Birds -mostly ptarmigans!

Here are a few pictures of these easy to photograph birds.

This one is a male in Spring above Newtonmore.

Here`s a summer snap of a hen and chick on Bynack Mor.

And this one would be well camouflaged but for the absence of snow. This picture is from about 3500` on Carn Mor Dearg.

An even easier bird to photograph was this
snowbunting looking for a crumb at the top of Ben Nevis.

More like winter

I was up Creag Beag this morning and the path was very wet. There was a bit more brightness, though, and plenty of reflected light both from the skiff of snow and from the floodwaters.



Yesterday was the day of public sector strikes and in some ways it seemed to demonstrate workers` feelings. When there were teachers` strikes some 20 or so years ago there was a reluctance to go out and lose a day`s pay. In the current situation I think that feeling is stronger. Folk are more committed to money, and I`ve already met one or two folk who say they would not strike again.
This evening there are “9 days to save the euro”- was that not said last month as well? The disorderly break up of the euro would be a “catastrophe” for Sterling as well. I`m still not sure what that means! But maybe it`s as well to be stocked up with pasta, rice and some lentils for protein.
It almost seems like the economic woes of the West are a consequence of not actually producing goods. Is it that capital been transferred East with little regard to the well being of the redundant populations of the West? Capital is free to travel and it will travel to where the greatest profits will be made. Perhaps people in the West are becoming weary of goods they don`t actually need and only want because of the powerful persuasive techniques of advertisers. Was this not a theme of JK Galbraith?
People with very little will be hungrier, to learn, to work, to consume. Soon be Christmas!