Respecting the autumn crocuses. Or not.

Here I am, on the weekend of the autumn equinox, at my favourite spot in our Torridon garden, admiring the delicate autumn crocuses. 

Gail tells me that the ashes of my predecessor-but-one, Hamish the Westie, are buried under the crocuses, and so she's pleased I am showing this spot due respect. 

When alive, Hamish loved to sit here, staring out at the water and in fact failing entirely to respect these lovely mauve blooms. Gail says he would plonk his sturdy frame right down on top of them if she didn't quickly intervene.

It's so nice to be in Torridon this weekend, enjoying perhaps the final few days of our spell of warm, sunny weather. Our little corner of paradise seems lovelier than ever just now, after last week's trip down to Ayrshire for the agility show. In the interests of openness and transparency, I must tell you that, although immediate environs of the event and the park where we found YAM-aunty were pleasant enough, the town of Ayr itself is now close to the head of Gail's list of 'most dismal places in Scotland', vying for top spot with Wick in the far north-east and assorted rather dreary satellite towns surrounding Glasgow in the Central Belt.

Back to Torridon. The leaves are starting to turn and the summer swarms of jellyfish have departed from the little beach near the cottage, so one no longer has to watch carefully where one treads at low tide! 

PS Do join us on Thursday, when I will be helping Gail celebrate a very special 25th anniversary. Can you guess what it is? 

Midge season

The flowers in our Torridon cottage garden are looking particularly pretty just now.

Such a fine backdrop for a WFT portrait. 

Gail wants me to point out that maintaining such a haven of beauty for me to enjoy does require some effort and sacrifice on her part. Especially during the height of the Highland midge season.... 

Gail prepares for a session of grass strimming

Happy Nature Friday. 

(Midges are 'nature' too!)

Wild weather weekend in Torridon

If you think I am looking a bit moody in this picture taken in our cottage garden this weekend, then all I can say is the weather was a whole lot moodier...

I don't think I've told you yet that Gail finally got around to replacing the phone with the faulty camera, and she can now once again take photos that are reliably more in focus, and so does not have to discard twenty pictures for every one that meets the (not very exacting) quality standard for this blog.

So anyway, being a broad-minded sort of a chap, and recognising that Gail is thrilled to be able to produce non-blurry images of our lovely NW Scotland landscape once again, I've even decided to let her slip in a couple of photos taken on outings over the past few days which don't feature me. 

 

Finally, shall I let you into a little secret? Gail couldn't work out why I was being so bold and venturing into the stormy waters of Loch Torridon, as I am usually a bit wary when waves are crashing against the shore. Well it seems she didn't realise until after she stopped filming the wee video below that I'd detected the remains of a fairly recently deceased sheep caught up in the seaweed and was I keen to investigate further...

THREE prizes!

It was a smart move of Gail's to have us escape the ongoing damp and dreary weather in Aberdeen and make a dash for Torridon, where an east wind has brought fresh and bright conditions these past few days.

It was not such a smart move of Gail's to leave her trusty mascot behind when she attended a quiz night at a restaurant in nearby Diabaig. 

The event was aimed at raising funds for a newly formed marine conservation group, Maerl Friends of Loch Torridon, and many of the quiz questions required knowledge of marine biology.

I'll tell you more about the conservation group later in the week (on Nature Friday), but for now I just want to point out that Gail was NOT on the winning quiz team, and I think we can all guess the reason for the team's lack of success. It was not 'cos they didn't know that an octopus has three hearts.

Here I am, left home alone on Saturday night.

Remarkably though, Gail did come home with THREE prizes, won in the raffle. She says it was one of those raffles that goes on forever as there were more prizes than people present.

So we now have some lovely cards with photos of the Torridon area, a book of poems by local writer Les (who also used to help Gail tend her cottage garden), and some yummy looking honey from Diabaig.

Gail says she might break open the honey when a Very Special Visitor arrives in Aberdeen in her Very Special Vehicle very sooon.

Watch this space!

A fine November walk in Torridon

One of Gail's favourite walks, starting directly from our cottage, is the path leading to a wee peninsula jutting out into Loch Torridon.

On the Ordnance Survey map this is given as Rubha na h-Àirde Glaise, which I'm told is Gaelic* for the green-grey promontary.  (I must say a lot of these place names sound rather less exotic when rendered into everyday standard English.)

The footpath is described by humans as 'tricky'. 

Not so, of course, if you are an agile fox terrier! 

Remains of buildings and animal enclosures are scattered about the peninsula. Apparently there once was an inn where folk from settlements around the loch, arriving by boat, gathered to exchange news. I wonder if they brought their dogs too?

On Saturday we had the place to ourselves.

I guess I am lucky to have an owner with such excellent taste in walks. (I'm hoping I get a treat for writing that.) 

And perhaps, if I claim that the November weather in NW Scotland is always as favourable as pictured above, then our tourism bosses would also present me with a special award. 

I can at least honestly claim there are no midgies around at this time of year.

*Gail says: Gaelic has all but died out as a means of communication in the Torridon area, as it has in most of Scotland, but the language lives on in names for places and features of the landscape, as lovingly recorded on this website: Loch Torridon Placenames

Outpacing the Torridon midges

 

How did you spend the weekend?

Intruders?

So no soon as I'd settled down back home in Aberdeen than Gail was loading up the car again and I quickly deduced from the bags she'd packed that we were heading off to the Torridon cottage.

Well you can imagine how, after the long drive back from Nottingham then another drive from east to west coast of Scotland, on arrival in Torridon I leapt out of the car like a coiled spring, raring to be off on an energetic romp in the hills.

Picture my consternation then, to find the cottage occupied by intruders. 

I was on the brink of deploying my terrier jaw to good effect when it became clear that these two were not in fact intruders, rather they were yet more friends of Gail's - Steve (ex-boyfriend from pre-historic times) and his wife Drusilla. And I was instructed to stop trying to shred Dru's pullover and sit patiently while the humans talked and talked and talked.

Sigh.

By morning, I was prepared to "pose nicely" with the guests (I am always calmer in the morning). 

A couple of hours later they departed and, finally, Gail dug out her walking boots and asked me if I felt up to the hike described below (text taken from the Walkhighlands website). 

Diabaig Coastal Circuit

A challenging coastal walk through spectacularly rugged and rocky scenery. The return route involves some road walking but the views are ample reward.

There is a path throughout, but it is rough and rocky and traverses steep ground in places and can be overgrown with bracken in the summer. This is a tougher walk than might be expected from the map - a real adventure.

She told me that my predecessor Bouncing Bertie had been scared at having to traverse big boulders on one particularly precipitous section of this walk but she assumed I would be up for the challenge.

Readers, tell me, was I ever in my life frightened or intimidated by a new adventure? 

I think by now you know me well enough to guess the answer...

Not squatters after all...

For a brief moment I was most alarmed when we arrived at the Torridon cottage last week. It appeared that squatters had taken up residence.

While Gail hastily intervened as I was about to lift a half eaten bar of chocolate from a bag left on the floor, the front door opened and in walked the 'intruders'. 

Happily it turned out that it was our dear friends M and J, using the cottage for a short break away from Aberdeen. I greeted M with a level enthusiasm appropriate to a known bearer of dog treats, while J kept a safe distance. 

It is always possible, when guests are present, that they have not been told those tedious 'house rules' about not feeding the dog from the table. I waited patiently, but in vain, next morning as our friends enjoyed their breakfast. 

Later, after M and J had departed the sunshine appeared and it was time to inspect the garden. 

And then to help Gail dig holes and plant out the azaleas she'd purchased from Cottage Garden Nursery* near Poolewe.

*Gail says: This delightful place sells a huge range of plants, specialising in varieties resilient to weather conditions in the NW of Scotland. Whether the plants are also resilient to being pulled out of the soil after planting and dragged across the lawn by a very NAUGHTY fox terrier before being put back in place, remains to be seen...

New arrivals

So Gail drove me across to Torridon yesterday afternoon, and it turned out there were some new arrivals roaming around in the fields surrounding the cottage.

We went for a closer look (through the Nobby-proof fence of course).

 And you know what Gail said?

"Those lambs are only ten days old Nobby. Don't worry, they'll soon stop looking cuter than you".

CUTER THAN ME!!!

I think Gail failed to notice that at least one of the wee lambs had a dirty bottom...

Well anyway, I'd soon had enough of those supposedly cute baby sheep. 

Now Gail, let me into the cottage please, and light the fire, it's still chilly here at latitude 57.5ºN.