Cairngorms Life

Firstly, I hope you all had a great Christmas & that you were all good enough to allow Santa to deliver all your hoped for presents. I must have been so good, because I got more than I could have ever wished for.

I had posted on the blog 3 or4 days before Christmas, but for some strange reason it has not been published, I can still see it on my admin site, but just did not go out to you all for some reason. It had nothing rude, pornographic or political in it, so not sure why ?????

Anyway, lets hope this one goes out okay. I think we have had the mildest two days of Christmas since we have been up here, yesterday we were out walking while the turkey cooked & it was 12C. Overnight the temperature did just go below zero & therefore we had some fresh sprinkling of snow on the high tops. On this mornings walk (just under 5 miles today) the wind made it colder than it was but the thermometer showed 4C, which made for a brisk walk.

With a slither of sunlight going up the glen it was a good light to show off the trees, as I hope you can see from the first two shots. As for the third I just had to grab that one. I had my big lens on & the cow was a fair distance away from us & it seemed like the cow was just looking at that beautiful scenery and saying “all this lovely grass is all mine & that snow can stay up on the hills so I can chew away without searching through snow for my grass”. Well that is what I would be thinking.

When we reached Loch Moraig, there was just two cars in the parking spot, some brave souls up climbing the two Munroes for a Christmas treat, rather them than me, I will stick to the road, that is steep enough for me these days.

 

 

 

Went out about 1040am for the first photo having adjusted the thermometer at 9 when it was reading minus 10C as you can see not warmed up much, just one degree. But I think this is how winters in Scotland should be with a crispness, clear skies, sun shining and clean air. Just love it, especially when all the roads have been gritted, ice free & dry, so it doesn’t stop you getting in the car to get the essentials & walks away from home.

One other bonus is all the migrated birds know where the Miller house is to get some grub to keep them going. I have never seen in the 12/13 years we have lived here as many Chaffinches as we have in the garden at present, we estimate well over 100. they eat from every type of feeder we have, peanut, mixed seed, Niger seed, &  fat balls & black Sunflower seed. They just go mad for anything, though they are very nervous birds, a Blackbird flying in is enough to send them scattering, then as you can see from one of the shots, they scurry back & eat peacefully with the Blackbird. But if the Jay or Sparrow Hawk comes you will not see them for ages. Don’t blame them really as we often find the remains of an eaten Chaffinch or Blue Tit around the garden.

Of course one of the downsides of all this food is that the Pheasants arrive in great numbers, eating up all the food put out for the smaller birds. The upside is there is nothing better than a roast Pheasant on a cold night. 🙂

As you can see the G.S.Woodpeckers love the Peanut Butter, I forgot to say so do the Chaffinch, at the moment we are getting through 2 jars in 3 days. I know our bird feeding bill is larger than our feeding bill (except for Christmas), but it is so worth it to see the volume of birds we get in the garden.

In fact I have said to my wife, if ever I am bed ridden, just put me in front of the lounge window & I can be entertained for hours.

 

 

Like the rest of the North of the UK we have snow, though in truth less than what we expected, but I still had to clear our drive. This is not an easy task, having to scrape the snow off then apply a layer of road salt. It takes me roughly an hour, depending on the depth of snow, but I must admit the older I get, each year seems a bit longer.

The forecast for the rest of the day & tomorrow seems like we will be getting a load more dumped on us, so I hope the amount of salt I have put down prevents me having to go out & clear it again. Though some years I have had to go out 3 or 4 times to clear it.

One good thing coming out of this is Avimore have opened their ski slopes early this year, so allowing what is a relatively short season to be extended. We may not have it very thick, but with their runs all being above 3000 feet & the use of snow blown onto the slopes (via mechanical snow blowers), plus compacting it down, they have more than enough to satisfy the skiers.

In the before & after photos below, you will notice the brown mixture at the top end of the drive, this is the sub standard road salt they gave us to use up, which contains more sand & grit than salt. The bottom half is done with the proper near 100% salt, so much better. That is the same neighbours house though the colour is different, it wasn’t repainted in between shots, it was just in the first shot n it.

 

 

I did warn you that Christmas was on it’s way in Blair Atholl. Saturday was the start with Father Christmas having a break from his busy schedule  & seeing nearly 50 of the villages children. This was followed by the turning on of the village Christmas lights, which I am sorry to say I was a total failure at taking photos of. I blame it on the extremely strong mulled wine that was on offer, not to mention the delicious mince pies which did rather distract me from getting any decent shots. It is such a shame because our huge Christmas tree (supplied by Atholl Estates) had the near full moon right on the top of it & I really tried to get that shot as it looked like a very bright bauble sitting up there.

I was a bit more with it today at the Christmas Market. Many locals had stalls & also attended as you can see from my shots. I stayed for just over an hour & I think the attendance was up on last year, though it was very mild compared with it being cold last year. As usual the cake stalls & Rami’s bread were popular, along with local handmade jewelry, woolies & honey. The framed photos made me very envious as they were excellent scenes from our area, with a large number showing harsh winters of the past. All in all a good weekend in the village & I promise in the week I will go down to the village & capture the lights as best I can, hopefully.

 

 

 

Well this has been a hard week, waking up each morning to minus C temperatures ( minus 8C being our lowest) & a very strong North wind, we have a steep 50 yard driveway up to our house & I have had to either salt it or scrape snow from it for 6 days on the trot which is fairly unusual.

Woke up to another dusting of snow today, hence the first photo, what I would like from you is to place in the “comments” area below the photos, what you think made that footprint? Please at any time leave your comments on my blog as I would love to read them.

The second & third shot is what our sunrise looks like on the hills, I normally only get a 5 minute chance to take these shots as the sun is soon above the horizon & shining bright.

Lastly, it is going to be a busy weekend in the village, Saturday night it the village lights going on, with mulled wine , mince pies & a visit from Santa with presents for all the children. Then on Sunday (as you can see from the last shot, is the village Christmas Market. Normally 16 to 18 stalls, many of them local people selling all sorts of Christmas goodies, this includes Rami baking, so we get some of his fresh bread, to re stock the freezer with. I shall of course be covering both events, so will try to add some photos Sunday night.

Lets have your thoughts on what the footprint is.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry I haven’t been on for a while, had a week in Cornwall seeing my sister, just a tad warmer than up here. On the way home passing through Cumbria we experienced the heavy rain that caused last nights flooding, the M6 was hard going with a lot of surface water on the roads.

All a bit different to the inch of snow we woke up to this morning. Our roads soon cleared with some lovely sunshine warming us up to zero degrees C, so at least no need for the snow plough. went for a walk up the hills with the misses & of course the camera. So glad I did because it was a cracking light, well at least going up the road was, coming back clouded over a bit & we are forecast some more snow tonight.

All shots taken from the road, the first being one of the many lone Birch trees that just about hang on throughout the windy & exposed terrain that is Glen Tilt.

The second is one of my favourite row of trees, this horizon used to be covered in trees, but they felled the wood & left just these, which I find makes them very photogenic.

The third shows how well the Glen & Munro’s are now covered, in the middle of the shot you can just make out the barns that are part of the remote farm (the same one as in the first shot) called Menzie (pronounced Menaa).

The last two were a bit of a surprise, on a very distant hill was this herd of Red Deer stags, they most probably have been there since after the rut, but are (until the snow comes) normally well camouflaged. Hinds & Stags separate after the rut & even larger groups of stags are not uncommon up here. No doubt that by the end of the winter you will be fed up of my stag shots, as they come fairly close to us on the other side of the Glen.

 

 

 

All across Britain & the Commonwealth today there will be services of remembrance. But here in our tiny village we have a unique event that happens nowhere else in the world. On parade for us is the only official & royal approved private army, The Atholl Highlanders.

Queen Victoria granted them this status when they escorted her on the way to Balmoral, she was so impressed that she allowed them by charter this status. Marching in front of them was our local pipe band & it was so good to see the youngsters in the band & bothering to come to the parade.

The road through the village is shut at both ends to allow the band & Highlanders to remain on the road throughout the ceremony & to march from the castle entrance & then back up the village to the church.

Below are  them coming up to the war memorial, with the pipe band, Then one of the Highlanders & lastly our wonderful stone memorial, I wish I could learn how to turn the portrait shot round to be a landscape, I will get the hang of it one day.

 

We (like the rest of the U.K. ) have just had our clocks change , darker nights, but good light in the mornings. Though not so this morning, very grey skies, showers & the occasional glimpse of the sun. Most significant though is on the top of our hills where we have the first snow of the Winter, does make you feel cold just looking at it.

First hill is Carn Dearg Baeg.

Second I think? is Craeg Bhagailteach way in the distance from us.

And the third is Maell  Reamhar at 565 Metres the highest of the three.

 

 

This time of year The Cairngorms can be so unpredictable, an example being (as F.B. has told me) 5 years ago today I posted a shot of the hills covered in snow. Not today though, today was a real cracking day, no wind, no rain, no snow just a wonderful calm sunny, crisp day. 10 to 12 Centigrade, but without the wind just a pleasure to go for a walk. So that is what we did.

Walked up from our house to Loch Moraig, which is a great brown trout fishing loch in season. The distance is about 1. 1/2 miles , but all up hill & so worth the effort. The cattle along side the road were unusually content, not calling out for food, curious of us but content to share the road between cattle grids with us. Then the views of the start of The Cairngorm range of hills looking splendid in the midday sun.

Then Loch Moraig comes into view, we had seen well over 100 Geese flying towards it on the walk up, but was surprised that there were very few on the loch, I guess they were in the surrounding fields feeding up. But what a sight the loch was bathed in sunshine & so calm that the ducks wakes were still sitting on the water 50yds behind them.

Went a bit snap happy but have only added a few to this blog, just to give you an idea of what the day was like.

Had to go down to Loch Dunmore this afternoon to pick up the boathouse keys from the E.F. & again could not resist taking a shot of the boathouse without the pumps & lights, beautiful in it’s own right (that is the last shot)

The other shots are:-

The Munro Carn Liath,  A bit further to the left of Carn Liath & two of Loch Moraig.

 

 

 

That is it, the Enchanted Forest for 2017 is finished, last show was Sunday night & the whole thing has been a wonderful success.  72,000 people attended over the 31 nights, bringing an awful lot of trade into the area, with cafes, restaurants, pubs, hotels & bed & breakfast establishment seeing a huge rise in sales. Even the Blair Atholl Country Museum stayed open & saw an increase in visitors, some days above what they had recorded during summer months.

The dismantling of the structures at E.F. has gone well, with the water section that I was involved in, what took nearly two weeks to construct has been taken apart in one & a half days.  17 rafts & pumps, plus all the scaffolding that held them together off the water, all areas available to fish now, though I think it might take the winter for the fish to get over the upheaval.

 

Below are the last four shots of this years show that I took on Saturday night :-

First the lava flow hillside complete with a reflection in the Loch.

Next, I think this looks like the woods are on fire & the jets are trying to put it out, trouble seems to be they are trying with petrol not water (vivid imagination me).

The next two shots are of the Rainbow Bridge, a huge part of the show & children just loved the water spray on the outside of it. Apparently there were 3 marriage proposals on the bridge during the show. One guy, came up from London,  hired the event after it had shut to the public (10.30 pm) had families with him & surprised his girlfriend by getting down on one knee in the middle of the bridge, she said yes. Expensive thing to do , just worries me what the women will expect for their wedding?