yet.

 

 

 

Firstly some sad news, more or less a death within the family, while trying to get some shots of Bullfinches down in the village, my poor much used & valued Canon 700d camera & I had a falling out on the ice. The result of which the camera has died completely. Less than a month ago I had it repaired at great expense & it was working like a dream, the fall managed to crack the casing around the memory card & battery area, so now awaiting the insurance company to see when & if they are going to pay out. Though there were no images on the memory card the next day when I went to take the memory card out, it had melted to the frame work, So some heat must have been generated during the crash.

So for a while I am afraid you will have to put up with my shots coming out of my small “old” camera.

You know when you see faces in everyday objects, such as toast, trees & the like, well until the forum (that I show my photographs on ) set this months challenge to capture these, I was unaware that it actually has a name. It is called Facial Pareidolia, and the first photo below is of the Gorilla in the Oak tree, which I hope you can see, that I have submitted to the challenge. The challenge closes on Sunday so let us see how I get on, I am up against an arrangement of fridge magnets, an image of Elvis in Ivy an old pumping station complete with window eyes & mouth door & a snowman face formed on a bush.

The second shot today is of frost on the porch window, it looked like a forest in front of our view & was gone 10 minutes later with the sun shining through the window.

The last two are of one of my favourite little flowers, the Snowdrop. What a bulb, about the first plant to come up in the garden & up here gets such a lot of knocks in it’s progress to bloom. Covered by thick snow, temperatures like the last couple of days, going up to 9C during the daytime, with bright sun beaming down on it, followed by the opposite during last night, down to minus 6C. In fact when I took these shots this morning it was still minus 4C. There it is standing bold, upright & beautiful under such conditions, what other plant would do that, wonderful.

So if you look around you  can always see the wonders of this strange natural world & we have not got around to the birds getting into their stunning breeding plumage yet.

Oh while on the subject of birds, I have (after 2 years of trying) got a young lady from the Tay Bird Ringers to come & net my birds sometime next month, so that I will be able to recognise my local birds from migrants. Watch this space.

 

 

 

 

Most probably this is the strangest winter we have had since being here, I am not alone in saying this even the real locals have not seen one like this for years. We seem to go on alternate days of green fields, then white, green then white, continuously. Today as you can see is a white one. The only constant factor is that the Munro’s have stayed white, which is good as it allows the ski centres to do a roaring trade, bad as we have had the usual hill walkers getting caught out in the bad conditions & having to be rescued, not always with good outcomes.

We woke up to a heavy snow storm this morning depositing a fair lump at our level, about 2″ . Unusually no snow plough up today (expect because it is half term & they only come up to clear to allow the school bus up), so it was fun getting out to Pitlochry , but with care we did it & on our return the amount of traffic & the sun had cleared it away. Decided to go up & take some photos further up the hill this afternoon, but only got a third of the way as the higher I got the thicker & worse the roads got. Did managed the shots below, which show you just how beautiful our countryside looks in these conditions.

The first 3 shots our the trees up the Glen, the tall shot showing Carn Liath, have not managed to climb this even in the summer (just to old), a couple of years ago I got to about as high as the top of the tree, which is just about halfway.

The 4th shot is Monzie Farm ( pronounced monaaaa) nestled down in the Glen and a fairly remote  place to live, I should think the only way out for them today was on a quad bike.

Just coming back down from taking those photos & out the corner of my eye I saw a large bird flying, only to realise it was a Heron, a strange place to find one, on the moors, but I guess there would be plenty of frogs around in the damp, boggy areas. Anyway he landed & I set my camera up, but do you think I could find it, it was so well camouflaged by the snow. Eventually I did spot it & managed the attached shot.