Before sunrise we could see that the Cefas Endeavour, which has been anchored out in the Firth since Sunday - see earlier post here - had been joined by another ship, possibly the one we saw on Sunday and couldn't identify as this one also did not show on the AIS/MT website. I think it's one of the Scottish Fisheries Protection vessels, very likely the Jura.
When the sun finally broke through the low cloud over the sea we could see that the rooftops of the houses below us had a new accumulation of snow, somewhere between one and two inches deep; and when we went out we could see that.... ....Highland Council's limited fleet of gritters was struggling to clear the roads - this one is usually gritted quite early as it leads to the Council's offices.One of the joys of a good fall of snow is walking away from human habitation until one comes to the less-frequented areas, listening to the crunch, crunch of each step and finding........the tracks of the animals which have passed since the last snow fell, some easy to identify - like this one, which is a rabbit - and some........much more difficult. These tiny tracks may be a stoat.I was enjoying the scenery and the quiet when I was passed by a young man who asked whether this track would take him up to the summit of Beinn Bhraggie. I told him it would but warned him that the last section, up a steep and very rough path, would be very difficult in these conditions.Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Monday, November 18, 2024
The Year's First Snow
Snow is very pretty when it first falls, particularly when the sun shines low across it, but struggling into several layers of clothing to walk down to the village shops brings home the realities of winter life, not least the need to....
....wear our boots into which we've screwed metal studs to give us some grip on icy pavements.
I've always maintained that humankind was never designed for life in high latitudes, that we are a savanna animal which used beaches to expand around the Earth, and that we should have confined that expansion to the warm places, like this gentle beach in Tanzania.Sunday, November 17, 2024
Three Ships in the Firth
By comparison, where we now live, despite its panoramic view out across the North Sea, is very limited in sightings of ships so....
....I am always quite excited when a ship does appear, as this one did yesterday evening. A quick check on the AIS/MT website revealed that she was the Cefas Endeavour, a UK-registered fisheries research vessel operated by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), a British government agency. She's based in Lowestoft and was built in Scotland, at the Ferguson shipyard on the Clyde.It was good to see her but the morning was made even more remarkable when two other ships emerged with the dawn light. On the left is a ship I'd seen before, the Esvagt Alba, but the one on the horizon remains a mystery - she was not marked on the AIS/MT map.The Esvagt Alba left first, the Cefas Endeavour seemingly in no hurry to move, still being at anchor at ten this morning.Saturday, November 16, 2024
A Selection of Fungi
Friday, November 15, 2024
A Snowy Forecast
This was the view from our balcony at a quarter to eight this morning looking out across the Moray Firth, a classic 'red sky warning' for those shepherds who don't have the internet. And it looks as if it's right, because while by ten this morning it was warm enough for me to sit on one of my benches and watch the traffic hurtle down the A9, that is all set to change....
....the weather getting colder and colder from lunch time today, so by Tuesday lunchtime we're forecast a maximum of 3C with the wind round in the north bringing snow showers from the Arctic into our part of Scotland.As if to ensure that the point had been well made, this morning's sunrise process went on for some time - the picture above was taken at ten to eight, the sun finally breaking the horizon....
....at a quarter past eight.It really has been a remarkably warm November, so I suppose we now have to pay for it.
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Molehill with a View
The molehill in this picture has just appeared in an area of strimmed grass by the road up to the Council offices, and it intrigues me, because, as far as I can see, there are no other molehills in the area, so the mole who made it must have travelled some distance with his very poor eyesight and short legs to find a....
....new territory.He's chosen his new home well, for it has a fine view out across the A9 and the Inverness to Wick railway to the Moray Firth, much the same view as we have.
I do hope he's happy in his new home, and that no-one from the Council comes after him with a steel mole trap.