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.