Helmsdale Walk

We drove half-an-hour north yesterday to take a walk along the coast beyond Helmsdale, in grey weather with an easterly breeze bringing in a moderate swell. The first section took us along the coast to a small headland where....

....a bracken-covered path led inland, steeply upwards to a small, walled graveyard with wonderful views out to sea. Highland Council must maintain hundreds of these little graveyards many, like this one, no longer in use but wonderful places to visit and read the inscriptions on the headstones, each of which offers a brief glimpse into a life and a time long passed.

In this graveyard, as in so many I have visited, there is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission stone, this one commemorating a Canadian infantryman, Alexander R Sutherland, who died in 1917. A little research tells me that he belonged to the Alberta regiment, that he "died of wounds", and his....

....Graves Registration form. The right-hand column is difficult to read but, when blown up....

....shows that he was buried in a family plot belonging to his sister who lived in Helmsdale. One can only assume that Robert emigrated to Alberta where he joined a Canadian regiment but, when he died, probably fighting in Europe, was buried near his family home.

From the cemetery we crossed the A9 and traversed the hillside, climbing steadily until we were high above Helmsdale, by which time the sun had come out and, dressed as we were in full wet-weather gear, we were rather hot.

Flying Memories

My very dear friend Tony Chetham, whom I knew when we were small boys together in Mombasa, keeps sending me little gems to feed my memories. This is a selection from the latest crop, starting with a picture of what I take to be one of BOAC's Solent flying boats on what I think was called the Empire Service.

My parents, brother and I flew from Southampton to East Africa in one of these in early 1949, and I vividly remember....

....the journey ashore at Wadi Halfa. Heaven knows what modern health & safety officers would think of these arrangements for transferring passengers.

Of the flight up the Nile south from Khartoum my mother wrote, "It was very trying flying at that time as the hot air coming from the land caused the plane to rise and fall dramatically and every one was sick except Dad and Jonathan. Jonathan had seen that there was fruit tart for the second course of our lunch - the staff had abandoned serving us - and so they went up to the galley and found the stewardess and stewards lying on the floor. So they helped themselves to tart and ate it and came back wondering why everyone was being sick!" And, yes, I do remember that!

Here's another little gem. This was a standard proforma filled out by the captain during the flight to update passengers on progress. I think there must have been two of them and they were passed from the front of the aircraft back along the rows of passengers.

Many thanks, Tony, for the memories.

In the Garden

It was only after we'd begun to notice a woodpecker fairly frequently in the garden that it occurred to us that there might be more than one. Looking at these pictures it's obvious. The one above is an adult and....

....this one, with a paler pink tummy, paler red crest and less pronounced black markings, is a juvenile.

There are other juveniles in the garden beginning to make their presence felt. This little robin seemed friendly enough, and seemed to have the garden to himself - we're only seeing the very occasional adult - until another juvenile appeared, at which point the two had what robins frequently have, a bit of a set-to. Since we can't tell them apart, we don't know whether it was the original juvenile or the incomer who won, but since the fight there's only been one visible.

This isn't a juvenile but I've included the picture because it's just so good to see a coal tit back in the garden again. They seem to go in phases: sometimes there are plenty of them, sometimes they all disappear.

Not everything is as welcome in the garden though, to be honest, it's so good to see a butterfly that we almost forgave this small white female for laying her eggs - they're just visible to her left - on one of our precious brussel sprouts, though I confess that, photo taken, I promptly shooed her away and destroyed the eggs.

Big Butterfly Count

We returned from yesterday's walk in the woods above Dunrobin Castle via Golspie's Big Glen, and stopped to rest on a bench in a sunny clearing, time we used to count butterflies for Butterfly Conservation's 'Big Butterfly Count'. All we had to do was to sit for fifteen minutes and count the largest number of butterflies we saw at any one time of some twenty species.

It was rather depressingly easy as we only saw one species - speckled woods - and the most we saw of them at any one time was two - so filling in the form on the website - here - was very easy.

The count ends on Sunday so we may go to somewhere like the links at Littleferry where we stand a chance of seeing rather more species, though very few butterflies are out in this cool, occasionally drizzly weather.

We were up the same way again today, returning from a walk to the croft at Backies which sells big, brown, free-range eggs, and were thrilled to come back with a dozen.

Ernest in the West Indies

This photograph from my father's family album has the caption "Undoubtedly father x at one of the West Indies islands." Ernest visited the West Indies both when he worked for Scruttons and, later, when he was with Harrisons.

The picture is immediately interesting to me that my grandfather enjoyed a swim as my father didn't like beaches and certainly didn't swim in all the time I knew him, though I do have one picture of him swimming in England as a young man- see earlier post here.

The x in the caption was meant to identify which of the three men was Ernest Haylett - I've marked it with an arrow - but, unfortunately, it's not at all clear which he is, though I suspect it was intended to indicate the man at bottom right.

Fortunately there is a second photo with, again, a small cross to indicate Ernest but, once again, it's not very helpful.

If it is the man at bottom right of the first picture then, judging by his hair colour, this is the earliest picture I have of my grandfather.

July's Butterfly Beauties

The weather turned warm from the middle of July but, unexpectedly, it didn't bring out the butterflies, so whenever I saw one I pursued it as remorselessly as age allowed. This is a common blue and it was spotted on the cold, damp, misty day when we visited Whaligoe. Obviously, fine days are so rare that far north that the local butterflies come out in all weather.

When there was some sun the butterflies revelled in it, settling and then turning themselves so their open wings could absorb as many of its rays as possible; and then they closed them if the sun went behind a cloud, as if to conserve the warmth they'd absorbed. This is a speckled wood found in its classic environment, a sunny clearing in the woods while....

....this ringlet preferred a bit of shade.

A few red admirals were out earlier this year but when the weather reverted to winter they disappeared. This one was spotted a couple of weeks ago in our front garden enjoying the flowers on one of our new shrubs - we've lost the labels so I don't know what it is.

The upper side of a red admiral's wings are boldly bright with the red stripe across them, but the underside is intricately beautiful, almost as remarkable as that of a painted lady if not as bright as....

....the underside of a high brown fritillary.

By the end of the month the weather had turned miserably cold and the butterflies seemed almost to give up. In the few brighter moments some species came out - this is a meadow brown seen at Littleferry - but it's a wretched time for them. It happens to coincide with Butterfly Conservation's annual count. If I had filled out their form for the whole of our two-hour walk this morning, and not just the fifteen minutes they ask for, the grand total of butterflies seen would have been zero; but then the temperature at nine this morning was 10.5C.

Loch Unes

On yesterday's walk we were greeted at the pull-in where we park the car to visit Loch Unes by an osprey wheeling and calling high above us against a grey sky but....

....when we reached the loch, which is in Ferry Wood about half way between the road and the beach, we were surprised and pleased to find that, despite the cool day and occasional drizzle, there were....

....damsel and dragon flies to be found. This is an emerald male damselfly and....

....these two emeralds were doing what it takes to ensure a next generation. The female here isn't the normal female colour.

The other species on the wing included the blue-tailed damselfly and this one, a female back darter dragonfly which was obviously feeling the cold as it had just fallen off its perch into the water but had managed to recover.

Just by the loch we found what we thought was a pink fungus but it isn't. Although it doesn't look like it, this is a slime mould, the wolf's milk slime mould,  Lycogala epidendrum.

We walked on through the wood to the beach, which was as deserted as always even though we are in the middle of the summer holidays, but saw little in the way of wildlife, and returned to the car through the wood where, close to the Loch, we spotted....

....this roe deer with her now very grown up young which we think is the same pair we saw here a few weeks ago.