Cairngorms Life

This was a saying my mother would often say to me when I had done something in a hurray and mucked it up. Well it was never truer than with the last blog. I thought “well nothing else is on the cards for this month, so I might as well publish now, four days early” and what happened quite a bit as it happens, so I will start August blog of at the end of July. Also from the last blog, I should have checked my facts re if any of the village flower displays had ever been stolen, apparently one of those half barrels, complete, was stolen back in two thousand and twenty, never to be found.

29th.

My hawkeyed wife spotted this Hare about fifty yards from the house tucked down in the thistles, thought it was amusing that it gave me two bookend shots , asking “which is my good side?”.

30th

It is very unusual to hear aircraft low around us on a Sunday morning, unless it is the local Laird up in one of his planes that I have shown you before. But this morning the distinct sound of a helicopter ( a Coastguard one) flying low down the glen. It hovered a bit over the village, but then I thought it had gone along the same route as the A9 heading towards Pitlochry. In fact it had landed near the village and it wasn’t until an hour later I heard it start up again. Rushed to a spot that looks down on the village and after some delay it took off as seen in the first shot. We presumed that it had picked up a casualty and was heading of to the Trauma Centre in Dundee, but no, it headed to the top of the hill known as Tulloch Hill and landed (as in shots two and three) . Only then (last shot) did it head towards Dundee. Not sure at present what happened but will update you when I know. (Update. It was a training exercise)

2nd.

About three years ago the fences on the edge of the field was renewed and at first I couldn’t understand why they put a double fence in and then a few weeks later the estate planted a hedge. The gap in the hedge stopped looking bare the following summer, but did seem very slow growing. This year I suddenly noticed that it is thriving and a good variety of bushes/shrubs growing in it, Birch, Rowan& Hawthorn at least.

Here you can see the full length of it, looks good and healthy.

Walked down to our River Fender as they have just extracted some of the gravel from the spot in the shot above, following the section in a previous blog about the gold prospectors I wondered if it might be worth doing some panning?

The two plants above were growing along side the river, the purple one I recognise as Knapweed but the other one I had to put on my photographic forum to ask what it was as I thought it was just a different type of Hogweed. The general feeling is it is wild Angelica, shall have to go and smell it to see.

Very much a snatch shot, wrong lens etc. but I have never seen a spider with a fluorescent yellow body and the brown legs. No idea what it is may try and find it on a site on the net. P.S. Looked it up could be the Cucumber Green Spider.

10th.

We have a drystone wall along the front of our house which is our border from our property to the Atholl Estates field in front of us and unfortunately part of that wall has blown and was in danger of collapsing. Today I had a company called Drystone Walling Perthshire come and have a look, Martin the boss gave me a price and as he had one of his workers (Nathan) with him he offered to start it right away as they had finished the previous job early. Below is the story of the reconstruction.

This was the state of the wall before work commenced, a three metre long by one and a half metre high section of wall needed rebuilding.

End of the half day wall demolished.

By the end of day two the wall was completed, nothing but praise for the standard of hard work and craftmanship shown by Nathan. Such skill I just have to keep going down and admiring it, makes the rest of the wall look shabby and most important for us was the way the company just were so efficient, cannot recommend them high enough. To top it all they were a very reasonable price.

18th.

What do I do when I wakeup early and cannot get back to sleep? Sneak out of bed, get dressed and go for a walk with my camera of course. So that is what happened this morning, could see the mist was all about (more like an Autumn morning than the middle of August) so started to take a few shots the above two were the best of the shots.

Come the evening and I look out the window and a most unusual sunset, so many colours from one view point, so again picked up the camera and took a few shots through the glass window (to lazy to go out) and below were the shots to illustrate what I saw.

That’s us back, hope you enjoyed the trip away from the Cairngorms within my camera lens at least. Back with a stinker of a cold that I just cannot shift (though of course the wife got over fine) and so many jobs lined up for me, wish we were back in N.Y.

What a change in temperature as well, going from the heights of high twenty C to up to thirty three one day down to mid teens and rain, rain and more rain. Just to show you on our return this was our view.

15th.

A real good thunderstorm rattling around the glens for hours, in between the rain I had to cut our grass with my air rifle in hand in case any Tigers jumped out of the long grass. 🙂

18th.

Every thing in our garden has grown over the past sixteen days we were away, most of the garden is a jungle and I am certain that many a sack will be going to the compost heap at the local tip before long. But I must admit some of the flowers out are stunning and attracting all sorts of insects including a lot of the above butterflies. Especially pleased that the Rattle has gone to seed and if it ever stops raining we may be able to distribute some seeds into the top patch of lawn plus two of my neighbours are desperate for some to spread on the wildflowers banks. Love the white Foxglove as well.

23rd.

Went down to Loch Dunmore for a club committee meeting and just happened to go down early with my camera. Would love as many pounds as the number of times the boathouse has been photographed lovely little building.

Just loved this little conifer growing in an old tree where a seed has fallen into some moss and taken root.

Took the shot along the Northern section of the loch, the lilies are not quite out yet but the trees are so green, with one each side fallen in the water, hoping Forestry Scotland will remove them soon.

Most probably the species of bird that as a chick is the ugliest, a baby Moorhen. One of three out on the lilies.

24th.

One thing that has grown within our village is the flower displays beside the road all the way through the village, here is a collection of them all.

As you enter the village this is the first one you see, fascinates me that the rake, tub and wheelbarrows are not locked down , but never get stolen,

All these above are beside the road on entering the village.

This one is in the triangle beside the road leading up to our house a mile further on.

Beside the mill race and village hall.

The entrance to the village hall adds a bit of colour to it.

This last one beside the entrance to the caravan park.

Takes a lot of attending to, but well worth all their effort.

P.S. over thirty sacks of garden rubbish taken to the compost heap so far.

3rd.

Went over on the ferry from Manhattan to Governors Island, a place stopped in time (except for the food stalls and landscaping) with no permanent residents living the beautiful old houses and fortress etc. In previous blogs I have included these houses and mainly took shots across the water today. A very hot day but an enjoyable one.

you embark in Manhattan is right next to the Staten Island Ferry terminal and this ferry left just before us. Sightseeing wise it is the cheapest way to get close to the Statue of Liberty, most people do not get off the ferry at Staten Island and just turn round and go back.

Here we are approaching the docking station on the island.

The classic shot taken from the island looking over to the Manhattan skyline.

Occasionally you come across an art installation on the island such as this one. A group of mirrors into a cylindrical tunnel that gives you a different angle of the surrounds including me as the photographer.

Some rather expensive yachts came sailing by, no doubt looking for a place on the East River to moor up and watch the fourth of July fireworks.

Just to show you how close the ferries get to the statue.

The gateway into New York from the Atlantic, many a ship has come into New York through this gap, including immigrants from all over the world.

Just like an entertainer “Always finish with a laugh”, I just thought of people phoning up to make an appointment to use the loo.

6th.

Went to the most famous photographic shop in America maybe even the world, ask most travelled photographers have they been to B&H and the reply would be yes. I have never been to New York without going, often not buying anything but occasionally having a small spend up. A lens I have had since owning my camera was getting a bit weak at its top end of distant shots so I replaced that with a second hand one in excellent condition and a bit more modern. I immediately put in on my camera and these next few shots are using it and to show its versatility.

The iconic NY water tower was my first ever shot with the new lens.

Walked home via the Highline and this very bright tree was along the walk.

Cannot take a walk without spotting and photographing flowers.

Looking down onto a back yard and someone had placed this there.

7th.

Today we went back to the U.N. building after a gap of fifty four years, which was the first time we visited New York. The memory box in my head is not that great but I did remember some parts of it. had an hour long tour with a very informative and enthusiastic guide. Here are just a few of the many shots I took.

One of the many pieces of art that fill the gardens and interior of the buildings.

The entrance doors into the main building where many famous people have walked through and where many thousands of tourists go through every day, yet I bet half of them do not notice the detail on these bronze panels on each door. Here are the three on the door I went through, I think they are all the same.

I think they represented peace, love and justice.

Nelson Mandela just as you enter waiting to greet you.

One of the assembly rooms where a youth Human Rights summit had just finished for lunch.

The view through a window of the East River and Roosevelt Island.

The main assembly hall where the world leaders make the big decisions.

8th.

A hot, humid day but we decided to go up to Central Park with the shade of the trees to compensate, so here are a few shots from there.

Some beautiful statues within the park, many I have shown you on previous trips, this was a new one for me, a Husky dog with the plaque stating without these dogs much of the American wilderness would have been undiscovered for years.

Many roads cross the park and many are under passed by tunnels for pedestrians, nature takes advantage of this, on most of the light fittings House Sparrows have built their nests in their usual untidy manner.

Though fairly busy the park is so vast it is never overcrowded and the shade of the trees is wonderful.

This particularly large underpass is a favourite for musicians, not only is it cool but also for the acoustics

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From within the underpass.

So good to see that people were not getting into the fountain and that plants are allowed to grow.

The colour of the boating lake water left a lot to be desired and it was full of fairly large turtles that I would think could give you a good nip.

9th.

Sunday and off for brunch at our favourite restaurant.

Crossing Third Avenue

This striking new glass building on our way is a building built and belonging to the NYU and I adored it, so many different shapes and angles, my shots do not do it full justice, love it.

Now for the meal at Perry Street, just across from the Hudson River.

This is the wife’s favourite and she has this every time, Calamari with a Yuzu dipping foam, delicious

My starter, a raw tuna coated in a crisped up rice cracker with a cream sauce.. so good.

The shots of the burger were not brilliant so I will finish on my unbelievable dessert.

Strawberry Pavlova with a olive oil and lemon sorbet on top, indescribably delight.

Off to Dumbo today on our last full day, will blog those shots on our return to the U.K.

11th.

Dumbo is a part of Brooklyn and has a lovely park right on the rivers edge and is large enough to absorb loads of people without feeling crowded, okay around the retail sections it gets very busy , but a stroll through the park is most enjoyable. The above shot shows Manhattan downtown on the right East River in the foreground and out to “The Statue” where the Hudson & East River join. On the left is Governors Island.

Of course the rivers are not free of debris and rubbish, the three shots above are a clear example of that I can assure you none of the shots were staged , the chair, the rubber clog and the champagne and football were exactly where you see them.

We took the ferry back across to Manhattan and the pilots of the ferries have to be so good , as transport like the above container barge (being propelled by the tug along side) are very frequent on this busy river. The other shot is of the boats that I showed you from the land in the previous blog.

We got off the ferry at the Wall Street jetty and walked up Wall St to get to our favourite restaurant, this is the N.Y. Stock Exchange building, just a symbol now for trade as it is all done online now and only the daily bell is rung here to denote end of trading.

Before getting an Uber to our sons apartment we went for our last meal on the third floor of this building overlooking the Peace Garden. As the name says on the building it is a large retail store selling every Italian food in a shop with a large dining area attached, with some of the best Italian meals you can eat, hence the name Eataly, so clever. They have another store in Chelsea Market, but we love this one.

This is my wife’s favourite dish, just well cooked spaghetti in a cheese sauce with black pepper. Presented in a very special way, The pasta , plain sauce and pepper are placed in the middle of a huge full round of cheese, comes to your table like that and the waiter swirls the pasta around inside the cheese until sufficient cheese has stuck to the pasta, such theatre.

13th

Well that is us home now, suffering from jet lag something terrible, but getting into a routine, though it is hard to go from temperatures in the high twenties( plus one day at thirty three C) while here today we are at sixteen it is a bit different. I guess that is what holidays are for.

This blog starts on the 27th of June as that was the day we set off for our two week break in New York with our son and daughter in law, well it nearly wasn’t the start. Due to thunderstorms in NY our flight was cancelled , luckily our son was notified by the airline in the evening their time while we were notified when asleep. So he booked us on the afternoon flight instead of the morning one. The airport was in chaos but after a two and a half hour extra delay we set off, not in the seats my son had got for us , but in separate rows, but at least on our way.

As you can imagine with me and my camera it has been red hot (along with the weather) taking loads of photos and for this reason you may well get many post in this first half of the month instead of the usual one. so I do hope I don’t bore you to much.

29th June.

Our favourite thing that we never tire of is to walk along the Hudson River Path and Park. Imagine you have the Hudson on your right full of boat traffic, a beautiful wide, clen pathway in the middle and different shaped gardens full of flowers and shrubs on your left, with a gentle breeze calling you down just a tad. The theme for this section is some of the many flowers that I photographed in a mile and a half walk. The delightful thing is that most of the flowers you will recognise from your own gardens, we did.

Though these flowers were a theme I followed along the way, of course there was other sights to see that I also photographed. so just a few to finish this day off.

Washington Square fountain with this guy just sitting there on his phone in the cool of the spray.

While crossing the three laned dual carriageway, with all the traffic stopped I was able to grab this shot of the World Trade Centre that replaced the twin towers.

Words that echo what I think about all you that read my blog.

The odd shaped tower fascinated me, especially if you look half way up on the right hand edge someone out on their balcony.

When my dad worked in NY some fifty odd years ago and I was a young firefighter I went on a tour of fire stations and even went on board this old fire boat, not in service now of course but good for the old memory box.

In one of the gardens is this very green pond teeming with goldfish and sat on the wire protecting the lilies was this Heron, not bothered by all the tourists photographing it.

30th.

Our plans today were scuppered a bit due to the air pollution, the visibility was low because the smoke from the forest fires way off in the north of Canada were travelling down the East coast and affecting us. In some places you could actually smell the smoke. So I will show you some examples of it.

We were intending to go to Governors Island in the background of this shot, mainly because you can gather some great shots of Manhattan, not today.

Even the Statue was hard to see compared with the shot yesterday.

Of course this didn’t affect the tourist helicopters from taking people out.

A large ship going under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Will close with this shot, I know this has only been two days of the holiday and can assure you the following blogs will not be this long or frequent.

So far as June starts we have had glorious weather, day seven of the month and everyday the temperature has gone up above twenty degrees C , the night temps have still been cold , but days like these are great. Garden is suffering but when you are on private water supply you just do not know just how much water to use on plants as one of these days with global warning we may not be able to cope.

2nd.

Got the moth trap out last night and it was very successful, had a load of small brown jobbies that are a job to identify, so I tend to just set them free and concentrate on the larger more easier to identify. So here are a few of what I caught. The above is a White Ermine.

These two are probably the most attractive I get regularly in the trap, they are Small Elephant Hawk moths.

When I let them go one settled on this plant, look how well they blend in so well camouflaged if it wasn’t for the white legs and antennae you would have a job to see it.

These two, as much as I looked through my book and on an app, I could not identify them, maybe one of you can help me out here?

7th.

Went for a walk today beside Loch Moraig, parked my car above the main car park which is hidden in the dip below these walkers. I took the shot as I presumed with an instructor they were going to climb the Munro Carn Liath (which is the distant path in front of them) and some of them were thinking “that looks a long hike to me in this heat, shall I make it?”

Plenty of birds in and around the Loch, just captured these Geese above the cows, coming into land.

Spotted this baby Pied Wagtail on the rocks , had to keep low to avoid it flying off, hence the blurred vegetation in front of it.

Of course not far away was one of the parents keeping a close eye on me and the youngster.

Not a great shot of a flying Heron , but the shot is a hard crop as it was a long way off.

8th.

For three days now we have had Army Air Corp Apache helicopters out of Leuchars airfield make low level flying over us. First day I didn’t have my camera set up for such an event, second day I was ready and got the first image, third day I was out in the garden with my camera on the back door step and achieved the shot I wanted (the second shot). on the last two occasions we actually got the guy in the back to wave at us and so low we could see him laughing. Hope you enjoy, I certainly did.

10th.

Okay, I have shown you plenty of Pine Martin shots, but this is a first. Actually managed to not take a shot through the double glazing of the living room window. It came at seven forty five in the morning and though I was still in my dressing gown I got the camera and sneaked out the back door and slowly advanced towards the feeding box. The first shot was taken through the garden flowers from a distance of twelve yards and well crouched down. I slowly advanced every time it put it’s head into the box until I got to within six yards and took the second shot, which I am well pleased with.

11th

I thought this might become a pattern for the pine martin so I set up my portable hide and got up bright and early, sat in the hide for an hour, no sign of the beast so took a few of our garden birds close up instead.

Collard Dove

Hen Sparrow.

Female chaffinch

Male Chaffinch.

To complete the trio one of their babies.

Male Blackbird

Baby Blackbird

All taken from this hide.

15th.

Had an interesting week with the people staying in the self catering let next door to us, four men staying in the cottage and another four or six within the group staying in motor homes in the lay-by close by. They were from a group of enthusiast amateur gold prospectors, going each day to separate known streams that gold had been found in before and either snorkelling and fanning and turning over rocks, or actually panning for gold. So far most have found gold in one form or another, some just dust or flour as they call it as in shot one. Or the champion of the week this guy (in shot two) who has found nuggets by just diving/snorkelling and fanning the water, as he puts not disturbing nature to much. in the file is gold and believe it or not silver. He got the silver out of a fairly local river and two fairly big nuggets within the Cairngorms. The gold and silver weighed in at seven grams and is worth one hundred pounds per gram,so not a bad weeks pleasure.

and here is his pot of gold, plus the silver.

One of the guys has made a You Tube treasure hunt. He has hidden pots of gold throughout Scotland and with clues people are finding them, there are at least two in this area one in Glen Coe and the other on Schiehallion, so that could be fun for younger visitors to the area, his sight is Faeriegold.

Since we moved here exactly twenty years this month May has always been a in between month, on maybe fifty percent of this month we have most probably had a very warm month, in fact a month that could be called our summer. But this year we have had some really cold nights, with frosts and even last night ( on the Twenty Fifth day ) overnight we went down to one degree C.

The reason I am starting this so late in the month is because I had a bug on this computer and switched it off until somebody who knew what they were doing (our youngest son) could remove it without me spreading it or losing “stuff” on it. I didn’t even import my photographs until it was fixed.

I spent a great weekend over at said sons house , one to get the computer fixed and secondly to celebrate my very old birthday. So some of the articles will be on our visit to East Ayrshire .

1st.

Woke up very early this morning and just couldn’t get back to sleep, so got up and got dressed and went out with the camera.

The first thing that greeted me as I went up the hill was this group of lambs just waking up but alert enough to hear me coming.

This beautiful Wheatear was the

These two kept me amused both on my way up the hills and coming home, they just stood on the wall preening themselves for the day ahead, the left hand one always standing on the one foot.

I love it when a sheep or lamb stands on the top of a hill and you get a clear background of just sky.

The view on the way down after what was a wonderful early morning walk and back in time for a hearty breakfast.

20th.

Went away for my birthday weekend to my son’s in East Ayrshire and had a great time visiting new places and long walks, plus a bit of fishing to complete a great time.

Visited a garden at Bargany House they are only open to the public during the month of may and are free with an optional donation. Full of rhododendrons and azaleas with a massive colour range, spent a few hours walking round and admiring the beauty. My son is (like me) keen on bird life and is particularly good at recognising bird song, which I am not, so it is good to be told which bird was singing.

So after this great morning we travelled off to the coast and went to a tiny coastal village called Dunure, mainly for a wonderful lunch, two of my favourites Mussels and Scallops, which were delicious.

The village has a great little harbour as seen below.

21st

Plus a castle

Then there is the view across to Ayr.

21st.

As we were not going out on my birthday until after coffee time I snatched three hours fishing at a fishery a quarter of a mile from where my son lives. I was on the water by seven fifteen and very first cast I caught this three pound beauty and straight away thought if this carries on I will be back in time for another breakfast let alone coffee. Unfortunately I only had one more trout on my line a magnificent trout of well over four pound, it only stayed on my line for about twenty seconds before getting off. After that I had nothing but very small half pound pike generally known as jack pike. a real pest when you are after trout.

Had a coffee out after that then in the afternoon we went to Ayr and Rozelle House Gallery and park. In the gallery is a collection of paintings by Alexander Goudie depicting Robert Burn’s poem Tam O Shanter. As the poem goes Tam had a bit to much to drink in the local Inn and travelled home via the churchyard, looking in through the door of the church he witnessed a party the devil was having and was shocked by the naked women and antics that were going on. But he was s[potted and the devil got all to chase him. A naked lady was close to him as he was riding off in terror on his horse Meg. She caught up with him on The Bris a Doon ( the packhorse bridge over the River Doon) and cut off poor Meg’s tail but the witches knew they could not go right over the bridge and Tam escaped.

What Tam saw in the church.

The naked “lady” grabbing poor Meg’s tail.

Tam when he was safely over the bridge.

The actual church the poem was about.

Not very often you see the devil in a churchyard.

The Brig a Doon.

Next to the gallery is Rozelle Park with some wonderful statues thread throughout the grounds, I am sure you will recognize most of them.

I think everyone of them are magnificent.

We then went onto the Inn where Tam got drunk and had a wonderful birthday meal. With a funny story attached to it , on another table was a lady celebrating her birthday as well, and the waiter came in with a cake and the table of six sang happy birthday to her. I got up and wished her happy birthday and told her it was mine also and why wasn’t I invited to her party? Ten minutes later her partner came over with a piece of cake for me and we all had a good laugh. An extra consolation was I was so full up after eating a starter and main course , plus a piece of cake I didn’t need a dessert.

25th.

The last bank Holiday in May is always the first Highland Games in Scotland and the first of the year is always held at Blair Castle. Such a bright sunny , warm day which I can assure you for these games is not always the case, so thanks to an old friend I got a free entry ticket. Always a well attended games in a great setting a great fun day for all ages.

Our village lad taking part in the games here throwing the hammer.

A competitor throwing the shot, look closely and you will see that it is not always true that a Scotsman doesn’t wear anything under their kilt.

The pipe band leading the Highlanders in to the arena.

The Atholl Highlanders the only private army in the U.K. granted by Queen Victoria , no longer active but are guards to the Duke of Atholl only now.

Behind the soldiers is the ceremonial canon which is fired to officially start the games.

Once the canon has been fired the Highlanders have a traditional fifty yard sprint and a true competition amongst then.

Good “old” sarge bringing up the rear at least he took part.

31st.

The end of the month has been a week of fantastic sunny weather, and my pond is crystal clear and the fish have been basking on the top of the pond, three of the goldfish stayed still for me to get this shot of them. But my pride and joy is the male and female Tench I have had in the pond for a couple of years, went in at six inches and are now (without a fisherman’s exaggeration ) at the ten inch size, soon be big enough to breed, though I don’t think the eggs will stand a chance as the newts will eat the lot.

Here we are nearly into May and boy is it still cold? In fact we have had a couple of snow showers and plenty of snow on the peaks, temperature going down to minus five overnight, which after last weeks spring sunshine was a bit of a shock to the system. To add to the mix the wind has turned to the North so the saying ” when the North wind doth blow, we shall have snow”. The long daylight hours are cracking and it means that the nights are shorter giving the Pine Martins less time to eat during darkness. An added bonus for us as they feel comfortable and safe enough to come to us around sunset. So below are two of the three we have had in the last few days.

23rd.

We think this is the mum of the two youngsters we have, she has a much brown coloured coat and is a lot bigger than the next one.

This is one of the youngsters in fact the bolder of the two and really a dark brown.

Our village hall has been out of action for six months being refurbished and it is so good to see it looking really great , new floor, new paint job and even bespoke lighting . it officially opens Wednesday but the table tennis club had the use of it tonight and we had a good turnout of loyal members. The above shots show the hall from each end, the first from the stage looking towards the entrance and kitchen, the second to the stage.

25th.

Showed you earlier this Martin coming to the garden before dark and thought it was a bit unusual, though the mother had come as well so it seemed okay. Well this morning at eight forty five it turned up and was starving hungry sniffing around for food, it was then that we noticed (as can be seen in this shot) it was resting it’s back end on the ground every few steps. It then tried to climb on the log feeder about a foot of the ground and promptly fell off, it was then that we realised that it’s left rear leg it couldn’t take any weight on. We therefore assume it is either broken or injured in some way. For a Pine martin this will be terribly restrictive as most of the time it is up in the trees but this one just cannot climb. Such a shame so it has lost its climbing and speed advantage when hunting. I shall of course keep you up to date with it’s progress or decline.

28th.

A miserable damp day so decided to sit at the dining room table and take some shots of the birds coming to the feeders below the window. They tend to sit in the trees/shrub first before descending onto the feeder when one of the perches becomes free. This gives me the chance to film them in a more natural setting. Just this week we have had a large influx of Siskins that have migrated in for the summer and the first two shots so different males . Followed by a Greenfinch, which I am glad to say seem to be making a recovery since the canker deaths four or five years ago. Last shot is of a Greater Spotted Woodpecker which I think is a male , though from this angle you cannot see the red stripe on the back of its neck.

For the short while I sat by the window birds were coming and going on a regular basis, but suddenly all went quiet so I stood up to get on with some work (before I was “encouraged” to) and on looking down onto the feeders I knew the reason why, as can be seen sitting next to said feeders.

Beautiful bird is the Sparrowhawk, but not welcome at the feeding station, look at those claws.

The Scottish government has given a big push to get rural areas better broadband and our area has had new cables fitted to the glen with fast fibre. about a month ago I checked the Openreach website and it stated it was available to our house. I then contacted B.T. and they informed me it was not available to my house, me being me informed them that it was, after about an hour consulting with three different departments they discovered that they in fact had been sending all my posted communications for the last twenty years to the address of our hamlet and had not included our house name, but because the postie knows our name he has just been delivering it to us. The only way around this was to put my application in as a house move and that would also allow us to keep our phone number .

A date was arranged for Friday the thirty first of last month. But, on the Tuesday before that we got informed that there was a fault on the line and fibre could not be installed on the Friday and that they would inform us of a later appointment when the fault was fixed. Only trouble was the right hand didn’t tell the left hand what it had done and Friday night at six o’clock our landline went dead. Contacted them on the Saturday and they then informed me that they could not reinstate our old copper line as it had been removed from the local exchange and we would have to wait for the fibre to repaired. to finish I have pushed it higher up the chain with executive problem solvers now on the case. Have got broadband via a mini hub but my mobile does not get a great signal so we are feeling fairly isolated. Why do I stay with B.T. I do not know.

2nd.

The frogs have arrived at our pond and old smiley face seems to be happy that we have a load of spawn nearby. Though with the snow and frost forecast for the near future I don’t ho;d out much hope of getting any tadpoles.

7th.

This is the Pine Martin that was giving us some concern with what we saw as a wound on its back. It visited us in daylight today and as the first shot shows it has spread, so having consulted some learned friends we think it is just moulting its winter coat.

The full moon at sunrise just about to sink below the hills but catching a faint orange glow as the sun comes up.

9th.

My usual visit up Glen Fender for the Easter Sunday sunrise. An early start leaving home at five forty five on a cold cloudy, windy morning, but so worth it. Surrounded by birdsong with at least six Curlews singing their beautiful song , but the isolation with talking with our Lord just fills me with joy. The cloud came over very thick after this shot and though the actual sun never came out to shine the colours were wonderful.

Then when I got home the sun came out and the blooms in the garden just made it a spectacular Easter Day. I especially like the old tree stump surrounded by the Spring plants and bulbs.

10th

Went for a walk today and captured this stunning Pied Wagtail just sitting on a barn door with the black blending in well with the background, bringing out the white so well.

12th.

Just when I show you all the wonderful Spring flowers you wake up to this scene of overnight snow on the higher peaks and Winter firmly puts us in our place. Fortunate enough it didn’t get down to our level, but just lets you know don’t plant any summer plants just yet.

P.S. 15th and still no phone.

That is us past the Spring Equinox, the clocks change twenty sixth, so let us hope Summer is around the corner, it has been a loooong Winter with a Spring of sorts. So good that daylight is now longer than darkness as it will save on putting lights on in the home and can start some good evening fishing.

23rd.

This fairly young Roe Deer Buck has been in the field in front of the house for a few days now, no sheep in the field so it is allowing him to chew on the new grass shoots that are coming up (that means the lawn mower will soon be out 🙁 ) and this morning he decided to just sit down in the early sunshine and have a rest. Note his antlers are still in velvet so as the breeding season will soon be upon him he needs to reserve as much energy as possible.

24th

Noticed when one of the (we think) three Pine Martins came for it’s nightly feed that it had a nasty wound on it’s back, asked some of the experts on a forum I am on and the conclusion is it could either be a fight with another Martin or even a bird of pray attack, though it would have needed to be a Golden Eagle or maybe a Buzzard.

25th

The weather forecast was for snow today but not seeing any or rain today, so decided to do some outside work. I have four wood stores and depending on the maturity of the cut wood depends on which pile is next. Decided to bring the first batch of next Winters wood into the old coal shed just to give it a final seasoning before it will get used. This meant wheelbarrowing it from outside our front gate to the side of the house, then stacking it. Moved eight barrow loads and that has been my workout for the day, if not the week, afternoon off me thinks.

26th

Clocks have gone forward, I lost an hour of my beauty sleep and we woke up to a very cold North wind and the saying was right we did have a flurry of snow. So it has been the same all day, cold wind, sunshine followed by a small fall of snow, not the day to venture out beyond doing the necessary chores.

Just wanted to show you how far we are behind with our Daffodils, most are in the state you see above, going to be good and sturdy bulbs, just not ready to unfold from their warm covers (bit like me this morning).

Some singular ones in sheltered places are a wee bit more advanced.

While others are trying their hardest to put on a show.

After all sitting in front of a glowing log burner is far more sensible.

27th.

This morning started off with a temperature of minus six, but the day turned out to be a super sunny one, with the temperature now plus eight, it felt the right time to go for a walk up Glen Fender. Just before we parked the car (you didn’t think I would walk up the steepest hill when there was a road available did you?) we saw another buck Roe Deer. So I walked back to get a few shots of it. If you zoom in or look carefully you can see it has a scar towards the back of its belly. Not sure if that was a scrap with another buck or jumping over a fence or something. If you think I got this close to it , look at the next shot and see the beauty of having a zoom lens on the camera, as this shows the distance away I was.

I did walk a fair way up an adjacent hill and got this wonderful view up the glen with Blair Castle bottom left.

28th.

Last night the planets were all in line something you will not see again until twenty twenty four, so as usual I set my camera up to late and by the time I looked up on this wonderful clear night sky, the Moon, Venus and Mars were still in the sky but no longer inline. I decided to take one of Venus hand held on a long exposure, bracing myself on the side of the house thinking I should be able to hold the camera steady with no need for a tripod. Below was the rather hilarious result.

Looks more like a cartoon of Roadrunner on the right and the Coyote just about to eat him on the left. Well nobody is perfect and lessons were learnt.

31st.

Went up to Blair Walker lochan today, and disturbed these two (I think they are Pink Footed Geese) , they were not happy with me and were very vocal, just to let me know it was their grass and water.

Up date on the Pine Martin, we have not seen it at the feeders since, but as there is plenty of peanuts for after we go to bed it might as a precaution be coming out later.

First of all I apologise for not publishing anything for the second half of last month I had a fair bit on and not a great deal of time for photography. Even now I am playing catch-up for this half of March, as I write this it is already the eighth of the month and not taken a great deal of photos but the weather has been changeable for the start of metrological Spring. The first set of shots I took on the first day of the month, dry, sunny and not to cold.

1st

Primroses looking healthy and adding colour.

Beautiful Crocus showing off their wonderful colours and praying for a passing early Bee to settle. Love the pollen on the petals in the last shot.

10th.

I think the above three images show how we progressed into the month, though unlike the area surrounding us and down South we did not get the downfall of snow, in fact my snow shovel remained at the back door unused throughout the cold snap. We have had crisp, sunny days ( proper weather for this time of the year) with overnight temperatures going down to -12,-11 and getting warmer-9 last night..

11th

I just wanted to demonstrate the wonders and resilience of our Snowdrops. this first shot was a clump of Snowdrops flat on the ground covered in frost at ten o’clock this morning at minus 8C,

By eleven thirty and at minus 3C they are starting to recover as a bit of sunlight hits them.

By twelve and +3 C they were back up to their full height again. Now they have done this for at least the last week with overnight minus temperatures every night. What wonderful hardy little plants they are.

Lazy Saturday afternoon sitting in the living room looking out with camera in hand and captured these two, the Collar Dove sitting perfect for me and the Jay trying to hide from me.

12th

Why did I put on paper that my snow shovel had not been in use, this morning we woke up to two inches of snow and the snow shovel got worn down a bit more. I cleared the drive to the house and also down the steepest part of our road out for over an hour doing it, now the temperature has risen and the roads are clear, so I should not have bothered.

Following yesterdays blog on the versatility of Snowdrops look at these with a good covering of snow today.

The driveway clear.

Plus the steepest bit of road up to the house completely passable compared to after Christmas.

16th.

On the bright side, we get such beautiful sunsets this time of the year and as you know, I love taking sunsets.

17th.

Just to finish this first half of the month on a real positive note Buff Tailed Bumble Bee on the heather today along with a fair few Honey Bees, so good to see.