We saw an amusing encounter between a young fox and a large badger the other night. The fox was originally eating the peanuts when the badger arrived. For a few moments it looked as though it was going to stand its ground but the badger just glared at it and it quickly backed off. The […]

By the look of it this little fellow who visited the other night was probably only born in the spring this year. For some reason, all pine martens seem to have an odd loping gait – almost as though they had something wrong with one of their legs.

We saw this beautiful fly agaric near to the Donich Waterfalls today. I always associate fungi with autumn and in theory today is the last day of summer. Also the big sycamore tree at the bottom of our garden is rapidly losing his leaves. Actually summer in Lochgoilhead is my least favourite part of the […]

For the last couple of weeks I have been catching sight of a raptor around the bird table. Unfortunately it is very shy and disappears every time I am starting to take my camera out – however my friend J has done better than me and managed to get some photos while he was looking […]

On Saturday R and I went to Kilmarten and had a look at some of the ancient monuments associated with the Kingdom of Dalriada. This has a particular resonance for me as one of my favourite books is Rosemary Sutcliffe’s “Mark of the Horse Lord”, which is set in Argyll during the late Roman period […]

The apple trees in the back garden are now laden with apples – definitely the best year for them since we have been here – and somewhat makes up for the total absence of any plums. Unfortunately, the family of jays which I strongly suspect of having stripped the cherry tree of fruit back in […]

This is the birthday cake I made for my friend J. It is based on an old Internet meme involving badgers, mushrooms and a snake. Too many drugs – or perhaps you just needed to be there at the time. The badgers were made by me from fondant icing and are each carrying a flag […]

R and I were walking down the Donich waterfall path the other morning, when we saw what looked like a lost hat that had been placed on a post (presumably for the owner to see it there if they came back looking for it). However, when we got a bit closer, we noticed that it […]

It has been terribly, terribly wet here – definitely the worst July we have had since we lived here (and seems like the worst I can remember ever). The weather does from time to time generate some nice views, like this one out to Stob an Eas the other night. There is something almost primeval […]

I made a rather nice lunch on Saturday. I’ve become a bit of a fan of different breads – so this was my take on a stuffed plait. Make a basic white bread dough with 700g flour and prove until doubled in size (you could make a yeast sponge to get it started off if […]