It is better than the common Glasgow dreich day when it never seems to get properly daylight, but doesn’t make for very reliable days in the hills because if you wrap up for the rain, you end up melting when the sun comes out five minutes later.

It is Easter weekend and R and I are on holiday next week so I am hoping for the best.

R recently upgraded our wireless network (he put an external access point on the front of the house and a new high-gain antenna on the camera) and we turned Pond Cam back on.  Well worth it, as not only have we had some great shots of the heron – but also the otter was back last night.  I suspect he has never been away and lives under the wooden bridge across the Donich.  Click on the picture to see the video.

We’ll be keeping a close lookout over the next few weeks – it would be nice to see him out of the water.

I’m also going to put our battery powered trail cam right down at the back near the river and see if we can get any good shots of the deer.  I know they come down there from the copious quantities of poo they leave.

I’ve no idea where the black cat comes from or who it belongs to, but this is the second time we have seen it in our camera (the first time Tora saw it off).  I hope it has just moved in to the village and knows its way home as we are quite isolated here.  I also hope it isn’t a stray, because it certainly wolfed down the (not particularly appetising) sausages.

If we see it again I’ll have to ask around and see if anyone knows whose it is.  Cats really are strange creatures – here we are in the back of beyond, and not only does Tora walk nearly a mile to the other side of the village to find another cat to fight, but now we have another one doing the same thing in reverse.

The movie should have the music for “10 green bottles” to go with it….

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 one was a carnivore.

In the evening the views to the mountains were quite superb – one of the best sunsets I have seen since we have been living here.

Intermittently all day it has been rather pretty with the sun shining on the snow, and surpassingly foul with deluges of slush and hail.

The poor daffodils took a bit of a pasting overnight, but being hardy Argyll flowers they had recovered by this afternoon.

Click on the picture to see the video.

Then as suddenly as they appeared they are gone again for another year – leaving a whole corner of our pond (can you have a corner on something round?) a mass of slime.

Lots of badger activity at the moment – the poor pine marten turned up at 4am one night to find that every single nut had already been consumed by badgers which had been coming and going since about 8pm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/moroccan_plaited_loaf_51517

To go with it I made some soup – I was havering over whether to call it “Moroccan” or “Spanish” and decided on neither.  Fry two large onions, a green pepper and a red pepper in some olive oil until soft.  Add a chunk (10cm or so) of finely chopped chorizo sausage, a few peeled carrots and three or four garlic cloves and stir about a bit until browning.  Add a heaped tsp of harissa paste and some smoked paprika.  Then add two tins chopped plum tomatoes and water to taste (enough to make it soup rather than stew – unless it is stew you actually want) and simmer until the veg is fully cooked.

Very nice with the bread and associated dip.  Omitting the cheese from the bread and the chorizo from the soup makes it vegan without losing much of the flavour (perhaps add a little more paprika).

The arm in the background belongs to J.