The snow has gone for hogmany.

There is a sense of anticipation. Over the last 2 fays the town has filled with folk, all walking around in boots in the snow yesterday and today it is 10c.

The hotelks and bunkhouses have cars, the caravan site has campers and even in Glenmore, the campe site is full.

The festivities start at 11pm and it is about 4 years since we were last here at Hogmany. Everyone can do "Strip the Willow" and the whole street was taken with people in their groups of 8, twirlking and skipping to the pipe band.

Now there are fireworks also (poor little Pip, she'll not like that part) and stalls for mulled wine and punch, perhaps deep fried haggis too.

I'll let you know as I'll be there!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The family estate?

This private residence is on another of our local walks. The grounds run into several 100 acres but are mostly owned for shooting and there are some tenant farmers. There are tracks all round the estate and one is free to walk through them (although not to shoot or kill pheasants).

Castle Grant has been over the years, part of the estate, a hotel, flats and now is obviously owned by some people who are lucky lottery winners.

My granny was a Grant but no, sadly, not the ower/accupier of a grand castle. She stayed with her family as a tenant farming family some 2 miles from Grantown itself. One of 11 children, many of them went off to Newfoundland to make their living and I do have distant relatives there too.

Granny married a man from a fishing family from Stornaway and lived with him in Birmingham to have her family (my mum) and only returned to the Highlands when she was in her 60s and remarried. She was first a Grant, then a Matheson then Calder.

Which od course links her to the Calder Valley!! Way down in West Yorkshire.

The carols.

I guess you might like to see the lights and singers...better photos than the reindeer anyway.

Christmas and real reindeer.

OK, it's a really poor photo. I took several, including one of one of these georgous animals close up but the jostling crowds made it a bit difficult.

Father Christmas on his sleigh had no less than 6 reindeer although none had a red nose. The 2 at the front and the 2 at the back with their babies wedged betwen them, presumably to get them used to the noise and crowds.

They were totally at easy with all of us patting them, taking their photos and cooing with love. Their fur is dense but soft and they are surprisingly small. Of course there were no Rudolphs, only females but they were shorter than my shoulder even at the top of their heads. Their velvet impressive antlers make their reach much longer and the handler warner us not to touch the front of their heads and to be aware if they turned round to look, an antler could take an eye out.

Whoops...too much about the reindeer and not enough about the torch lit parade and carols. Headed up by a pipe band (naturally), Father Christmas and his helpers then most of the town following with their torches and furry hats or watching from the sidelines before gathering before a small tent with 3 musicians to sing carols.

But the reindeer stole the show.

Pheasant for Christmas.

No, not this one. This one is too small and is for tonight's dinner. All you sensitive people, this bird was free range and killed instantly. The recipe is Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall and the pheasant is in season.

Ralph has plucked it this morning after 3 days of hanging. I "found" this poor dead bird on my walk and having learnt from the wild salmon that I had to leave behind, I now carry a rucksack and a plastic bag for occasions that may present themselves.

I may not be a farmer any longer but I am still a hunter/gatherer and wild food for free is abundant around here. Ralph had seen a dead deer by the road that was fresh but unfortunately at that time we had no freezer. Imagine how much meat a whole deer would provide for us and the dogs!

The large cock pheasnt from the butchers is costing a measly £4.50p which is a considerable saving on a turkey at £50, although of course we won't be eating pheasant burgers for 6 months after Christmas.

My sort of pony.

Look at the adorable Highland ponies, standing cosy in their woolly mamouth coats and long fringes keeping the frost off their eye lashes.

Then Tails, kipping on his heap of hayledge...ahhhh

Frosty Morning.

It was minus 6 at 8am and the paths are a sheet of ice. This picture is taken at the top of Dreggie, a steep winding road that leads to Glen Beg. This estate is a small one, 20,000 acres (and not an acre for sale!) and is an active shoot. The scaredy Pip can only enjoy this walk on Sundays, when they can't shoot and after Feb 1st. Today there wasn't shooting until we were nearly down the other side. The views across to the Cairngorms are variable but today The Hill (as Cairn Gorm is called) was clear.

The ski ing started last weekend, after the storm. We have ski-ed the area many years ago when it was a lot quieter. Now the price and the queues are reasons enough not to bother on the weekend, but I have my crumbling knees to prevent any downhill ski -ing anyway.

The best day ever in my brief ski career was on Cairn Gorm but going on mountain skis. We left the car park and ski tows way behind and climbed up and up, away from all the crowds and there was just our small group and our guide. It was breath taking and I will always love the mountains in winter more than the summer.

I'm no mountaineer though. So now, I walk around at 1000 - 2000 feet and ski in the woods and tracks (cross country) and look in awe at the beauty and grandeur of The Hill.

and another photo because it's a nice one...

Viewpoint Walk in black and white.

It was Christmas dinner at the Grant Arms this lunch time so we had a quick walk up to the Viewpoint behind Grantown. From the top you have seen photos of the Cairngorms so today I tried the black and white function on this new camera. So, what do you think?

Do you like the atmospheric b&w or the lovely blue sky of the colour one? Answers on a postcard...

If you look very closely you can see Ben Rinnes, the mountain of the rocks on a previos blog. This view is north and slightly east. If you keep on you would end up on the Moray Coastal walk (also previously featured).

Dinner at the Grant Arms was excellent. The hotel is now a centre for wildlife, particularly bird watching holidays. Their lecture hall is available for local groups too...which is why we had our U3A dinner there. Posh hats, party poppers, blowy things, silver crackers and huge amounts of food, all warm and well cooked. Poor deaf Dad couldn't hear anything for the noise which interfers with the hearing aid but he tucked in well and what was left over, the dogs have had for their dinner tonight.

Sadly Ralph is still in York. His dad's funeral is tomorrow. Then he goes to his work's do which will be a lot more rowdy I expect, despite our party poppers at U3A (average age circa 75)!

Is Grantown crime free?

No, is the answer to that. But mostly it is driving offences on the A9.

The Strathspey Herald, the local paper, headlines any misdemeanours. One time it was Horse Rug Found Dumped in High Street. This week, like most, there is nothing.

After the bars close, there can be drunkeness. The owner of the fantastic independent bookshop has found vomit in her doorway after a Friday night.

And there is the graffiti...pictured.

But yesterday's paper had;

"Strath's Oldest Resident dies aged 107". This woman tried canoeing for the first time aged 104! And she isn't the only one as at my dad's sheltered housing complex I have met a man aged 101 who plays golf still and a woman aged 104. When I was introduced to her, her friend said, "...and she is 105."

"Don't be silly Dorothy, I'm only 104!"

The kids are like teenagers everywhere, texting, girls walking to school with the tiniest of skirts, messing about at the bus stop, even drinking cans of lager in the woods...but they still say hello as you walk past. It's almost weird.

But it's nice.

No ducks.

This pond is very scenic and usually full of ducks etc which staff from the Craiglynne hotel often (daily?) feed with their cast off bread. Now it is iced over but not frozen. The temperature was quite high today and the ground was still soft under the snow. I have taken at least 30 other pictures but it takes so long to load them that I am restricting myself.

Curling only takes place in Inverness now. Despite the seemingly hard winters of the last 2 years, the pond is neglected in the recreational use. And as for the water fowl...I don't know where they have gone. There are very few on the river due to the fast flow at the moment... but they must be somewhere around. So instead, here is a dipper in the middle of the river on the fishing pier.

and then today...

It snowed last night and when I took the dogs for their evening wee, it was already a beautiful winter scene. Today I walked in the woods behind the house and took 25 photos but so as not to bore you with snowy photos that other people can take much better than me, here are a selection of 3...Mossie Road, the snowy bank leading up to the railway line and the meeting of the collies...2 called Moss!

Sadly Ralph's dad died last night. It was a peaceful death in a wonderful hospice with all the calm and comfort these places can offer. He died in his sleep with no pain. I shall personally miss him, such a good man, so patient and kind, generous and a quiet sense of humour.

It's snowing again, 3.30pm.

This was yesterday...

A couple of views from the Cromdale walk. The day before the river was in full flood and I wasn't sure I would make it over the little wooden bridge that crosses a stream near Cromdale bridge. The ducks had abandonned the river and were all on the flooded stream instead. Only the widgeon were on the river, flying back to their resting place as the fast water carried them towards Spey Bay (the sea) at a speed I couldn't guess at.

But although the river was still fast and full yesterday, it was obviously navigable! I spooted the little boat through the trees and when I got a clear space of river, I caught him with my zoom lens. He was twirling around like a broken branch but obviously was unalarmed!

The trees are full of lichen which I believe is good food (deer, squirrels, capers) and it is very beautiful both hanging from the tree like Christmas decoration and close up, so I thought I'd share that with you.

Garden birds!

Autumn Watch said not to put fat balls in nets out for the birds but how else can they be positioned in a tree?
This one is outside the lounge window and with the new super camera I could zoom in and catch a very happy blue tit.
The blackbirds have also learnt to use them even though I put stuff on the garden table for them.
There is a crowd of birds that come now the weather has turned colder. Many coal tits, chaffinches, dunnocks, greenfinches, robins (who fight), blackbirds and of course the pheasants.
I've spent a lot of time trying to catch the red squirrel on camera. He or she is very tame and around a lot but is quite camera shy. It's funny how the equally endearing grey squirrel is such a pest in the English garden while the red squirrel is a treasured visitor. There are lots to be seen in the woods and there it is the cappers and black grouse that prove elusive. I have seen the latter but only seen a dead capercaille. Found of course by the inquisitive dog but not killed by mine...of that I am certain.

The lights go on...

There are lots of lights, the whole of Grantown in bathed in colour. There is a Christmas Lights Committee which raise the money for them. The grand switch on was a bit of a come down as most of them were already on. The council had been working on them during the day.

Father Christmas arrived...by Ford Focus, He unloaded himself from the car in darkness onChurch Avenue just as I was passing by.

"Hello Father Christmas," I said. He didn't even answer...typical grumpy old man. Mind you, he was running late.

I went home and watched Autumn Watch which I had recorded on Friday...and yes it was from the Cairngorms once again! I feel so priviledged to live in such an area of out standing beauty and out standing wildlife. I have seen all but the Capercaillie that was featured on the programme. I saw a white stoat this week as well, another silly animal turning white for Christmas.

Snow...has winter arrived.

Did you ever see such a sad looking horse. Poor Utrillo.

However the snow didn't last and when I fed them at 4pm they were still cosy under their rugs.

Today the sun is shining and it is warm again!

I am grounded as Ralph is down in York with his family. His dad is not going to live much longer and it is a very sad time. Ralph will stay until after the funeral.

I am trying to find a van hire company so I can get myself and the 2 dogs down. I have had offers to look after the dogs but who would be landed unwittingly with a dog that fights other dogs some of the time, licks everything in sight, and pulls at the lead as if she is a sleigh dog and the other who won't come out from under the bed if there is shooting, someone at the door, or any other reason she can think of!

Phew.

No, I'm afraid they'll have to come with me.

Speyside to yorkshire

Sadly after less than 8 weeks here, Ralph has ahd to return to York to nurse his terminally ill father. We came here to look after mine who is doing well with company, TLC and good food but although Dad-in-Law is looked after, old age has taken its toll.

I am alone again with the dogs. The red squirrel. The finches, robin and blackbird. The 3 boys in the field (looking after the horses tomorrow) and the pheasants.

Today on my bike ride to a good butcher, a buzzard landed just 10 feet away...stayed while I stopped my bicycle and just gazed at me...what human species is this...an Englishman out in the mid morning wind and sun looking for meat...a truely indepenant spirit cycling into a westerly wind for 5 miles....but on the way home, even a buzzard couldn't keep up with me.

On the dog walk I spotted a white...stoat. That's how I knew it was a stoat...white! This time last year Grantown was under 3 foot of snow, this year we have primroses! But the stoats and the hares (spotted on Ben Rinnes) whiten because of day light hours, not because of the cold. Silly, as they are so visible in the green and orange glow of this autumn.

I wish I had a photo to show you...instead, just to fill a space, our back garden from the Mossie.

The top of Ben Rinnes.

Me and him and as usual 2 dogs. 840m with views for miles and miles and miles.

Ben Rinnes.

The Sunday walk was up this beautiful hill that stands alone north east of Grantown. The view you see is across to the Moray Firth (see previous blog posts) and it is flat farming land right down to the coast. A bit of a misty day in the heat haze!

The natural stone structures rise like bee hives on the shoulder of Ben Rinnes. They are strange and beautiful, if you like that sort of thing. They look like it is an ancient place of worship, who needs to go to Peru?

Photos from the new camera.

Artistic interpretations from Ralph. The zoom lens on me waiting patiently or as patiently as I know how. The lovely sepia image of the track to Glen Einich. The tree fallen by the wayside and loch side.

Loch an Eilean

It was a sunny morning and we had tickets for the Cairngorm Mountain Railway so set off for Glen More but it became obvious that a trip up Cairn Gorm would be wasted as the tops were clouded over. We walked a familiar and favourite low level walk from Colyumbridge to this lovely loch and along to the start of the famous paths through the Cairngorm mountains before heading back through the ancient Caledonian Woods towrads Colyumbridge.

These forests provide the backdrop to The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe plus many nature programmes featuring osprey, wildcats, capercaille, eagles etc. So watch Auntumn Watch next week because the forests are on again!

Sadly we saw only people as it is a popular easy walk and any wildliofe would be well hidden in this part of the forest.

It has been a week of activity; cycling, horse riding (me), running (Ralph) and walking. The garden is all dug and the only jobs are house jobs which we are not so good at getting done.

Lots of photos though as Ralph has a new camera. He may need a little practice yet.

Culbain Sands.

This is a strange place which is between Nairn (famous for Tilda Swinton) and Findhorn (famous for the Findhorn Foundation where you can live communally and do circle dancing courses).

See Pip splashing through the beautiful blue sea on Tuesday. We wondered whether to take the dogs as we were going to view the migrating birds (Autumn Watch again) but although we could hear a cacophany of bird calls, they were on the far side of the sand bank and not at all visible.

We did have sight of them in their thousands while driving to the airport on Wednesday. There were fields of Oyster catchers, Lapwings and Curlew. Also we saw a few Buzzards and a Sparrowhawk.

Such is the delight of the Scottish wildlife and scenery, Ralph has ordered a new camera. If the photos improve then it will have been worth it. You can be judge.

Thw gorse is in full flower. I thought it to be a spring flowering shrub but on further investigation, it appears it does flower sparsely in autumn. Gorse always reminds me of my friend Hilary who came back from a holiday on the Isle of Man, amazed by all the beautiful yellow heather they saw. Hilary died of cancer aged 50. Life is so sad sometimes.

Frosty days.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday brought the spectacle of frost and sunshine, glorious weather for early November. Just how it should be. So in the morning, the Mossie was white and the horses are gathered waiting for me to feed them as HO was off on a shoot. Their water had a thin sheen of ice on but it wasn't a deep frost.

Luckily as it was an outdoors weekend. Our friends who'd arrived Friday eve (and we were up until 1am which is outrageous for me!) had decided on a mountain bike ride so we declined that invitation. Neither had been on our mountain bikes for 9 years since having the farm and these friends are super fit!

I did get out for 6 mile bike ride which was stunning but nowhere near the 20 miles they'd planned.

The Ceidli that night was fun with lots of men in kilts...I like a man in a kilt with the lovely laced peasant shirt and thick white socks with laced shoes. They can dance too, in fact everyone can, that's the whole point about a cieldhi...only Ralph couldn't stop sneezing so went home after the dinner. Shame. I danced until 1am.

The next day we set off up at Corbett which is a mountain over 2000feet but under 3000feet which is a Monroe. Our friends have done all the Monroes, even their 18 year old son has done them (for his DoE Gold Award) so are now on the Corbetts.

The hill was like the dark Peak, indistinct top, acres of moor, cloughs and soft wet peat, luckily frozen over. The redeeming feature is the view...a panoramic 360degree view of mountains. My photographs do it no justice whatsoever.

Exhausted by all the (2) late nights and frantic activity, I went to bed at 10am last night...woke to ride Rogan with HO this morning in more sunshine. What a life!! Can it be any better?

Ralph nearly stopped sneezing.

Loch Garten today (3/11/11)

We travelled out this way to find some land that may be available for growing plants and keeping cattle...but I feel superstitious about talking about that...so we went to Loch Garten.

The knowledgeable amongst you will know this is where the breeding programme for Ospreys started and the loch was featured recently on both Autumn Watch and Ray Mears. Of course there are no osprey at the moment as they are heading off to Africa but I hadn't been to this loch since 1978 (old git that I am) when I worked near here for a summer staying with my grandfather in Carrbridge. I thought it was boring but today I wondered why.

The sun shone, although as you can see, the cloud was down over Craigrowrie, the mountain you can see. This is the mountain at one end of the ridge I have now walked 3 times since moving here.

It was so warm, we were in t-shirts and the dogs took to the water. A beautiful place, so sheltered and serene.

I saw Ospreys twice last year, a nesting one near this loch but on the River Spey banks, high up and distinctive in a tree, hardly hidden at all and at Spey Bay where a lone bird was diving into the sea, just as Ospreys should.

A feeling of space...

At the back of our house there are 3 horses. You've seen the one I am riding, this is him coming for his breakfast yesterday. I was feeding them as HO (horse owner) was off competing on the 3rd. The view to the stables is from our garden and while it is in the process of being converted from a neglected and overgrown leisure garden to one that is a combination of usefulness and attractiveness.

The other bonus of our equine neighbours is that they produce lots of muck. I have been digging it out and barrowing it to the garden where Ralph has been digging over the new veg patch. Hard work!

The result is I am taking frequent rests, hence sitting here for half an hour on a balmy Monday morning...but now it's back to work!

This is the golf course.

Saturday afternoon., we pass the golf course on the way to the woods and there are a few people playing. It is a beautiful setting for a course and looks well maintained.
I can't ever see me playing golf, it looks horrendously difficult to put such a tiny ball in such a tiny hole at such a great distance.
My cousin plays endlessly and there is a man of 101 who still plays, proving that it must be good for your health I suppose.
Pip hates golf because she is scared by
the noise of the club hitting the club.
She also hates the shooting which is taking place at the moment (except Sundays when there is only the clay pigeon shoot.
Next weekend is Bonfire Night, so it gets worse.

There is every sports club you can wish for, a modern sports centre with a swimming pool with a climbing wall plus the outdoors as already described. There are classes in singing, dancing, Gaelic, European languages. There is live music in the hotel bars, talks and shows, the art group, the reading group and many more I have not yet discovered. These will come in useful when the dark evenings are upon us, starting from tomorrow.

Picture of a the commi chef.

When the man retires he has to take more responsibility for the
cooking. He had a couple of practices in Yorkshire, making the most
expensive and cholestrol filled meals and a cheesecake
which was delicious and labour intensive.
So he has not actually completed the 2 meals he started but at least did the prep and washing up, the boring bits.
So what else does a retired man get up to? Watch this space.

Look at me...back on horseback!

The wonderful horse is a dressage horse that lives on the Mossie behind our house and this is ME!! Riding him!!

Too late to post the pic...

I know I promies to pst a pic as evidence that Ralph made the dinner last night...sadly he only made it until 7pm then went to watch the news and I continued from there...

I did go for a ride today...only the 2nd time in 20 months and I felt ON TOP OF THE MOON...mostly because the horse is a lot taller than my usual cobs and ponies!

Up to the snow line...

The snow came down to 1000' and settled but yesterday there was a squall or two of snow right in our back garden!!

Walking up the smaller hill, you can see Ralph making slow progress up the steep bits, me and the dogs feeling the cold in the wind at the top, the view of Cairn Gorm in the snow and across Loch Morlich which we walked round later.

You may think that we do nothing except walk around this stunning landscape but of course we are busy in the garden, the workshop, still unpacking and still sorting out paperwork and for me, a lot of time is spent looking after my Dad who lives 2 minutes away in sheltered accommodation. I go every morning to take him his paper then every evening (well, I've missed 2 evenings in the nearly 7 weeks) I go and cook his dinner. Lucky Dad.

Tonight Ralph is cooking our dinner. Chicken with lemon and chilli broccoli. (recipe courtesy of the Guardian). See next post for photographic evidence of this activity.