Spring :-)

Basking in that invigorated after a lovely weekend feeling.

Living so close to the mountains is stunning but we have to wait till March till the sun makes it over the top, into our garden and then streams through our windows too. Saturday was that day.

Andy  had a climbing buddy up for the weekend so on Saturday clad with crampons and ice axes they aimed to get high and did the peak Bienn Fhiannlaidh.

I did housework and took the dog a lovely long walk.I had to work at a local Fiddle Raleigh but joined them in a local pub that evening. The Claichaig Inn ,  with the healthy glow of a day on the hills washed down by a few pints of local ale and a live band playing and new friends made, they were enjoying the craic. I arrived to taxi them home and catch the end of the band.

Sunday we decided to go skiing I used to love skiing (30 years ago). We have been meaning to go ever since we moved up here but never seemed to get round to it.
So with borrowed kit off we went. Ok so I quickly mastered snowploughs and kind of parallel turns I  quickly progressed from gentle to beginners and I never fell once. Andy keen to get me up higher we tackled a higher slope .......hmmmm ok so I need more practice.

I am sure I will ache all over tomorrow using muscles I have long since forgotten about !

So invigorated after a lovely weekend we headed out with the pooch for an early morning walk by the loch. A nice sunny spring morning :-)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend here's to a sunny week.

smiles on a rainy day.....

Working from home a bit of work on a funding application, sat at the table and just glanced out of our glass door overlooking the garden.
Something darting out at the bottom of the bird feeder aha
Readers will remember I wasn't quick enough for it before
but today......grabbed camera
deposited a few extra seeds on the slate steps
and he/she has now been caught on film

Add caption

then whilst putting the above collage together
a bird I have not seen on a bird feeder ever let alone in my own garden

a female greater spotted woodpecker, so camera to hand managed to capture that too
both of which have brought a smile to my face on a rainy day :-)

feeding frenzy

Happy New Year to you All.

Gosh what weather the world is having right now. Here in the Highlands we have had a couple of storms that have seen us loose slates from our roof. Fortunately we have been really lucky so far. I honestly cant remember the last day it hasn't rained !

Snow on the mountain tops, dark mornings and dark early evenings, make for short rain filled days. The Holly tree in the garden was abundant with berries in November but the birds have long since stripped it bare. So a stake with some hanging brackets and bird feeders stocked up, we were amazed  how quick the message got out there. The feeding frenzy began...... It wasn't long before robins, blue tits, chaffinch's, long tailed tits, goldfinch, wrens, great tit, coaltit were feeding away. Then lo and behold out of the corner of my eye I saw I mouse sneak out from the slate wall to gather some seeds(sadly he was too quick for the camera.)

 Of course all this frenzy of small birds in the garden plays havoc with the instincts of an English pointer. Sharing a few photo's Andy took earlier today. I wasn't quick enough with my camera.

we're going on a bear hunt........

Yikes where did August go it  seem ages since I have blogged.

Work, doing up a cottage and weekends away and voila September !

 

Andy and I decided to have an "us" day we don't get as many as we would like.

A bear hunt it wasn't so sorry if my title enticed you here under false pretences,

 we were going on a fossil hunt.

 

A local blog that Andy follows talked of a local beach where fossils can be found.

I have a small collection they intrigue me, so thoughts of finding one locally excited us.

The last one I found was on a French beach many years ago.

 

So off we went a short ferry ride to Ardnamurchan and a drive through stunning scenery.

 A casual stroll amongst the pebbles, we  gazed into clear rock pools.

Rannoch chased shoreline birds, went swimming and played with seaweed.

 

We saw a vast array of rocks and stones geologically the area is very interesting.

Sadly no fossils that day but I am sure we will return.

Today gales are battering our shores so it seems weird writing this blog and looking at the photo's,

that were only taken yesterday. The warmth of the sun shining down on us, the layers disappeared.

We left the beach and made our way through a waist high nettle field ( ouch ) to the lane that would get us

back to the car. The hedgerows brimming with shiny berries. We came across a lovely doer upper.

 

 

We headed back to car, stopping to have an ice cream from the tiny local shop.

Ardnamurchan lighthouse was our next stop.

The weather was now changing clouds started to fill the blue skies we watched as yachts and boats went by

 

 

The icing on the cake which more than made up for not finding a fossil

a pod of playful dolphin's gave us a great display as they swam by.

 

 

 

  

colours

Life is pretty busy right now and I hardly get chance to blog.
Had friends for the weekend.
Moved 3 tonne of gravel for a path round the back of the cottage.
It looks great and has made an amazing difference.
Andy took some photo's of the garden starting to come to life.

room with a view

Our little cottage by the sea is s-l-o-w-l-y  getting renovated.
Our cottage is cute and tiny the bedrooms are in the eaves, but have great views over the sea.
It needs a few more touches but it's almost there.

and breathe.....

Not had chance to post on here for a while, or catch up reading all your great blogs.
Work has been really stressful, writing 2 funding bids with not enough hours in the day.
Then doing a house up when there's time too.
So met my second deadline Monday lunchtime :-)

After work the sun was glistening on the sea and the warmth was finally in the air
Andy suggested a walk to one of the locals pubs for a relaxing drink here
So sipping a chilled glass of rose in the sun on the jetty we relaxed ..........

Then a lovely walk home.

 

Pan-STARRS

Andy  who is a bit of an Astronomy geek, wanted to see Pan-STARRS comet.So on monday

evening we wrapped up warm, made a flask of coffee took some chocolate and headed

     to the beach with friends.

The sky was clear ......we looked and looked...
We shivered and shivered, coffee and chocolate consumed....
 getting colder and colder we gave up after 2 hours.

Not to be defeated we gave it another go we drove down to Cuil Bay earlier this evening.
Wrapped up warm and eager, the sky was clear and we were hopeful.
We parked the car and  and scanned the sky and......

There it was

 

It was a lovely evening so we lingered after the comet had set and took a couple of photo's

of the stunning moon.



For a way more technical explanation of it all if it interests you check out Andy's blog

 

cheerio Sparky .....

Sparky journeyed south today.
He has relocated, he has gone to live back with my son.
This is a pic of him in my son's car .... heading home.




I have grown to really love this little man and he has lived up to his name.
He will be missed but will come back to visit.
He arrived back in the town he used to live in and soon began to retrace his old stomping ground

spring is round the corner....

It's been cold and bleak here for a while. So to wake up to sunshine and blue sky this morning was lovely. Sadly I spent all day in the office so it was great to get out with the dogs after work to watch the sunset. Only had my phone with me, so picture taken on that.

reminiscing .....my dear,deers !

Its blowing a gale and intermittently snowing and hailing here today. So with thoughts of changing my blog page round a bit. I have been looking through photo's. Those of you who were with me in our old rented inn, will remember our daily visitors. We now get a whole herd of them behind our new cottage garden and righlty so they are timid of humans. Unlike Doris and Bambi were....

shades of green

It's blowing a gale outside, I sit snuggled by the log burner and dream.

I love gardens and gardening, infact I was a landscape gardener when I lived in Ireland.

My gardens over the years....... my first was a tiny cottage garden,my second a suburban regular square garden, my third half an acre on the coast, my fourth a steep terraced garden and now.....

My present garden is on two levels, by the sea, we live near an old slate quarry so there are lots of slate retaining walls, we have an old byre with the old sluice, a stream and a spring. We have lived here for about 10 months and with lots to do inside the garden is further down the list. It rains alot here in the highlands and we get some wild harsh weather so this garden will have its challenges.

But I dream and plan.

I would love to do something like this

Contemporary Landscape design by Boston Landscape Architect Matthew Cunningham Landscape Design

 

 

 

 

 

 I  love rambling roses,clematis,verbena bonaranis,aquilegia, snakeshead fritillary,love in the mist,poppies.... and lots lots more. So hang around and see the journey me and our garden will take this year.
What are your favourite plants or flowers ?

rain,hail and thunder !

Only one dog walk today so far sadly
We have had none stop rain with hail and thunder thrown in.
The rain is washing all the snow off the mountains, the stream in the garden is gushing.

Somedays all one can do is gaze out of the window and watch

 

stoke up the log burner

 

warm up some of that scrummy lamb tagine leftover from last night

 

and wait for the storm to pass

So what weather have you had this weekend ?



 

 

 

countdown to christmas

Finally .....sat in front of the log burner sipping a glass of wine.
Writing all our Christmas cards.
We went and chose our tree and cut it down yesterday.

Its my birthday tomorrow and then the countdown to Christmas.

catch up

Hello ....life has been quite busy and I haven't blogged for a while.
My job has had me out and about traveling the highlands.
DIY ...hmmm we seem to be living and breathing it especially Andy.
So a couple of photo's.
The snow is getting nearer.
Then an amazing photo of ice on the car windscreen.

snow

Snow in Glencoe

just around the corner

Just around the corner is the weekend.......
If I stand on my tiptoes I can almost see it.
Today is my day off so catching up on household chores.
Have taken the dogs a walk in the rain.
Will make some time to curl up with a cuppa and look through some magazines.
Andy is also back from a buisiness trip tonight too :-)


So inspired by Sharon here I did this yesterday.

 Its been raining a lot up here, but I did find a splash of colour in the garden



most of the leaves have fallen, the stream is looking bare.

Rannoch having a nosey out of the window.
Would you believe they were the same size 5 months ago.

 

I have just had another peep and the weekend is even nearer

Hope you all have a great one :-)

frosty days.

This morning was a frosty day, the steam was rising from the loch.

As the sun peered over the mountain tops, it was stunning.

Sadly I was too busy scraping the ice from my car, before driving to work to capture a photo.

 

I love long walks at this time of year.

The autumnal colours are fantastic in the sunlight

The loch looked peaceful when I arrived home after work, all the boats and yachts

are now been taken off the water for winter .

Wellies on for a long dog walk by the shore then back home.

The stove stoked up for a cosy evening a bowl of below and some fresh granary bread for tea

Hmmm sunny frosty days I love them.