Cairngorms Life

I might struggle to keep this months blog inside the Cairngorms National Park as from Monday (5th) this years Enchanted Forest commences it’s build ready for the October show. Though not much will be needing a boat on Loch Dunmore I shall be involved in some of the build. So therefore I am trying to get some interesting subjects going before I start.

2nd. September.

I went fishing for Brown Trout up at the villager club water, way up in the hills above the stocked water at Blair Walker. I love this little pond as I normally have it to myself and though there are some good sized Trout in it most fish average half a pound and about nine / ten inches long, but such fun and wonderful conditioned fish. I of course took my camera up and though I never took a shot of the four fish I caught (honest) I suddenly thought I have not shown you the full extent of Blair Castles hydro electric scheme. So below is a untechnical trip for the water from source to power.

To start off this is water coming down of ditches across the hillside above Sarah’s Pond where I was fishing. This has been dug out mechanically with sides at a precise angle to give a good flow, though over the years of bankside growth you cannot see the angles.

This is Sarah’s pond, named after the factors wife, you have to be fairly accurate with your casting as there is a lot of weed this time of the year and landing your fish can be pretty tricky sometimes, especially once when I had a pound and a half wild fish on.

This is the outlet pipe from the pond where the water starts it’s journey down to the castle.

So the water flows from Sarah’s down to the castle for (as the crow flies) about a mile. The Arrow at the top is Sarah’s and the cross is the castle.

From Sarah’s it falls naturally down the hill and into our stocked lochan known as Blair Walker, or by it’s Gaelic name (as seen on the map above) Blairuachdar.

I include this shot to show you the speed it arrives at Blair Walker, a lot faster than when it left Sarah’s.

Built at the dam end of the lochan is this filter system set at a certain level, which in turn determines the level of the loch. Water during this time is just steadily flowing over the top and the area with all the debris on it is a fine graded metal mesh too stop that sort of material from going into the pipeline and down to the turbines at the castle. This is cleaned off by a castle worker daily and all fisherman are asked to sweep it away if fishing that area.

At the outlet of the filter is an overflow pipe in case of a blockage and all the electronic counting gear, plus of course the broom for clearing the debris.

This is the sluice to empty Blair Walker, I included this shot to coordinate the shot from up the hill looking down to the lochan where you can see the silhouette of the sluice in the water, next to the club hut.

When the water pipe gets down to the castle it goes into this pump house and if you can read the notice on the next shot it tells you the history of this building, going back to the first hydro scheme in 1908 and why the building is painted in green camouflage paint plus the skulls in the following shot.

Look on this board and you will see why the top pond was named Sarah’s.

Once the water has been through the turbine it is channelled through a beautiful brick lined canal ( maybe five metres long and too overgrown to photograph) and out into the Banvie Burn, which joins the River Garry, which then goes into the River Tummell, before joining the mighty Tay.

The Banvie Burn.

As I was going home after photographing the pump house the drive up to the castle was just to good in the sun and full leaf not to include this shot.

10th.

First shot of action for the Enchanted Forest, this huge eight metre diameter circle is going to be some sort of light show on the water. When it has got all the remaining gismo’s on the floating platform I will be towing it out into the middle of the loch (along with some people pulling from the far bank) where it will be anchored to the bottom. I have already cleared half a football pitch of lilies from in front of where it will be so as to get a reflection on the water. The platform behind is the viewing staging for the public to see the display.

Great excitement as we have people laying the fibre optic cable in the field ready to connect us to a decent broadband speed, should be about a month before we are “up to speed”, hooray for that.

13th

It would not be my blog without showing one of the two “Bs” in my vocabulary, Birds or Blooms. Today it is blooms, as it is such a sunny day and last of the blooms before the frosts start killing them off.

Thought it most appropriate to start of with one of the many heathers in the garden that are blooming at the moment, This is a heather that we purchased on a visit to Balmoral many moons ago and is in full bloom at this precious moment.

A couple of others that are looking good at present.

We purchased a packet of seeds that had meadow flowers and bee attractors in it, the cornflowers and marigolds have had some great colour to the garden.

The yellow climbing Mackenzie Clematis that I have showed you in previous blogs has now turned to “old mans beard” seed heads and looks so attractive in the sunlight.

These yellow flowers have bloomed their socks off all summer and still look great.

The rowan’s in the garden are covered in berries and the Thrush is feeding on them already, is this a sign of a hard winter to come? Not sure. But from the second shot you can see that Autumn is affecting us as the leaves are turning.

Left it a bit late in the day to get this shot of the Autumn Crocus as the shade has made this not the best of shots.

In the distant past I have covered these this subject before, but have gone into a bit more depth this time as we have been starved of it due to Covid.

The event is the Blair Castle International Horse Show, back in our village at last and from what I can see wondering around it is a lot larger this year, more stalls (though I could not find the Foodhall for a pick of free samples though apparently it was there),more competitors and definitely more spectators. I go after four in the afternoon and it is normally all closing down, but this time it was still very busy. I will try and keep what I say in the order I saw it and photographed it. Those who are unaware of our surroundings will agree that it is a beautiful setting for any event.

The one draw back of the event is that the village becomes gridlocked on entry and the exit from the event. This shot is from half way through the village and the entrance to the castle is where those double poles are in the middle distance, if I took a shot in the other direction the queue goes back to the A9 junction.

Once you reach the castle entrance you then have a half mile queue to the parking area.

A view not normally in many shots is the back of the castle which looks down on the huge field the events occur.

So here you can see the castle far right with the three dressage rings in the front, members restaurant and bar on the left and some of the many merchandise stalls beyond.

One of the competitors in the dressage ring, with the champers flowing in the background.

Just a few more stalls in one of maybe eight different rows of stalls.

Horses and riders being judged,

As they say on Strictly, “The Judges”

The Pony Club horses and riders lining up to see who won the prizes.

Most probably my two favourite images of the whole show, this lovely little pony and the rider and parent in matching outfits.

Every show there are a collection of vintage tractors on display which were a pleasure to see and walk around, so this is my selection from that display.

A couple of david Browns.

Not sure of the make, but I know a follower of my blog who will soon tell me.

A Massey.

A International with a Ford beyond that.

A Caterpillar.

Finally to keep a certain young lad happy, a John Deere.

At the end of the day a cool down for this beauty and a view of the temporary stables in the background.

Another event that was going on in the Cairngorms was a constant noise in the background at the show and at home, the sound of (mostly) Harley Davidson motorbikes going up to Avimore for “The Thunder in the Glen” event. The sound of hundreds of Harleys on the A9 is a noise that is just wonderful, a constant thud of the engines is unique. I did not take any shots of them this year as I had a busy weekend and when I was available it was raining, sorry.

To finish off though I would like to add just this one unusual bird photograph.

Not the best of shots, but I was in a hurry and took it through the d/g in our kitchen.

This is a female Chaffinch with a white head, I haven’t doctored the photo in any way this is how it is. Apparently a friend on a forum I put it on tells me it is called a Leucistic Chaffinch, which means it has a Melanin pigment deficiencies . Another friend has told me they had a white Blackbird in their garden for a couple of years. I had never seen one before and was chuffed to have grabbed a picture of it.

No I am not going to branch out into comedy, this month of August is normally a busy one for the village, but this year with the uncertainty over Covid, committees within the area have decided to not have their usual fetes and flower shows. So not a lot for me to go to. So for the first part of the month I thought I would set a theme for my blog and photography and “little and large” is that theme. Some real close ups which might get you guessing what it is and some large shots of our scenery and buildings.

12th

Not a little or particularly large bird, but my interpretation for inclusion is it is large in my photograph collection, very rarely do we see a Warbler in our garden let alone be sitting in my hide and manage to get a shot of one. I have now been told it is a Chiff Chaff.

Little for these two babies in the above shots, the Robin is getting tame as it will stay close to me when I throw it some mealworms, the Great Tit is one of maybe a dozen babes we have in the garden at present.

13th.

First experiment for the little and large, got my lens and added some extension tubes to make it into a close up lens, got my light box out and a bit of white card and a pin through it and took these shots of three flowers from the garden, good to see if you recognise the close ups before seeing the actual plant.

Same plant just a different part. first of the Anther and the second is the Stigma.

The Anther of this plant.

Just a leaf.

Now if you want to try a guess don’t scroll down yet, if my photography is so bad just scroll down and see what they are.

Second is a Harebell or Scottish Bluebell.

This is a shrub which may have confused you, it is a Pieris with a beautiful variegated leaf.

14th.

Following the little is this larger than life sunset last night.

They say “every cloud has a silver lining” but these clouds have a beautiful golden one, as the sun sets behind them.

A clear sky on this wider version of the one above, but so beautiful and still a pleasure to be out photographing it in the cool of the evening.

Short and sweet for the first half of the month, I promise more content for the rest of the month.

Welcome to this new month, we have had some rotten weather in the last week, days of rain or sunshine and showers, not weather you could rely on to plan a day, as it was always altering. This the first day has been sunny all morning and short sharp showers this afternoon. One thing that it has done is make everything grow (especially the weeds) real fast and the blooms in the garden are something special, with most things looking wonderful. So I will start the month with just a few selected plants to brighten up the start of what hopefully will be a more settled summer month.

1st.

Firstly all the different colours of the Lupins throughout the garden.

Our red climbing Rose called Guinea, every garden we have had since being married we have always had one of these in our garden, it has had more blooms than ever this year but the foliage has been rubbish.

The first shot is this Geranium in bud, then when it was out.

This I think is called a Fox and it’s Cubs and is in fact a wildflower but we love it in our garden.

Never remember the name of this plant I only know that it is not an easy to grow climber and a very close friend is very envious of ours coming up every year.

I showed you this plant last year it is Rattle, a parasite that feeds on grass routes and is an important plant in our wild meadow little block we have at the top of the garden. From a few seeds it has now taken over about eight square metres of the grass and is really a pleasure to see.

Lastly our Delphinium which is the best it has ever been with as you can see more shoots to come and is such a great colour.

6th.

You can often walk through an area (like this our local park) and not notice the beauty in such everyday things as the grasses growing each side of your path. Walking back along the river to the car park I captured these images and if you really look, so much variety and wonderful colours within each stem.

7th.

I know you are most probably fed up with my Pine Martin shots, but I have hollowed out this section of fallen pine and each evening I place peanuts in it and of the three nights I have done this, he has found them and (even though through the double glazing) I am managing to get a lot of more natural shots of him having a feed. If I thought I could get our Red Squirrels feeding from here in the daytime and not the bird eating pest of the Magpie and Jay I would fill it during the day instead of filling it after eight at night.

If this wind would drop I might even set up my hide and wait to get shots of both without glass slightly altering the sharpness of the shot.

9th.

No sooner had I stated in the last entry that if I put peanuts out in the day it would attract Magpies and Jays and look what turned up first thing this morning, with the evidence in it’s mouth.

13th.

I said it was “Blooming July” and here is another addition to that scenario, the Campanula in blue and white are spectacular this year and along with the blue sky make up a wonderful day.

Been a busy couple of weeks so only one blog this month, Had one son over from America and we visited our other son in Ayrshire for a few days, the first time my wife and I have been with both our sons together for eight years, so I hope that forgives me from doing a bi-monthly blog.

20th.

Had a walk along the Tay today outside Perth, hoping to see the Osprey that frequents that part of the river, no luck on that front, but I did see this giant Hogweed . The seed head above was (with no exaggeration) three foot across and though I did not go near the leaves they are meant to cause severe blistering to the skin. Another invasive species spreading via the river course, plenty of Japanese Knotweed along that stretch as well.

21st.

Took our American son for a walk from the House of Bruar shopping complex up to the Falls of Bruar which as you have seen in my previous blogs can be pretty spectacular, not today. There is hardlyany water in the river because of this tropical spell of hot weather we have just experienced so I concentrated on the uncovered rocks and their wonderful patterns within, worn down by the water, when it flows.

This shot shows the small puddle of water coming over the rocks (compared with normal it is pathetic) and the wee person on the bridge is “the wife”.

23rd.

Carrying this months theme of “blooming” we decided to put some different coloured Snapdragons in the garden and just love the variety of colours modern Antirrhinums can give you, so below is a selection of ours. Taken after a welcome shower of rain.

26th.

Continuing with the “blooming” month here are a collection of our Clematis that we have in the garden, some well established others new this year. We thought that maybe this species would not grow that well with us and admittedly some of them have not enjoyed either their position or soil while others have thrived.

The above is a climbing Clematis that is very happy in our garden and has grown enormous, climbing to the top of one of the Silver Birches and showing these magnificent blooms, followed by great seed heads. It is one for some strange reason I can remember the name of Bill McKenzie (family connection) .

From now on you will see we have a liking towards reds and purples, this particular one has been a struggle to grow and we were really surprised when (for the first time) this actually flowered. The first shot is a bloom going over, but fortunately there are a few more following on, as shown in the second shot of the same plant.

Same again with this plant, normally we may manage one bloom on this several year old plant but this year we seem to have three or four blooms. Maybe the mild winter has helped all the plants in the garden to get an early start.

We only planted this one in May and it has this (going over) bloom with four more buds lower down, so it obviously likes it’s spot in the garden.

This is one that although it produces flowers never seems happy and really is pathetic, but I must show you our failures as well as successes.

This is, like the first one a good reliable flowering plant, an Autumn blooming Clematis that just keeps on giving us blooms for weeks and looks like that will continue for years to come.

27th.

I want to finish this long “Blooming July” blog with a real success story , but also a sign of our climate changes. When we moved into this house (18 years now) we planted a Hydrangea and it grew very well as far as greenery was concerned, but every year the winter frosts were sufficient (even though we covered it with fleece) to kill the new growth off. Therefore we would never get successful blooms the next year, maybe we would get two or three flowers and that was it. This year as you will see from the shot below we have at last succeeded in getting multiple blooms, though small they are a joy for us to see. So I felt a fitting way to finish this months blog.

A continuation of last blog with a start regarding Bumble Bees.

16th.

Up on the South facing eaves of our house we have a Buff Tailed Bumble Bee nest. It is so interesting to watch , they have sentries buzzing around all the time while others are bringing pollen and building material in. The first shot shows three about to enter the crack where they are nesting. The second shot (with the aid of my cameras flash shows in more detail the construction that is going on inside the cavity. As you go around the edge of that side of the house all you can here is their buzzing.

The whole garden is full of the Buff Tailed they initially started feeding on the dark red Geraniums that you can see in the first shot, but now the Cotoneaster is out (second shot) that is full of them . In fact if someone other than us two walked past the hedge it could be quiet frightening as it (like me seeing them) “buzzing”.

I had another surprise while photographing the Bees, I could see and hear the parents of our Blue Tit nest getting very vocal and darting about not going in the nest box on the summerhouse. thinking a Stoat had got inside I watched to see why. It was in fact the babies fledging, typically I had the wrong lens on to get great shots of the event but below is what (out of focus) shots I did get.

Parent feeding the baby outside the box to entice it out.

The moment the babe launched itself out into the unknown world, it didn’t fly much and went straight down onto the ground, but we have witnessed at least one baby (not sure how many were in the box) being fed in a bush later on. Babes fledging from one of my nest boxes I have never witnessed, let alone photographed before, so even though they are not shots to be overly proud of, it is a record of the event.

18th.

More baby birds from our garden, this time it is the House Sparrows. First shot is one of the fledglings, second is the mother and her two babes and once the mother had determined that I was no threat the other side of the double glazing, in the last shot she fed the young ones.

Then on the nut feeder appeared this baby Great Spotted Woodpecker, you can tell it is a youngster because the red patch on its head is in the front where as you can see in the second shot (depending on it’s sex) as adults the male has the red patch on the rear of the head and the female has no red. The babe had a go at getting food by itself but as the last shot shows, dad supplemented with a food pass.

19th.

I said this would be a busy month, all these photos taken in a four day period, but when I get a chance to get the Pine Martin on the ground (even if it is a snatched shot missing out it’s tail) I have to take it and show you. Normally it jumps down from the peanut feeder box and is away, but on this occasion it smelt the peanut butter jar that a Jackdaw had very cleverly taken from it’s stand and threw it on the floor for easier access & the Martin could smell it. I have never seen it feed from the jar and on this occasion it just sniffed it in passing and never attempted to eat from it. My son keeps telling me to put an chicken egg out for it, I have tried but it never took it and I would prefer it not to get used to eating any bird eggs in my garden.

20th.

Some more bird photos taken from the comfort of indoors , glad I cleaned those windows this week.

Two babes from a different nest eagerly begging for food from Mum , not a brilliant shot as the camera seemed more interested on focusing on the Lupins.

Took a close up of one of our very tame male blackbirds because I think those are ticks below his eye.

A frequent visitor to the garden this week are a pair of Jays, quiet bold compared to normally being very cautious and fly off at the slightest movement, so we think they have young close by.

29th.

Just to finish the month off I walked up into Glen Fender and managed to go all of one hundred yards from the road and captured these next TWELVE shots of the wild flowers growing in what was a very small area of the land, Great time of the year to see such beauty.

Surprisingly the shot below and above are the same plant as there are a large variety of colours, it is the Heath Spotted Orchid.

I thought this one was another colour in the Heath Spotted range, but apparently this is a hybrid, crossing the Heath with a Northern Marsh Orchid.

The shot above and below are to just show you the abundance of Orchids in amongst the Cotton Grass and meadow Buttercups.

As the meadows in the glen are fairly wet so plenty of Cotton Grass as can be seen above, plus, below, a close up.

An Alpine Bistort which I thought was an attractive plant.

Clover is very common with most of you we have red complete with Beetle) and below white.

A Field Buttercup with Cuckoo Spit on it.

A Water Avens a stunning little plant.

As I stated at the beginning it was going to be a busy month and for you the reading and photographs is a bit longer than normal. Hope you enjoy.

If the start of the month is anything to go by , it could be a busy month. I achieved a photographic milestone for me, as you will see below and the village celebrated the Queens Jubilee in style, plus as an added bonus it has been wonderful bright sunny weather , for a Bank Holiday that is a miracle.

2nd.

Had to go into Perth today unaccompanied and no shopping to do, but with my camera and to spend sometime in Rodney Gardens. Here is a small stream that is a flood relief channel for the River Tay and it contains a (under non flood conditions) about a foot of water flowing slowly along it’s short run before re-joining the main river. I have in the past spent most probably twelve or so hours trying to photograph the Kingfishers that frequent the water. The reason for this is that I have often seen Kingfishers from Cornwall to here and have either not had my camera with me , or they have been to fast to capture. Well today I managed it with a display on this particular section that went on for well over half an hour, in fact (according to a fellow photographer) for at least another hour after I left. A real milestone for me and gave me such pleasure to at last achieve it.

So below is a sequence of a few of the 150 shots I captured.

First catch your Minnow.

Then kill your pray.

Swallow it head first.

Sit still for a while and digest your catch.

Now move to a higher perch and have a wee sleep.

Then become alert and look for the next meal. I loved every second of this adventure and went home a very happy chappie.

Then in the evening was the lighting of the village beacon. Lit by harold Ingram, a person who does a lot for the village.

An extra long pole to reach the wood and it was away.

A good turnout by the village in such a wonderful setting.

Going well for all to see.

3rd.

Up early and was at Loch Dunmore with my rods and lines in the water by five in the morning, after a very cold night (went down to three C.) . So as you can see the drift of mist was on the water, a fellow club member had fished all night and had only had one Tench and he was complaining about the coldness, so I didn’t hold out much hope. So that is my excuse for not catching a single fish in the next five hours, but as I packed up the sun came out and it was beautiful , so I expect the fishing improved the minute I left..

4th.

Set the moth trap up overnight and it must have been another cold night as I only had two moths in the trap, both the same White Ermine Moths, here below is a shot of one of them.

8th.

This afternoon the sheep were very close to the house and as they have just returned after their winter away, so I thought I ought to get a shot of them to celebrate the fact they will be with us all summer. Went indoors , got my camera and on my return they had decided to turn round and go away from me, so glad I had one poser amongst the flock . On the second wide angle shot you can see the size of the flock and how they were still moving away from me, the majority in one long line as though they were going into battle.

10th.

Last month we had to have three evergreens in the garden cut down, we would have prefered to have kept them but we had a bit of a tree surgeon cowboy come about three years ago to just trim the tops out as they were to near the house to be that tall. He made such a bad job of it (while we were away) that they ended up looking like totem poles and were (due to how he cut them) starting to rot . We had a proper surgeon come and cut them down and leave them in lengths that I could cut up with my own chainsaw, then split for logs. This has taken me some time and I am now on the home straight with just a few roundels to split. This wood will need to dry out and will not be used for a couple of years so I have had to stack and store the logs where ever possible. Below is a sequence of events, and eventually I will show you the completed storage.

Just a small collection of the trunks as left for me to cut up.

My storage collection so far, I must admit the first shot my storage is not exactly neat, but my excuse is the corrugated store is on a slope and stacking has ended up falling down in the past so now I just throw the logs in and keep them in with the wire fence. The next woodstore is much neater and that stack goes back four rows deep and to show the depth I have included the shot of outside and the stacks come to about the fourth upright panel on the right.

This is my last remaining wood to split and when completed I will show you the new storage area for the logs.

11th.

That is all my wood split and stored, had to take over part of next years compost bin to store it. Just got to cover this up to keep it dry and then clear up the sawdust from chain sawing, (see below) though I have swept up most days got to clear the area from that last batch of wood and I am finished. The saw dust does not go to waste SWMBO puts it on the earth paths around the garden and it suppresses the weeds.

The device fitted on that stump is a manual log splitter that one of my sons gave me as a present many years ago and is worth its (very heavy) weight in gold.

14th.

On our house I am aware of at least 3 House Sparrow nest’s all with babes and noisy parents giving off warning calls every time you go past the nests. The first two shots are of the parents of the House martin artificial nest that they take over every year before the Martins arrive, though I must admit any sign of House Martins around the house are fairly rare this year. The first Sparrow is the Male with the darker head and the second is the female.

The last photo is not a friend of ours at present. Because every year at this time this juvenile Crow, parents and many more beside like robbing our feeders, that is not to bad, but, they start at FOUR THIRTY in the morning, waking us up with their constant calling. It has got so bad this year I have to go out every night (raining or not) about ten thirty as it is getting dark and all other birds have stopped feeding and cover the feeders up.

Even so when any bird poses so beautifully for me I have to take that shot .It was sat on our single track road bridge parapet and even when a car went past it it did not move but as I approached to get that little bit closer for a shot, it was off. Must have been taught by the parents, “stay away from him, he will frighten you off”.

We may be a couple of weeks later than the South but our birds are well into nesting time, it is very P.C. these days not to film birds on the nest for they can be disturbed and abandon the nest. In the past I have taken shots of birds on the nest and they have continued to fledge their brood, but to stay correct I will only film youngsters or nests from a distance, so as not to annoy others. So far this Spring we have not seen to many House martins or Swallows around us, but over this first weekend of this blog we are going over to Ayrshire to visit one of our sons and his partner and they have them nestbuilding on they’re house, so I shall include that.

17th.

Since we have lived here there has been a plantation of Pine on the horizon and we nearly missed them being harvested, if you can imagine the trees going down to level with the now prominent power pole and as thick as the remaining on the right side of the shot, it has made a fair change to the view we now have.

This is the view we have now once those remaining trees in the last shot have been removed. Unfortunately it makes the other three power poles stand out even more, plus the fact that it the trees gave us some protection from the North wind, roll on the Winter winds.

Just as a comparison I have put a shot on from last year showing the wood on the right hand side showing the thickness of it and through the |Hawthorn you can see the first power pole in the other shots.

18th.

My friend Trev told me of a Nuthatch nest in our local park, I have been down with my camera on several occasions since and have not seen the birds. Today I went down and saw that both parents were in fact taking food into the nest , so have included my first set of shots and maybe in the future I will get the youngsters peering out of the hole.

First shot shows one of the birds at the entrance about the only shot of them not going straight in, then I realised that the other parent was already inside.

Second shot, a sure sign of babes as the adult is taking poo out after feeding them. Lastly aq quick take off away to hunt for more food.

21st.

As I stated at the start of this blog we are over in East Ayrshire at one of my sons home and he has got House Martins nest building. The first shot shows where they are getting their mud from, in approaching the birds half flew away and I still got this many in the shot The second shot we think is a first time nest builder as it has built the nest far to long , but it might end up okay. The last shot shows a more mature couple who have got on with it and are nearly complete, just need to make the entrance a bit tighter, but you can see one of the pair sorting it out from inside.

During the day I had an added bonus , though I have seen these two birds before I have never photographed them and though it was raining at the time and I was shooting through double glazing, it was something very special for me.

The first bird is a Tree Sparrow, a bird that is on the danger list, so wonderful to see in my son and partners garden.

The second is a Redpoll, though we have had them in our own garden I have never been able to get a good shot at one, so a very pleasing result.

27th.

As far as our garden goes and looking at others, this seems to be a good year for the Azaleas, such beautiful colours and the smell coming from this side of the garden is fantastic. There are so many varieties of colour that we would like to add some more (if we can find room for them) and below is one we added to our collection a couple of years ago and is getting well established.

Also looking good at present are our two Pyres, the first shot does not really do justice to the different shades of colour within this one, subtle pinks and varied shades of green. as for the second one the red is vibrant.

29th

I started the last blog with the saying “Don’t cast a clout until May is out” , well the month is nearly over and to prove it the first shot here is of May being out, but I will tell you what, the coat hasn’t come off for most of the month. Also as the temperature went down to three degrees last night and we have a Northerly wind, it is not coming off in the near future either.

I started this blog showing you the trees that have been cut down up the hill from us and to finish off the blog I will show you the site where they have been removed.

You can see the brown line going slightly diagonally across the centre of the shot, that is where the wood was cut down. Made it a wide and long distant shot to give you some idea of the scale of the removal’

This shot shows the timber harvested, there are five piles of stacked wood, I think it would have been one long stack but for the mature trees in between’

That first stack with various sizes of timber within it’

Last shot for this blog was taken on my way down the lane back to my car, showing a pair of geese flying over the white building in the middle is Blair Castle and the Munro in the middle is Schiehallion.

We are into May and not only do some of the best people have birthdays this month but it is hopefully the turning point for the weather. Hence the saying “don’t cast a clout until may is out”. Now the clout bit is meant to represent your coat and the next bit has two meanings that I am aware of, one do not take your coat off until the month of May is over, or do not take your coat off until the shrub May is in blossom. May the plant is just coming out up here and sure enough we have at last started having warmer nights, hence warmer days, so that could be the correct answer. But then the weather forecast for the weekend says Northern Scotland could well have a frost at the weekend and we could go down to 4C so not far off. I have in the time we have been up here, had snow near the end of May so equally we could still need our coats later in the month. You choose.

5th.

Nothing better than seeing the beauty in a common bird like the Thrush, all smartened up ready for the breeding season attracting a mate, though it may well have one by now as they are early breeders.

7th.

Went up to Sarah’s Loch today fishing for wild Brown Trout.. The lochan more than a loch as it is very small, is the opposite side of the valley from us and is way up in the hills, a good heart and muscle work out to get to it, but so worthwhile to make the effort. The majority of the fish are small with the occasional half pound 12″ fish coming out, but oh such fun to fish, I love to fish a dry fly which is a fly that sits in the surface film of the water and looks like an insect emerging or landing on the water. To see a fish rise up and take your fly in a flash, Visible in such clear water is a wonderful site, all fish are returned and fighting fit.

The first shot above is looking down on the Rainbow Trout stocked water of Blair Walker which I also fish.

Second shot was when I was down level with Blair Walker of one of a pair of young swans that have called the water theirs.

Lastly is a shot of our house taken from very near Sarah’s on my way down, so good to see the green trees all coming out.

10th.

Had a couple of days away in Edinburgh , one day of rain but the second day (10th) contained a bit more sunshine, so walked through Princess Street gardens on the way to coffee. was surprised at how many statues there was within the gardens, mostly related to the second world war. Below are some of the shots I took of them.

The kilted gentleman is for the British living in America who came back to “the call” to fight. The bear is the Polish army who had a bear as a mascot (tame I think). The lion is not a memorial but is on the newel posts holding the rails on a flight of steps. The woven one was in the churchyard at the Western end of Princess Street, would have proffered the adults mouth to be closed as it reminds me of the painting of The Scream.

Our garden is at present full of colour, apart from the Bluebells and the Forget Me Nots, the most prominent colour is yellow as you can see below.

Icelandic Poppies.

Dandelion.

Azalea just out.

Inside of a Tulip, complete with insect.

15thy.

Before I publish this half of the month, a little quiz for you to take part in. What plant is producing these shoots? I will give you the answer at the end of the month, comment ifg you want.

Well second half of the month and we start of with Easter weekend, couldn’t bring you an Easter Bunny, but have managed on the first day to grab a couple of shots of Hares, next best thing I suppose.

16th.

Looks like a lone Hare in the field in front of the house, but look a bit closer, see it now?

If you didn’t see it , here is the other one taken from a different angle , just hunkered down, so well camouflaged.

17th

One thing I always do on Easter Sunday is get up before sunrise, go up in the hills and spend some time with The Lord giving praise for Him rising from the dead to save us. Other years the sun has been clear of cloud and I am able to capture it rising, not this year the cloud never lifted, as you can see from the first image.

The next to shots are of Loch Moraig, which is a cracking little Loch , full of hard fighting (plus hard to catch) Brown Trout, which I hope to fish at least once this season. The wildlife up on these moors takes some beating, I had a Curlew buzzing around me all the time I was there, saw three Roe Deer , two Hares, Lapwing bombing a Buzzard that had come to close. Heard the Black Grouse on a Lec and captured this wee Meadow Pipit on the fence. Note to me “must get up early and get to the lec before they do”.

The Hare is one of the two in our field but was a lot closer so had to get another shot of it.

Happy Easter day to you all, by the time you read this it will all be forgotten, eggs eaten and diet started.

18TH.

I have three artificial nest boxes up for the House martins to nest in, but since we introduced House Sparrows to our garden the Martins have not stood a chance the Sparrows always beat them to the nest. As you can see by the first two shots they are not exactly tidy nest builders and the third has only just been taken over so looks tidy at present. The first two are okay where they are biut rather stupid of me that third nest is right over our front door and the birds are roosting in it at night and the door step can get a bit messy.

21st.

The pump on my pond has not been producing much flow of late so as it was a good sunny day decided to investigate, only to find the one inch pipe going to the filter system had a leak. On pulling the pump out discovered that the tubing was completly rotten and just broke as I lifted it out. As the water and debris in the bottom of the pond had not been changed for sometime I thought I might as well carry on and drain it down, as can be seen in the second shot. Next shot shows the fish, I have seen the eight fish I had been given for my birthday back in May last year, but was surprised to see the other two Goldfish that I think must have bred in there last summer, which was good. The large grey shape going from the centre out to about one o’clock is the female Tench I have, also there is a male in the pond somewhere, but as I leave about a foot of the original water in the pond I think it is buried down there somewhere.

Next shot was a real surprise as well fifteen Common Newts in the pond, we often find a couple when draining down but to have this many was great .

Last shot is of the pond refilled complete with plastic Gooseander and duckling.

22nd

As promised last blog the Trillion out in bloom, you can see how it gets it’s name, three leaves, three petals and then a further three above that, though the balance is ruined by having four flowers, maybe I will be bold enough to split them and start another group to build a collection.

23rd.

Though the nights are still hovering around zero C the days are sunny and warm, today most probably the warmest and the Spring flowers are at their best. First shot is the first Bluebell out in the garden though the expert gardener that I am married to reckons they have taken over to much and will be thinned out this year. The other two shots are of the Pom Pom Primulas that are at their very best at present, the area that these are in are my old veg garden as to be honest I struggled to grow potatoes let alone any other exotic veg.

30th.

Started of with Easter in this blog and that seems so far away as we end this month, probably the driest April we have had for a long time, but the rain has finally come today. A bit of a surprise at the end , on the twenty second I showed you a shot of the Trillion flowers in the garden and even commented on the fact it was ruined by the four flowers amongst the symmetry of threes. Well look what has happened in that short space of time, the plant has produced another flower.

One of these years I will think of an April Fool section to start the month off, but promise you I as a person have not got one for this year, but nature has. Below you will see a selection of the beautiful Spring flowers we have in the garden at the moment, but the forecast is for us to get a good dumping of snow before the week is out, just when you thought of warm sunny days leading up to Summer, nature laughs at you. I think the birds may suffer also, with most of them in their breeding plumage, Blackbirds and House Sparrows building nests, frogs have spawn on our pond, totally unaware of the coming weather. Must add as you can see below the Sparrowhawk is becoming a frequent visitor to our garden and he and she seem to find a remote spot to pluck the bird before flying off with their catch, as much as I would love to get a shot of the bird on this stump, it is so well hidden that I do not think I would have any chance.

4th

5th.

Our Pom-Pom Primula’s are producing a lot of flowers.

So are the normal ones.

The heathers are alive with the sound of Honey and Bumble Bees.

Daffodils of all sizes and colours.

Mini Tulips add a good variety of colour to the garden (note to self, get some more of these next year).

This little bulb grows everywhere in the garden and has the common name of Glory in the Snow, which may be appropiate later this week. A darker blue version very like this light blue one also grows in the garden but goes by a different name, Scilla.

Lastly one of my favourites in the garden (not because I purchased it, honest) is my Trillion, started off four years ago with just one bloom and added one every year so now four lovely deep red blooms are budding up. Three leaves & three petals, great little plant.

To add to the above flowers, my neighbour has been having trouble with Moles and we are Mole free (at the moment), so they thought we might like a couple on our own.

7th.

In amongst the many Chaffinches we get in the garden we occasionally get the odd Brambling and the above is one of those an unusual looking bird very much like a Chaffinch, but with slightly different markings.

1 0th.

Most probably part of the four I showed you last month but these two were wondering through the field , seemingly paired up now, on what was a cold a frosty start to the day.

15th

Here this morning was the male Roe Deer just laying out in the field after what must have been a hard night as I have never seen one lay this close to the house.

My usual game of hide and seek with the squirrel Not sure if it is thinking “well he cannot see me here” or, ” it is him with the ****** camera again”.

A sure sign Summer is on it’s way when the Geese start flying home after wintering with us.