I can’t say that R and I are keen gardeners – in fact I am not that keen and to describe him as keen would be like saying that the late Iain Paisley was fond of Catholics. So the garden has got much scruffier and more wildlife friendly (that is a nice way of putting […]
R and I have a term for the typical weather in this area, which is “Goily”. On a goily day the wind sweeps over Beinn Bheula from the west, and brings waves of cloud, rain and sunshine alternately with it. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but yesterday we must have had at least ten […]
I’ve been having a look around at all the things I have missed while I have been out of circulation in the big city – it is funny how you almost immediately lose contact with the rhythms of nature when you go away from it for a while. All kinds of new things are out […]
I think this is the longest time I have ever been away from writing this blog. The last two weeks have been absolutely frenetic as R and I have been organizing an IT Security conference (BSides Edinburgh). I’d like to say “never again” and in fact this time last week I was saying just that, […]
Shortly after we moved in here we saw an otter on the webcam over the pond (it was actually around this time of year). We didn’t see him again over the next few months and then we had to give up on “Pond Cam” because the network wouldn’t support it and it kept crashing “Shed Cam”. […]
I bought R some super large hot dogs which he didn’t think much to. So with half the packet left over, I decided to put them out for the badgers. This was the result, but not quite what we were expecting (click on the picture to see the video). I’ve no idea where the black […]
I took a wander up the Duke’s Path towards Coran Lochan today. The weather was superb, although cold and snowy and the views were first rate. Obviously no one had been along the path since the snow fell; no one human at least although I saw lots of animal tracks (mostly deer and sheep). This […]
The day before yesterday I was saying to R that the last of the snow was gone off the mountains here for the year. How wrong could I be, because today it was back with a vengeance. Down here at loch level it was only just cold enough to lie a bit in the back […]
Definitely the best time of the year for wildlife. This little roe stag visited the webcam area around tea time and made a meal of part of one of our bushes (a very prickly one but they don’t seem to mind the thorns). You can see the velvet on his lovely new antlers Click on […]
In spite of the constant heron activities, the frogs did finally arrive in our pond, and for about a week we could hear the low burble of their croaking whenever we walked down the drive. In fact I think the frogs have done very well this year – every pool and puddle seems to be […]
