24th January – sun, sea, sand… and snow

Posted on January 24, 2012 by

We spent the day with Leonie in Oban yesterday.   Having watched the weather forecast, we were reasonably confident of a fine day, and at 7 am the ground was frozen hard with an icy crust.  In fact, it was almost lethal – you couldn’t really see it, but if you stood still you found yourself drifting eerily sideways.

By the time we got to Glen Ogle, which is a beautiful valley just north of Lochearnhead on the A85, it was raining;  as we drove higher, the rain turned to driving snow.  After the blizzard passed, the conditions were just spectacular, so we stopped for some photos.

The wind was bitingly cold, and the sky turned a deep shade of grey as veils of snow were swept across the summits, to be replaced by flashes of brilliant blue sky.  As we made our way through Crianlarich and down through Strath Fillan towards Tyndrum, we could see herds of red deer on the highest slopes.

We reached Oban safely, and the three of us spent an enjoyable afternoon pottering along the beach at Tralee Bay.   As usual, a number of interesting pebbles made it back home with us.  There wasn’t a lot of wildlife to be seen – a few ringed plovers and a redshank at Airds Bay, and a heron in some reeds as we walked to Tralee beach.  The wind was cold enough to make your eyes water, but we could feel a slight warmth from the sun, which was very welcome.

On the way home the stars were brilliant, but we saw nothing of the northern lights that were visible as far south as Yorkshire on Sunday night.  Yorkshire!   And we missed it up here!  How on earth did we manage that?   I’m keeping a careful eye on Spaceweather, but sadly the odds aren’t great for a clear night tonight.

Photos copyright © Colin & Jo Woolf

Posted in Wildlife & nature | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments

15th January – sunrise in the Perthshire hills

Posted on January 15, 2012 by

Mountains of Tayside

This morning we were lucky enough to be watching black grouse, red grouse and grey partridges, all in beautiful sunshine up in the Perthshire glens.

It was an early start for us, but it was really worth it.  We re-visited our favourite haunts around Crieff and Kenmore, lovely quiet glens where the morning sun was just touching the snow on the mountain tops with a pinkish glow, and mist was rising from the lochs.

One of our first finds was the most surprising:  in one of the roadside fields was a large group of grey partridges, the adults making their familiar ‘priv-et’ calls as they shepherded several of last year’s youngsters away from danger.  Greys are a much rarer sight than they were when I was a child… back then, almost every ploughed field held a covey of them, and we heard their calls every day.  It was lovely to see them again, and to get such good views.

A number of goldeneye were swimming and displaying on the loch, and a flock of greylag geese (or possibly pink-feet – it was hard to tell at that distance) had congregated on the western shore.  Much of the loch was covered with a thin layer of ice.

As we got higher into the heather moorland, red grouse were all around us, many occupying the higher tussocks so as to catch the first rays and thaw the frost on their backs.  All we could hear in the stillness was a constant ‘go-back, go-back, go-back’, and occasionally ‘down, down’.  Red grouse have almost human-like voices;  deep in the heather, with only their heads and necks protruding, two males were nattering like old gossips as they munched away on their breakfast.

The black grouse that we saw were, in fact, greyhens, and as usual they were balancing precariously in the topmost twigs of birch trees.  Greyhens are large, round and pudding-like, and they perch in the riskiest places without a care in the world.  I’m always surprised that the ground beneath isn’t littered with the ones that have eaten too much, become too fat and plopped off.

As we neared the head of the glen and made our way up the mountain pass, we were met by the sight of distant, snow-clad mountains.  These are the ones to the west of Loch Tay, the highest of which is Ben Lawers;   it’s a large and sparsely-populated mountain wilderness, and beyond lies Rannoch Moor.

It was cold up there, despite the lack of wind.  Icicles were sparkling in the burns, and patches of quite thick ice had formed on the road.  This made for an interesting experience around the steep hairpin bends.

By the time we turned for home, the sun was hidden behind high cloud, and the brilliant lighting conditions had gone.  We were sorry to see how many majestic old trees had been felled by the recent gales… uprooted, in many cases, taking a large chunk of the roadside verge with them.  It’s a sad loss, because they aren’t going to be replaced overnight.

I thought I’d be creative and make a short video of the grouse calling, using my compact camera.  Unfortunately, I mistook the symbols for ‘stop’ and ‘start’, and ended up filming my feet as I walked back to the car.  I’ll try harder next time…

Images copyright © Colin & Jo Woolf

Posted in Wildlife & nature | Tagged , , , , , , | 19 Comments

8th January – Edinburgh Castle

Posted on January 8, 2012 by

At 10.30 am yesterday Colin and I were climbing the steps from Grassmarket up to Edinburgh Castle.

I couldn’t help being just a bit excited at being a tourist for the day!  Edinburgh Castle is famous the world over, and for ages I’ve been longing to go there and see what all the fuss is about.  Of course, you see the castle whenever you go to Edinburgh – you can’t miss it, because it sits high above the city, dominating the skyline – but that’s not quite the same.

Despite the fine weather there were comparatively few crowds in the Royal Mile, and after taking some photos of the architecture we walked under the Portcullis Gate and up the cobbled hill to the castle itself.  Oh, yes, we did pay to get in!  It costs £14 per adult, and you can also buy glossy guidebooks, multi-lingual audio tours and such like.

What strikes you first about the castle is that it’s on so many different levels… there are flights of stone steps everywhere, and pathways leading around a maze of high granite walls with intricate stained-glass windows and gold scrollwork.  Even the lead downpipes had gilded dates on them!  It was all very photogenic.

The views from the battlements were just amazing… we could see right over the city to the Firth of Forth and the coastline of Fife beyond.  Edinburgh was laid out like a map, with Princes Street, the Scott Monument, Waverley Station and Calton Hill all bathed in winter sunshine.

We were impressed with the number of cannons, each projecting through a purpose-made gap in the battery walls;  but we were awe-struck by the size of Mons Meg, a siege gun made for James II in 1457.  One of the world’s oldest cannons, Mons Meg weighs over six tons and is known as a medieval bombard or ‘supergun’.   It (or should that be ‘she’?) was apparently used in battle to subdue the English.  They must have been horrified beyond belief when they saw that coming!

At the heart of the castle are the Royal Apartments, oak-panelled rooms with elaborate fireplaces and beautiful windows.  The rooms are empty of furniture, but are still adorned with large portraits of the monarchs that once occupied them.  By contrast, a tiny chamber barely six feet square was apparently the room in which Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her son, later to become James VI of Scotland and I of England.

Upstairs, a labyrinth of dark corridors held a never-ending procession of information boards and waxwork displays that gave me the heebie-jeebies.  At the end of them, in a dimly-lit, windowless room, were the ‘Honours of Scotland’, the Scottish crown jewels.  These consist of a pearl-encrusted crown, a sceptre, a sword, and other accompanying jewellery from the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Also encased with the jewels was the Stone of Destiny, the ancient slab of sandstone on which the Kings of Scotland were crowned.  I much prefer to touch stones, not see them behind glass, but the Stone of Destiny has had far too many people wanting to touch and own it over the years!  It looks a little incongruous beside all the jewels, and if it wasn’t for the fact that every visiting tourist would probably want to be ‘king for a day’, it would be much better off in the open air.

Photography in the Crown Jewel room was prohibited, which was only to be expected;  the atmosphere was oppressive, despite the friendly attendant, and I was quite glad to see the light of day again!

By contrast, the tiny St Margaret’s Chapel, which was founded by David I in 1130 and is the oldest building in Edinburgh, had a pure, welcoming atmosphere with its beautiful windows and simple altar.  St Margaret sounds like an interesting lady, and she definitely deserves a more detailed article at a later date.

It’s going to be hard to decide which photos to publish.  I want to focus on Edinburgh Castle in The Hazel Tree this month, so I’ll save some for that feature.   The first pics are of buildings in Grassmarket and the Royal Mile – photographers could really have a field day here!

All images copyright © Colin & Jo Woolf

Posted in History, archaeology & geology | Tagged , , , , | 21 Comments

4th January – Happy New Year!

Posted on January 4, 2012 by

Firstly, a very Happy New Year to all my readers… thank you for joining me in 2011 and let’s hope for some nice adventures in 2012!

Secondly… wow, The Hazel Tree has just been promoted to Freshly Pressed!   If you’re not into WordPress, this means that my latest article, which is about the wild flowers of Carn Ban Mor, is on their front page.  My site stats are going through the roof.   I’m getting a bit jittery now!

It won’t stay this way for long, because the selection changes pretty much on a daily basis.  But I’m enjoying celebrity status while it lasts, and Purdey is thinking about bringing out a New Year fitness video.

A big welcome to anyone who has come across The Hazel Tree or my Journal over the last day or so, and decided to follow them.

Better start work, then… I think I’ve got some content to write!

Posted in General | Tagged , , , , | 18 Comments

28th December – I’ve forgotten how to work!

Posted on December 28, 2011 by

It’s 28th December, the weather is windy and wet, the girls have gone back home, the house needs cleaning, and I have developed a strange allergy to work that can only be cured by eating crystallised ginger and reading Neil Oliver’s ‘A History of Scotland’.

We had the most wonderful time over Christmas.  Nice food, lots of excitement and some very interesting presents meant that we could ignore the gales raging outside.  We didn’t watch much TV – in fact, it was hardly switched on, except to screen the first episode of Vampire Diaries Season One, which Verity thought (quite rightly) that I might enjoy.  It’s a bit like One Tree Hill, but with less lighting and more blood.  Vampires, seriously?  Come to Scotland in winter, and then we’ll see how tough you are!

A programme that Colin and I really enjoyed, which was aired just before Christmas, was ‘A Night with the Stars’, a physics lecture at the Royal Institution by Professor Brian Cox.  Challenging, mind-blowing, astounding… and very entertaining.  It’s no longer available on iPlayer but you can watch it on You Tube.  There are lots of questions now buzzing around my brain like agitated electrons around a very small nucleus.  For some reason, I really want to know more about quantum theory, which is both good and worrying, depending on how you look at it.

As for our bird and wildlife watching, if these winds carry on there will be no birds to watch, and no trees for them to sit in.  The other morning – I think it was Boxing Day – I went out to look at the few visible stars and heard the robins singing again.  Not their lively spring songs, but soft, tentative little melodies as if they were just practising.  It was 6 am, long before it was ‘light’.

Since I started to write this, the wind has worsened so that you can hardly stand up outside, and the sky is black.  Purdey is bored, frustrated and dangerous.  She has watched the tap dripping for half an hour, beaten up several fluffy toys, chewed some tinsel, and she has just run out bravely to the shed.

How can you expect to work in such conditions?  That’s right, you can’t.

Posted in General | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments