I know I should not be wishing the month away but so much is happening in this last half of April that will bring happiness into May. Next week we get our second jab (or jag up here in Scotland) so by may we should be well covered against this horrid virus. 25th of this month our local trout fishing club opens up all 3 waters, we can fish the River Garry at the moment but it is still a bit early for any activity with the wild Brown Trout and the Salmon will not be this far up the system yet. But the two still waters Blair Walker and Sarah’s pond our the real crown in our waters. Blair contains Rainbow and Brown Trout the former being stocked in there by the club, but the Browns came from Sarah’s pond which is above Blair and part of the Castles hydro electric scheme. The water in Sarah’s comes off the hills and when it has reached a certain level goes down an overflow pipe into a burn and down to Blair Walker pond/Lochan. When this was dug out 5 or 6 years ago the club stocked the top pond with Brownies which have grown and bred keeping a good head of fish in there, unfortunately when we have had heavy rain some of the fish went down the pipe but survived to get into Blair where they have thrived. Getting back to why I want May here, those Brown Trout in the still waters will come onto the feed well and I might have the joy of catching a few.
Also (if all goes well) on May 17th Scotland will open up more and visitors can stay overnight, so we should see one of our sons who lives in England. Plus the added bonus of my birthday, though a year older I do love birthdays.
Considering the still below freezing nights this little beautiful Anemone shows itself off daily as soon as the sun hits it, before it comes out of the shade it is a very tight little bud and looks very drab, but when it opens up it is stunning and an unusual colour to boot.
My pond is a bit sad at the moment as I have no electricity going out to feed the water pump or it’s filter, plus some of the weeds in it affected by the on/off ice covering. But one thing that is in it’s peak is this Marsh Marigold double flower. Plenty of blooms on it and looking very colourful, I have always struggled photographing anything that is yellow & due to getting advice from a Canon forum I am on, I am slowly learning how to shoot them. Along with the Daffodils & Primroses our garden has a lot of yellow in it, just to test me all the more.
The above shot is a very unusual sight this time of the year, especially with the amount of bad weather we have had this winter. This was honestly taken today and look at all the berries on it, never in all the years we have been up here have we seen such a late surplus of berries. We normally have a flock of Redwings and Fieldfares through the eat every berry before the end of the year, this winter I have not got a single photo of either species. It could be the fact that when they came down from more Northern climes the winds just allowed them to bypass us or it was mild enough to have stayed further North, I just do not know. Our native birds such as Blackbirds and Thrushes have eaten a fair few and we even had a Jay eating them yesterday, but I guess with these species they prefer our sultanas or seed to having to digest the berries, pip and all. But to see the seeds just falling to the ground uneaten is a first for us. Still it does make for an attractive shot for me to take and record such an event.
Apart from birds of prey, this is most probably my favourite bird, a male Siskin (no not the concrete one). Yellow is my colour from school house times and the yellow inn this bird is beautiful. Such a feisty bird as well, just after this shot he saw off that male Sparrow hiding behind the statue one and allowed his partner to come in and feed, she is a lot duller than him but still a cracking little bird. Some of may remember way back in B.C. (before Covid) I had a bird ringer here and she caught a female that had travelled up from outside Brussels, Belgium to feed in my garden, some reputation for good food I am getting. But look closely at the colours in this bird , such striking lines and now when it is preparing to mate it is at it’s best.
This feeder on the lawn in front of the kitchen window is very popular with most of the species who eat seed, ranging from Robins, Blackbirds, Doves and even Crows, mainly because it is well surrounded by bushes that are within reach for them, but quick enough to enter when the Sparrowhawk comes flying through.
I should run a competition to see who can guess,1/ What is it? 2/ What is he going to talk about?
Th answer to 1/ is it is half an apple and 2/ I just wanted to show you how thorough the Blackbirds in our garden are at eating all the flesh, but leaving the core and skin behind. It normally takes about a day or sometimes two to get it to this stage then they just leave it to rot, not interested anymore.. It is very rare that they penetrate the skin at all though on this example it does look as though one has got a bit enthusiastic and the beak has gone right through. Definitely a piece of art when it gets to this stage.
This is not the first butterfly I have seen this Spring, but it is the first I have seen with camera in hand. This rather tattie around the edges Peacock was warming itself up for a good ten minutes on the garage roof, thus allowing me to go indoors, get my camera, change lens and still get outside with it in the same spot. Within a minute it flew off and was down amongst the plants feeding, so was in some ways grateful that we had minus four temperatures this morning and it had to warm itself up before foraging.
This small Lochan is called Blair Walker and where from the middle of next month you will find me fishing once a week. It is stocked annually with rainbow Trout and has natural Brown Trout in it. Normally by now members of the village angling club would be fishing it, but new rules by the fishery board insist you have to have a licence to stock fish in any waters in Scotland and of course the working of governmental organisations take a bit longer than most to complete the paperwork, so until that is done and the new stock have settled in to feeding on natural food, we cannot fish it.
The lochan is in fact part of the estates hydro electric scheme and water of the hills is collected from of the hills in a smaller pond up above Blair Walker, which is known as Sarah’s Pond named after the estate factors wife. This pond we will be allowed to fish from Monday and contains natural bred Brown Trout and is a lovely peaceful little sanctuary to fish. It is some hike to get to but so worth it, even if you don’t catch any fish. The Browns in Blair got in there when the water from Sarah’s was high and in flood and they went down through the water flow and have thrived in Blair. When I go up to Sarah’s next week I will take some shots and show you why I love it so much.
Called this shot “The Tree on the Hill” and just liked the way the eye was led between the ancient Scots Pines , then the cows & up to the hill with that lone tree on the horizon. Such a common sight around here just a single tree that survived the weather and being eaten by deer struggling to survive but sometimes reaching a state of maturity as this one has. Cannot tell what species is it is and sorry to disappoint, but I shall not be climbing Tulloch Hill to find out for you either. The cows and their calves seem very content to just lay in this glorious sunshine we are having at the moment. So glad there is some heat in the sun this time of the year as it is soon burning the frost of from the overnight minus temperatures , though it does form the haze on this shot which does spoil it a bit.
I always have trouble taking shots of anything yellow, I have sought advice and am trying out different techniques, not overly pleased with this one but thought it was worth including as such a lovely plant. This is (I am reliably told by the head gardener) is a double Celandine, the only one we have in the garden, but looking like this I hope it will propagate into a few more as I for one like it.
I am aware of the saying “Don’t cast a clout till May is out” and that it has two separate interpretations, one meaning do not take your coat of until the month of May is out, the other when the flower of the May (or Blackthorn) is in bloom.
Well the above is the flower of the May and as you can see is in full blossom (though on other parts of our walk today it was still in bud), but I can assure you with the morning temperatures were still cold and we needed our coats for this mornings walk. Though I must say the days for the last week or so have been sunny and fabulous, but of course the gardener in the family is screaming out for a bit of rain to water a very dry garden. Be careful for what you ask though it may still come out of the sky as SNOW.
Well I did say I would include a photo of Sarah’s Pond when I went fishing there. Today was that day and of course we had rain and a cold wind, just what I didn’t want, even so I went up around midday and spent 3 hours of shear enjoyment. Must have had twenty or so wee wild Brown Trout going for my fly, catching none of them until a decent nine inch one came along and snatched my fly, caught and returned ready for me to catch when it gets bigger later in the year. As you can see it is a wonderful place to fish surrounded by trees on one side and with open views down the glen and to the village on the other. A lot of weed at present but I am slowly cutting it back on non fishing days. Peace, fish and apart from the cold wind and rain a perfect place to spend your free time.
The colours of Spring are all around us still and this little plant is no exception, my human encyclopaedia (the wife) thinks it is a Arabis commonly known as as Rock Cress and is a hardy little plant to be able to thrive in this months very cold conditions. Thrive it does and looks great up against the rock.
As it is called cress I decided to investigate the plant a bit more online and discovered that it is indeed edible, tasting very much like a normal cress. Another fact that surprises me is that it originated from the Southern Mediterranean, so a bit of a shock that it is hardy up here in the North. Good for Bees and Butterflies so that is good news.
I think as a (amateur) photographer it does open your eyes to seeing things in a different way and this challenge has proved that to me, trying to get a different subject each day with out repeating myself for the full 365 days , is making me see things that I would normally take for granted. So, 118 days in, on a cold showery day I was looking for inspiration and the above shot was it. One of the first rhubarb leaves to come out of its winter hibernation and the rich colours just shone out at me. I love rhubarb any way but this was so good to see, the bud next to the stem the promise of more to come, might be a good summer for making my prize winning rhubarb and ginger jam.
Today I had arranged with 3 of my friends to fish at the above loch, Loch Bhac ( pronounced vac) , all of us on arrival in our separate cars wish we hadn’t booked it for today as this Loch is very open and 330M above sea level was very exposed to the strong North Easterly wind that was blowing from across the trees on the left-hand side of the shot. The two humps of hill are in fact the Munro’s within half a mile of our house that by now you have all seen photos of. But to reach this Loch you have to go along a very twisty road beside Loch Tummel for some 6 miles then onto a gravel forestry road for a further 6 miles, a remote but beautiful location, on a fine day. but cold and showery today. I have not mentioned fish caught, because there were not any, I did have a Rainbow Trout on for about 5 seconds before it came off, but that was the only sighting of a fish in 4 hours of trying. The joys of angling.
Last day of the month and two first’s to confuse you. First first, if you look at the shot in the lighter coloured field about the middle of the photo are some cattle, in all the years we have lived here we have never had cows in that field these are even complete with calves. Second first is the first photo of this year to include the sheep that spend the summer in the field in front of the house. They must have been put in late last night or first thing this morning, but so good to have them back, at the moment about half what we normally have, that could be one of two reasons, 1/ the grass has not grown sufficient to put anymore sheep in the field or 2/ as the shepherd also has a day job he hasn’t had enough time to bring them all over from his farm 6 miles away. Either way it is great to have the sheep back, a sign of summer to come.
On the television weather report this morning it stated that every day of April somewhere in Britain there was a frost, we have only had a total of 6 days in this month when the overnight temperature was not below zero and that is a record for us let alone the British record. Admittingly we have some absolute beautiful sunny days once the sun has warmed us up, but too often we have had a cold wind blowing to just put an edge to the day. As I stated in the title for this blog, soon be May, well tomorrow it arrives.