We're now plunging in to a north Scotland winter, with all the weather it has to offer. Last night we had the worst combination: after yesterday's temperature hardly rose above freezing it then rained overnight followed by a sharp frost just before dawn. The resulting ice rinks made our daily walk even more challenging: we would have loved to stretch our legs along the beach but we weren't prepared to drive there so, having made it across the Golspie Burn, we were able to....
....walk in the Dunrobin forestry. The only areas which the frost had reached were those unprotected by the tree canopy, like here around the sadly neglected statue of Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, 1806-1868, where the ground was frozen rock hard.
There are some small lakes buried in the castle woodland, many with artificial islands in them, and the two we passed were both frozen over. This one had....
....its own resident robin which came straight to us, landing only a few feet away, as if he was quite used to humans coming to feed him. I think I might have a carry a small amount of robin seed with me in future.
On our December 27th walk through this forestry, near Harriet's statue we found some examples of the rare ice beard (hair ice) - see post
here - which, while we found it again the following day, has since disappeared. It was back this morning, the combination of rain and frost having obviously suited it.
It's now sleeting, and tonight's forecast is for snow and temperatures falling as low as -5C. Brrrr!
No comments:
Post a Comment