Here I am in the middle of February, on the edge of the Cairngorms, in near Summer weather. So mild it is truly unbelievable, tomorrow we are set to beat the previous highest February temperature by one degree, going up to over 18C, ridiculous. Of course we would be complaining that we were totally snowed in with a perma frost developing, but this sort of heat is a bit silly. Again I must be realistic & state winter can go on well into May up here, so maybe I should just enjoy this sort of weather while it last’s. One major advantage is we are able to get out on walks without getting frostbite & today we did just that with a walk around the Castle grounds.
As you can see no visitors today so was able to grab this shot with just one staff car in my way.
The main reason for the walk was to see the Snowdrops, which are in full bloom. Down South of course they are all but finished & the yellow of Daffodils are more prominent, but with us this is Snowdrop time. The Castle have developed a Snowdrop Walk through the woods with thousands of bulbs making a wonderful show, below are a few shots I took of them.
Also on the estate grounds all the Highland Ponies are down from their normal stalking stables & have added a shot of these.
On the estate (just above the Castle there is a Folly, now what large estate would consider themselves complete if they didn’t have a building that had no practical use whatsoever such as a Folly. I have just entered this one into my Canon monthly competition with the subject of Symmetry, don’t expect to win, but I do put something in each month.
What Blog from me would be complete without a photo of a bird? while taking the above shot of the folly, I saw a Treecreeper creeping up an adjacent tree. Now I think I have said if you get close enough to these wee birds they tend to freeze & try & blend in with the tree, this one did just that. Only problem was it did it with a twig in front of it which slightly ruins the shot, but that’s photography.
