Beautiful Glasgow

After a very stormy Friday the second last day of the month of October saw glasgow at its finest.



Here`s another view of the university buildings.



And a snap taken on the phone of the great William Thompson.

Recent snaps

One or two pictures from the recent school holidays.Here`s Robert
a week before he sets out for South Georgia. The fellow sitting on the seat near Raitt`s Cave seems very small.























We had a pleasant stroll around the Northern Corries. Here`s Catriona near the edge.
















Very nice for us all to be out as a family on the hills-here`s to the next time!








Davie Stewart and I had a good day out on the bikes over to the Feshie.

Carn an Fhreiceadain

This is a good, quick walk form Kingussie for getting some badly needed exercise. I took the bike up as far as the bridge over to Pitmain Lodge and then walked over the hill in an anticlockwise direction. There`s a track all the way back round to the Lodge so there is no need to consider navigation. In parts it`s a road, not that you`ll hear many environmentalists condemn it, for it`s not a wind farm road. Rather, it allows the wealthy to shoot animals or birds. Notice, though,that it cuts through the peat. One letter I read recently implied that this kind of road building is more destructive than logging in Amazonia. Then again, it`s not for reaching wind turbines so it`s all right! I quite enjoyed trudging along it without thinking of where I was.



















Here`s the top of the very easily reached "Watcher`s Cairn"-a bit spoiled by the man made intrusion? No, not the plinth but the intrusive windfarm up at Farr! (just about dead centre of the picture).




















By about four o`clock this afternoon the shadows are starting to lengthen. The walk round only takes about 3 hours and there`s usually something to see- a couple of small flocks of fieldfares and one larger of about 25 with redwings as well; little coveys of grouse-I noticed at least three threes;a raven;a few hinds and a raptor I thought might be a hen harrier.

More or less strangers?

This raised ground just to the SW of Lynchat used to be the site of a heronry-backin the 70s. It`s still a very attractive spot with views over the marshes. The fallen tree is a larch and the shrub in the foreground is the elder,Sambucus racemosa. there`s signs here ,too,of lots of rabbits!


















#The alien larch and the native pine here seem to go together pretty well.

A while ago

Or to be more precise, from the Spring.


















These were all taken on a day over in Atholl, on Beinn a`Ghlo.

Aliens!

The photo shows the ongoing clearance of some of the forestry between Drumguish and the Feshie just before you reach Corarnstill. The foresters expressed doubts over the National Park`s policy to remove alien species from woodlands within the Park. The foreground shows the stump of one of the Lodgepole pines culled from the westerly edge of the wood. Behind this is the damage done to the Scots Pinesby last week`s high winds.The Lodgepoles had growndeveloping roots for their exposed situation.. The sheltered natives had not required such anchorage.Lodgepole removal had the effect shown. It seems it is not always sensible to get rid of aliens.

Moira and I had a little paddle recently up the Spey from Loch Insh. There`s quite a bit of Canadian Pondweed in the water on this stretch and the burr reed we had a look at didn`t seem to match anything native. Would the weed`s removal be possible? or cost effective? or necessary? or even desirable?

And then there are the sycamores-these seem to be a particularly unwelcome species for the environmental police. The Scottish parliament may park their posteriors on it,the new sycamore Sherlock Holmes fiddle sounded well enough but up here tree surgeons can make a substantial killing slaughtering them.

Adnittedly mink and rats removal seems uncontroversial but what about the treatment of birds. There used to be a lek for the black grouse on Kingussie Golf Course-it was up on the 6th fairway-I think. Now,though you can see fighting cock pheasants on the same ground and down the road towards Dalwhinnie it`s red legged partridge`s that the driver should try to spare by careful driving. Alien birds these last two but perhaps they must be protected from slaughter so that they can be,ehm!-slaughtered --for sport!.

Come to think of it, the destruction of our preserved native mosses, our sometimes it almost seems sacred, peat, cannot be contemplated . No alien industrial monsters -wind turbines-can be allowed to contribute to any loss of the very fabric of our hillsides. Roads must not disturb the so fragile habitat-except if the road is for sporting access to the hill. Naturally!

End of February

There`s again been a lot of snow in the last few days. Moira and I took a walk up Creag Beag. The last picture is, I think of the tracks of grouse, left proud of the surrounding snow. Unlike much of the snowfall of the recent past, this snow has arrived on a strong East wind.

Continuing Freeze

I went for a walk on the skis from the house,down by Sandy`s duck pond,across the railway line and across theA9 bridge before going down to the S bank of the Spey. The difficulty of progressing in the deep powdery snow,coupled with problems with a binding made me think of going home despite the fine ,bright cold day. It was a total delight ,though, to be able to go on to the Spey and escape the deep stuff. Here the snow was only a few inches deep and hopefullythe ice had a little more depth. Anyway, I was able to slide down to the Tromie before encountering the first real open water in a couple of miles! here are a flock of greylags at the -Tromie confluence

This is on the way backup river.

Home again, and a view, kind of, from the upstairs window.

Happy New Year!