Dogs dinner

A few days ago, I was along the river with the dogs while they had their daily walk. Kali is a six year old Collie and George is an eight year old Springer Spaniel.

George is happiest when he's in the water and doesn't mind how deep it is, but Kali really dislikes getting out of her depth; so they've worked out a partnership where every time I throw a stick into the river, George goes and gets it. While he's doing that Kali waits in the shallows and he brings the stick to her. She then takes it from him and brings it to me, whereupon I have to throw it into the river again.

It's a bit like perpetual motion until I get fed up and walk away. They don't give up easily though, because Kali follows me and repeatedly throws the stick at my heels; which is really annoying when it's a big one.

So off we go, and I'm crossing the meadow on the way back to the cottage, when a Scotch Argus butterfly obligingly settles on the grass in front of me. Ah, I thought, grab the opportunity; so I'm busy taking a few photographs.

I'm using a long lens so I'm able to stay about three feet from the butterfly, and had just taken this shot when it disappeared from view and was replaced by George's head. I looked past the camera and was in time to see him swallowing the butterfly.

He'd obviously been paying attention and looked really pleased with himself!

Anyone want a dog?

Waiting for spring

Still snowed in and iced up, with no phone or internet connection. Engineer still can't get to the cottage so I'm still making use of a wireless connection when I can.

 

This pair of Blue Tits (not suprising in this weather) were trying to get a drink in a frozen wasteland. Measured about -18C over the last two nights.

Here's a view over the forests to the east of Glen Affric looking west.

 

 I'm sorry but that's all I have time for now. Will try again soon.

Lovely Weather

Sorry it's been a while but weather conditions are making life a bit difficult and I still don't have any method of communication at the cottage. I now have limited access to the internet on odd occasions, this being one of them.

Here are a few images from the last few weeks. As you can see, it,s all very white and icy.

This connection is very unstable so I'll leave it at that and be back in a few days, hopefully!

A very happy new year to everyone.

 

New World

After months in the wilderness it's amazing how so much can happen in a month.

At the end of October I drove south to stay with family for a week and we had a party to celebrate Mums 90th birthday. She's nearly blind, going deaf and very frail but a fighter, non the less. She had a good day when we all got together and here she is with me, my sister and brothers.




Happy birthday Mum and we hope you have many more.

While I'm on the subject of family ( she's going to kill me for doing this) my daughter Ruth, who lives with Marty in north eastern Australia, has just made me a grand father for the fourth time with Bay, the latest addition to their family.

Love to, as Marty said (deep breath) Marty, Roo, Lily, Meg, Willow, Bay, Scooby, Eddie and other miscellaneous farm animals.

The oldest and youngest members of our family with almost exactly 90 years seperating them. I wonder what the world will be like when Bay gets to 90.

I returned from the deep south to find two letters waiting for me. The first was from the hospital to say I had an appointment for my op' on the 16th Nov' and the second was asking I'f I'd like to go and look at a cottage to rent in Glen Affric; which I'd asked about nearly a year ago. I was over there like a rat up a down pipe and I think it took me all of five minutes to say yes.

The operation went well , I already feel a thousand percent better than I did a couple of months ago; and while I've been recovering I've been doing a complete upgrade of the print web site which was long overdue.

The lease has been signed on the cottage and I am moving in on the 21st December. Initialy I'm there for a year and have been offered a nearby alternative if it isn't possible to stay longer; but whatever happens I hope to be surveying Red Squirrels and doing photography in the area for a number of years.




The cottage is a bit remote and as a consequence I may be without direct phone and internet contact for some time. The mobile will work in odd places and I'll be able to access the internet at least once a week so I wont be completely cut off. It just means I may be slow at responding when someone emails or leaves a message on the phone; but should never be more than two or three days.
I've set the web site up for print sales so that it more or less runs itself and can promise that on most instances I'll be able to respond to questions and problems within a week. I'm not realy doing any photography at present due to lack of oportunity while everything is in flux, but by the end of the year I'll have got myself settled in and sorted out. From then on, as my health improves, I intend to be very busy with  the camera. In the meantime I hope to add to the existing galleries, a few more pictures that I haven't published before.

So there it is. A lot of changes, beginnings and fresh opportunities.

I'm so excited I feel like a kid again.

The Last Post

Turns out that my January post was a bit optomistic but after a year or more of bad health the Doctors have discovered the problem. Several visits to hospital and now waiting for an operation. It's great news because initial treatment has made me feel miles better and things are all improving.

I've had to slightly modify my aspirations for the future but will be starting to do more wildlife photography into the new year and I'm updating the print website at the moment.

Watch this space.......

Wild Ocean Photography

I have just added a link to my links page for
Wildlife and coastal images of Scotland by Rosanna Milligan
http://www.wildoceanphotography.com

Rosanna has some impressive underwater images from off the west coast which are well worth viewing.

While on the subject of links, can anyone reading this who has a link to photo-tech on their web site please change it to connect to the
wildlife surveys index page
or whichever page they feel is most relevant.

Trees for Life

I love trees and mountains, and trees are something there is precious little of in Scotland's Highlands, except for isolated remnants of the old Caledonian Pine Forest and modern plantations; but if Trees for Life is successful, then future generations may once again enjoy the Wood of Caledon.
Trees for Life's Vision

Back to the hills of dream

Well, that was a long four months and anyone keeping an eye on me will know that the old web site has gone, never to return.


I don't really want to talk about what's been happening since I last blogged other than to say that I'm pretty pissed off with boats, governments, EU legislation, banks and anything else that sucks blood.












Me and the dog Kali are stuck with a boat that's going nowhere soon, licking wounds and contemplating a singular lack of resources. Still, no point in being downhearted, life goes on and all that shit.


Anyway, the hills are getting us back. I've decided to pick up where I left off over two years ago with the Highland Red Suirrel survey and wildlife photography. The boat's a cheap place to live for the moment and hopefully, when the countries economy starts to climb out of recession and people have got over the recent massive hike in fuel prices, I might find someone who's interested in buying it. The time can't come too soon for me. As Jeremiah Johnson said, in the film of the same name, "I've been to a city".


Don't get me wrong, Inverness has it's good points. It's just that I'm not very good with crowds. I like to wake up to forests, mountains, the wind in the trees and birds singing; not all this shit called civilisation with sirens, engines, drunks and idiots fighting and shouting.

It's time to get the f**k out of Dodge.

I'll start posting my normal stuff as soon as I've calmed down a bit. See you later.

In memory of a good friend

On the 28th February 2007, Iain Everson who was a very good friend, passed away suddenly.

He is warmly remembered and sadly missed, especially by his daughters, Michelle and Heidi and his partner Heidi Goehrke who has recently launched a photographic and digital art web site of work they did together; which can be seen at http://vitualeyes.co.uk/

Iain and I were from farming backgrounds with similar interests and occupations. When life eventually introduced us to each other, back in 1998, we were to discover that we had been following a weirdly parallel course since the 1970's knowing a lot of the same people, all the way from Oxford to Inverness.

I wish Iain could have stayed around to see us finish the boat refit, so that he and Heidi could have enjoyed it with us; but that was not meant to be.

There's obviously more to the story but this isn't the place. Suffice to say bon voyage mon ami.

Wildlife Online

http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/

This is an excellent site for wildlife reference created by Marc Baldwin in Southampton, England.

Marc has worked hard to develope Widlife Online over the last few years and being qualified in the natural sciences enables him to provide data in an informed and authorative context.

I'm sure that as the project continues Wildlife Online will become a well recognised resource and would recommend the site to anyone searching for good wildlife info' on the net.