Cairngorms Life

I do not know what your thoughts are but Christmas seems to start the end of last month and early into this one, I am not panicking yet but it does make you realise you better start writing those cards that the wife leaves for you to do, admittedly they are only the ones to my friends. Hers /ours were in the post by the first of the month, written in November and all bundled up ready to send off. At our age it is a case of we tend to buy things ourselves, then hand them over for the sender to wrap, with an occasional surprise or a gift we purchased a few months ago and until we open it forgot that we had.

We like to see all the “twinkle” of Christmas hence a few shots below of our two day trip to Edinburgh.

3rd

Our village Christmas Fair took place today and was very well attended with about twenty five stalls selling lots of affordable Christmas gifts. Jewellery, knitting, lamps made on old cameras, typewriters etc., paintings , landscape photographs framed, cakes and bread , jams, all great things that were selling well.

14th/15th

In amongst the Christmas markets in Edinburgh were funfair rides and ice rinks and bars. Firstly I will show you the rides and ask a question.

This ride was on George Street and was basically canvas seats that you were strapped into and though it did not go very high was going extremely fast for about five minutes duration, flinging you by centrifugal force (or is it centripetal?)( an old Fire Service argument) ever further from the vertical.

This and the next shot are in Princess Street Gardens, when on this ride you are being jerked in so many different angles at a speed that I am sure you would not know where you were for the whole ride.

As for this one you are taken EIGHTY Metres in the air and spun round .

So my question is -: Why on earth does any one want to go on these contraptions ? But many did and by the sound of the screams, some of them were thinking the same thing.

This would be more my idea of fun, a giant snow bowl that you could go in and the polystyrene balls on the floor are blown into the air and you get your photo taken from outside.

We were here to see the glitter and the tinsel and inside John Lewis, the Christmas tree displays and tinsel etc. were putting on a show with their artificial trees. A couple more below.

Such “real” looking trees that start at just under £200 (without ornaments) and go up to just under £500. To think the one I have out on our drive was a John Lewis one that I got about eight years ago in a auction in the village hall and it cost me £2, so I am happy.

16th.

This blog is a day late in going out as I was waiting for a dry night to show off our village lights, not over pleased with the shots as it turned out a bit misty and a drizzle of rain, but it will give you a rough idea of what effort is made within the community.

The small park on which once stood a church as you come into the village.

Two of the village green showing the main Christmas tree supplied by the Atholl Estate and the Yew trees that are along the roadside permanently and are fairly old. In the second shot one of them looks like it is on fire, but it just the glow from the lights.

This will be the end of this first half of the month blog, but will try to get out before Christmas and photograph individual households efforts in our hamlet.

But I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and will send you a new blog at the start of 2024.

The end of this month is always a nothing period. Nothing but cold or wet weather, nothing much to do indoors or out, nothing going on in the village except table tennis of course, nothing happening here in our hamlet with no holiday makers next door, dark earlier in the late afternoon, so just a blue period when it pays to turn the lights on and stoke the fire. In fact to remove any start of “nothing blues” I just wrap up and walk, so this blog might contain a few shots of walks leading up to the (dreaded word), Christmas month.

15th.

Walked up the road nearest our house and got this view of Blair Castle in the cold and slightly misty distance a mile & a half UP from our house.

Just enjoyed how these bales were left in line in a field, there is a fair slope from left to right and there should be another bale in front of these but it had rolled down the hill over the fence, across the farm road and rested on up against the next fields fence.

The cloud lingering around the hills.

On my way back the mist was drifting into the castle grounds giving it a more ghostly appearance. I know it is a fair distance down to the castle, but can anyone see two guys in a cherry picker? I didn’t until I put it up on the computer.

16th.

When the temperature doesn’t go above three degrees C all day the best thing is to stay in the warmth and that is what I did today. A bit bored as I got the woodburner going well, out came the camera and took some shots of the flames.

23rd

I have now joined a wonderful camera club in New York as I met two lovely women on our last flight home that were members and I liked their Zoom meetings each Monday night. They have a monthly online news letter that requested members to submit a portfolio for the pages, so I thought i would show them around our village, some of the shots I have already put on here so I have just added a few more that might be of interest to you all as well.

Our village hall looks so good, truly Scottish.

The Church of Scotland Church looking Easterly.

Kilmaveonaig Church in the late afternoon sun is also in the village on the Bridge of Tilt side, was first built in 1591 and the interior was altered by the Victorians in 1858.

The small graveyard is of interest as well and is so peaceful backing onto the woods.

Inside the church is also small but well laid out and has a large wood burner stove for these Winter Sundays.

1st December.

Been taking a few bird shots being very lazy through the double glazing of the dining area windows, it has been to cold to sit outside and take them. The glazing does take the sharpness off of the shots but I still enjoy them.

The first shot of the Goldfinches is not proving that my windows are dirty, it was snowing at the time. The second shot seems the male is saying ” Is he really taking a picture of me, how dare he”.

A male Chaffinch.

Female Siskin.

Great Tit.

With all that is going on in the world it seems wrong to do a blog of enjoyment for so many as the Enchanted Forest gives people, but I feel life should bring joy from things or this world would be horrible for all of us. Never the less I pray for peace as we come towards the wonderful festive time that is Christmas.

I have not been as active on the photography side of my life as I have had a fair bit going on, but what I have produced in this first part of the month I hope you enjoy.

1st.

This was the first and best of many attempts to control the brightness of this shot of the inflated octopus that took over the boathouse at Loch Dunmore.

Slinkies hanging from the trees made a great impression.

These suspended plastic strands made people walking through them disappear into ghostly shapes within the first couple of steps in.

The view from across the loch of for what was for me was the best section, the red lava flowing down the hillside, as shown in the next set.

So atmospheric with the smoke and the bright light in the right hand bottom corner is a infrared heater so you get the impression of heat from the lava.

10th.

A great Autumn day so after lunch just walked up the hill and took some shots of the last signs of the season.

The first is just the bunch of twigs on a Birch tree, (not sure what these are called).

Second my favourite small tree in the glen, just shows to what height the deer eat it to.

lastly as usual the mighty Oak is the last to lose it’s leaves.

14th

Dead pheasant in the field in front of the house so I had to move it to a position I could see it from our house. Pouring with rain and all shots taken through the double glazing. If I tried to take them from outside none of the birds would have been there. All of the birds came within five minutes of me putting it out.

In actual fact the magpie were there before the Buzzard, but once it was there they never got a look in.

Second Buzzard arrived and knew it wouldn’t get much chance and left after one warning from the bird eating.

I could see the Magpie getting more frustrated with each mouthful of plump breast the Buzzard ate.

Something frightened all the birds off and the sheep came to have a sniff to see what all the fuss was about.

The local fishing club stops fishing at the end of this month and if my old back allows me I intended to fish the allowed once per week for the next two and a bit weeks. Today we woke up to find a heavy frost and overnight temperature down to minus two and a half C, meaning that the fish will be just sitting on the bottom of the lochan not wanting to move or eat, so I have just got to hope that the temperature does not stay this low for long, or I might have fished our club waters for the last time this season.

16th.

I guess I should clear my garage and start putting the car away to stop my windscreen looking like this.

I guess the high voltage cable is a bit warmer that sitting in the trees for the Pidgeon and Collar Doves.

20th.

Well we have survived (so far) Storm Babet though my afternoon table tennis session yesterday was a no no for me as the A9 was blocked with a tree down over both carriageways so I had to turn back. When I was stopping cars from going up the slipway a half inch diameter twig came through the car window and struck my arm that was when I knew I should not have ventured out. What it has done is to encourage birds into our garden and eat more than normal including flocks of Redwings, though as you will see below they are hiding from my lens with the exception of the one I captured through the double glazing on the conifers.

Even the Wren was sheltering from the wind.

The hawthorn tree is where the Redwings are eating but when the Sparrowhawk comes a calling every bird in the garden goes into the thicket of the tree as shown in the three shots above. In fact in the dense conifer below the birds was where the Sparrowhawk was perched, fully frustrated that there would be know way he could capture any of these birds. Knowing this he did not move until the Red Squirrel came crashing through the conifer and he was off.

23rd.

Started this blog with the heading “getting colder”, overnight we dropped to minus five C and I took the shots below at minus three at ten this morning when it was still minus three. Love the effect it has on these frosty shots.

30th.

Walked down to the village today along the River Tilt, a beautiful in the sunshine and not to cold, the colours were unbelievable.

Those of you who watched the recent series called Annika, about a police officer in the water section, may remember a murder by a sluice gate on a river. That sluice gate is a third of the way in this shot in the middle, lots of the filming was around the village.

The river from off the road bridge.

This image suits my sense of humour, Not Mush-room for the Oak sapling to grow here.

31st

I started this blog showing how cold it was, well overnight on the last day of this blog it went even colder overnight temperature of minus six C . Still haven’t put the car away yet.

A couple more shots from this morning.

November tomorrow, going to Enchanted Forest tonight so the new blog will have shots from that, if they turn out better than the first lot I took at the beginning of the month on press night.

I know on this particular blog each year I have loads of Enchanted Forest shots for you, well this year I had had no insight into what the show would be like as I hadn’t been in on much of the build as my work was done pre build. So came to press night with totally the wrong photographic equipment, entirely my fault and will have to join the thousands of people on a normal night instead of the mid hundreds on press night to get my shots. I know all you with modern phones will be saying “I can get brilliant shots with my three lens phone”, but I like getting photos with my camera even if half of them are not anywhere as good as yours. So “hopefully” on my next visit I will get things right and will put some on the blog. Unfortunately the people who purchased tickets for the first weekend were disappointed as the show had to be cancelled due to the terrible forty eight hour deluge of rain that we had. I have some shots to show you of the havoc it caused throughout Scotland including our county.

10th

Some shots of our watering hole The Mill. From this first one it looks so calm .

If the sluice gate was open this small amount on a normal day no water would run down the mill race on the left, let alone over the side of the lade as you can see on the right.

This is the lade leading to the sluice up at least by a foot and flowing fast. This at least enabled the miller to grind some wheat for the bread and he took full advantage by getting in a full supply to keep them going.

This was the River Tilt on the same day and though this was a good eight hours below its highest level it is still one of the highest I have seen.

Looking down from the the road bridge the buttresses were doing their job but the back current was something else.

I hope this portrays the power of the water, plus the fact the roar was deafening .

9th.

Went to Perth today and over that green bank on the right of the shot is the RiverTay. The flooding here is normally well controlled by huge metal flood gates which are placed in strategic places along the river to prevent the city being flooded. At present with all the warning that the Met Office gave out the council is being blamed for not shutting the gates early enough. this is the football and rugby pitches in the North Inch park and in this and the following shot you can see in the background more water being pumped into this “lake” by the Fire Service due to the fact it flooded the road and houses over that far side hundreds of yards from the river.

A mile or so from the city the river becomes tidal and most of the devastation was caused when the river was at high tide so all the freshwater was held back by the tide. to think the river water from our small River Fender goes into the Tilt, followed by the Garry onto the Tummel and into The Tay coming from Loch Tay and beyond, a fair few gallons of water causing this destruction.

11th.

Some shots from within our garden of the Autumn colours coming through. This is the Azalea’s showing off their rich coloured leaves.

Would not be me if I didn’t show you the annual shot of the Maple.

By the pond.

Heuchera looking splendid in it’s creamy colours.

Plenty of Rowan berries for the birds this winter, is this a sign of a bad Winter? Some say yes.

Rowan leaf about to drop.

Heathers are looking good throughout the garden.

More berries, I hope these will attract the Fieldfare and Redwings.

View down to the Maple, though with the strong wind we have today most of the Silver Birch leaves have blown off it is still very colourful.

15th.

Yes we are just into Autumn and yes it is only mid October, but we had our first sprinkle of snow today. The first shot is the higher Munro’s up the glen that had a bit more than the one in the second shot that we can see from the house, which only had an icing sugar dusting.

Shots North and South from the Garry Bridge, wires on the North shot show the zip wires that were in use today, see below.

I have now received my new (secondhand) replacement gear for that that was stolen, identical camera Canon 7d Mk2, 10-18 lens and my favourite a nifty fifty, both such versatile lens that I am so comfortable with using. I have not had much time to go out with it but as soon as it arrived I went out to try it all out and that is the sole content for this second half of September.

Hydrangea in the late afternoon sun.

Every year these give such a great late show.

Second flowering on the Lupin.

Love taking shots of Lichen.

The time of the year for Heathers in Scotland.

Perhaps my favourite a shady Fern.

I promise more for October especially as Enchanted Forest is on.

So this week was the first day of metrological Autumn, plus the pupils are all back in school , so what do we get but the best weather since June. Typical. Though the plants were unaware the weather was going to be this good and seed heads are looking great, so they think it is Autumn, Got up a bit earlier than normal and just went along the roadside verge and took a few snaps.

9th.

I think there is nothing better than a head of Thistle seeds, that is until they land in my garden.

Who remembers making weapons out of these seed heads? Fold the top of the stem over and pull the other end and they would fire off.

No wonder there are so many Dock plants around with this number of seeds per stem.

last years pine cones getting ready for Christmas decorations.

Seeds ready to go

Gorse seed already gone or waiting to go.

Unfortunately the above shots are all that you will get on this first half of the months blog . The main reason I am (as Rodney on Fools and Horses would say) a right plonker. Needed to go into Edinburgh for the day, parked in the Park and Ride, put my camera case on the roof of the car, closed the boot, locked the car and went off to the bus. Left my camera with a couple of lenses on the car and when we got back it had been stolen, No cctv and not handed in , just taken by an opportunist thief. So therefore I have been unable to show you any new photographs.

Have tried the insurance route but again I have only now learned what a plonker I really am. I have never kept any receipts, as soon as the receipt has checked off on the credit card that is the end of it. So without proof of purchase they insurance will not pay out, so don’t be like me . All expensive purchases keep the receipts, photograph the item and note the serial number. Apparently there is so much fraudulent claims about these days you very seldom get your money without them.

I have ordered excellent conditioned second hand from a reliable company and as they are available in different shops throughout Britain their Edinburgh branch is gathering them together , Camera, two different lens, memory cards (new) and lens filters, so should get going again in seven days or so.

Yes I do have withdrawal symptoms lets hope the shaking stops when I use my new gear.

18th.

Now one of our sons lives in Ayrshire instead of Sheffield we get a few more trips away for weekends. A bit closer and easier to get to (the exception being the M8 through Glasgow, which I hate), so I always leave far to early, but we then have another excuse to walk the sea/estuary front in Ayr. Parking on the front and walking up as far as the River Doon is a smashing little walk with plenty to see, as you will see in the next few shots.

A mixture of Redshank and Turnstones taking advantage of the low tide, though a few had their heads tucked under their wings having a wee snooze.

A Red Breasted Merganser a first for me to see.

A mixture of Swans, Gulls and the above birds all congregated near the River Doons mouth, every other time we have walked along this stretch we have seen the Kestrel, but not today.

Also along the front was a couple of areas of a wildflower meadow which was so colourful on a fairly dull day.

20th.

When possible I try and get a wee fish on this lovely Loch Loch Belston, today I was down at the water at the unthinkable hour of seven in the morning to get three hours in before the household were up and breakfasted. Took a boat out to roughly the far side of the picture and fished solid, but not even a sniff of a fish, on the last two occasions I have gone home with two three pound fish and a happy chappy. No fish but so good to be out in a boat, doing what I love and all to myself for the first two hours, wonderful. But to top it all, after the flower show (below) the family were chilling for the afternoon, I was “allowed” to have another two hours out in a boat. No fish, but, I had a visitor for fifteen minutes, sometimes flying right over my head, scouring the water, with no success (just like me) a young Osprey. What a thrill, only trouble was I never had my camera with me.

Once home and changed we all went out for coffee followed by a visit to Ayr Racecourse, not to watch the horses but to attend the Ayr Flower Show. below are some off the flower arrangement contestants efforts.

24th.

Back home and just to prove I can catch fish (occasionally) went to our club water and caught this beautiful wild Brown Trout weighing in at one and three quarter pounds, a good size for a wild Brownie and very tasty it will be.

26th.

I have shown similar shots in previous years but this is the annual queue to get into Blair Castles Horse International Show, I will try to find out the attendance over the three days but it is a large number of people attending and causes chaos on the A9 and roads within the village. First shot is coming off the A9 into the village and the second (which is equal in distance from the previous shot) is the end of the queue as they go the half mile up the drive to the castle reckon that short journey takes twenty minutes.

27th.

This year has been a good year for breeding Collar Doves and as I put the morning seed out the doves are nowhere to be seen, within two minutes of carrying that out eight , sometimes ten doves are down feeding . Either in the three troughs or the cups which are intended for the smaller birds, the doves on the cups is always amusing as they have a job to balance as illustrated below.

Parent in the middle and two youngsters each side.

“This cup is mine”

Cannot sit on this one so a balancing act is required.

29th.

Some type of Daisy growing in a pot, as you come around the corner of the house there is this plant full of these beautiful blooms, cheers you up in this miserable so called summer.

31st.

Just thought I would finish this month off with some of our flowers still looking good in the garden despite the dull, wet, cold month this has been.Just loved the flies meeting up on the last shot.

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.