Good Afternoon.

Hello, have just noticed that it is over a month since I wrote anything in my Journal. There are two reasons for this the first one being I have been away for the last two weeks and the second is that I am having great difficulty with my journal. In the postings page the format keeps changing I just cannot get pictures in the new one. The strange thing is that today it have reverted back to the original format so all is well fingers crossed so I will make hay as they say.

We had a lovely holiday, weather was cold and sunny for the first five days and then it got hotter and hotter leading up to last weekend when it was really tropical.

The birdwatching was really very good as the light was excellent and that makes a big difference, makes our lives easier. The picture at the top was take at a place called Sculthorpe it is a lovely wooded area in the centre and marshland on the outside. We had a great day there wandering around on the boardwalks the birds singing and the sun shining it was glorious. I am very happy with the picture at the top of this entry it depicts the day so well and like a friend I now have this as my desktop for the time being. [Am always changing my desktop as the mood takes me]

We have had a busy week in the garden trying to catch up with the weeds they grow so fast when you are away and it takes so long to get them all out again. A very kind neighbour cut our grass just before we got back home which made such a difference, it made things look not too bad. The garden is the only reason I hate going away at this time of year. Still have a good bit to do as the weather has not been very warm this week cold winds and showers but not enough to water the garden. We have two pyramids for sweet peas this year we had not planned for them and had no where to put them but when someone offers you free plants you cannot say no hence the came pyramids.

Will do a picture entry later when I download the rest of my photographs. Till then take care.

Love Joan.

Yet Another Day Out.

Earlier this week we had a lovely day out. We eventually arrived at a place called The Hermitage it has the most beautiful waterfalls. I have been visiting these falls since I was a little girl it is stall a favourite of mine.

These pictures do not do them justice but it is the best I can do tonight as I am having great problems with my blog. Hope I can fix it but not tonight I have had enough of this for one day this entry has taken me hours so till next time take care.  Love
 Joan

Spring at Last.

Today is a day that you dream about all winter long a Spring morning warm and a cloudless blue sky.  As we walked around for the Sunday paper as we do every Sunday weather permitting that is what we said to each other.  It was a glorious morning everything looked so good the Daffodils were all smiling as we passed by like all the rest of the Spring flowers that are hurrying up to catch the best of the weather were smiling too.  It has been a winter to remember for all the wrong reasons  I am dreading the heating bill coming in it will be astronomical but you have to stay warm.
We have made a start on the garden and it is beginning to look a bit better.  We don't seem to have lost too many of our hardy plants but our Lupin has died and one of our Buddleia plants is looking a bit iffffy. We will leave it to see there in one shoot so maybe it well come away. I had a lovely Phlox that I grew from a cutting and it has gone, am sad about this as it was very special.
It was warm enough to sit out today and read your paper/book which was lovely it does you so much good sit and feel  the warmth of the sun.
I think that's about all for today I hope you too have had this lovely weather today I think we all deserve it.  till next time take care. Love

                                         

Hello.

 

Hello, I thought I should bring you all up to date with what I have been up to since I disappeared at the end of February.  Nothing much is the answer to that, I have been having a lot of problems with my laptop and and had to have a the PC doctor in to fix it, she recommended that I add some extra memory to it and that seems to have settled it down along with a good clean out of all the rubbish that comes into your PC on the back of things so hopefully things will be better now.

Spring is a long time coming this year we still have snow on the hills around us as I write. We have been promised warmer weather over the weekend so fingers crossed. We did have our first first Swallow this week so things are happening.  We have not been away very much of late staying very local with the price of petrol these days you have to think before you do hundred of miles.  We will need all our pennies for our holidays in just over four weeks time, we are going south to Norfolk in England to our usual cottage for our two weeks of glorious bird watching we hope if the weather is kind and the wind blows from the right direction its all very scientific you know, to bring the migrating birds to the spots we are waiting for them so keep you fingers crossed for us. 

We did not have a holiday last year and that in itself was a record as we have had a holiday every year all our life together so it seemed very strange not to go away but circumstances just did not allow for us to be away. So this year we seem to be clear so far.

I think that about it for now hope you are all keeping well and enjoying the Springtime. Till next time Love,

                                          

Yes it was two again.

 

At last I have something to tell you about it has been four weeks since anything of any interest has been happening here.  It has been snowing continually since about Tuesday evening it is the very wet kind of snow so hopefully it will not take so long this time to go but at the moment is is about 8" of slush.

Fortunately on Monday with a cloudless sky we decided on a run in the car, so armed with binoculars camera and a picnic we set of for the Sma Glen a favourite of ours  I have written about it before. I have been visiting this glen all my life but I have never seen the river frozen. Every thing looked so cold.

The River Almond near Crieff. It is blue with the reflection of the sky.

Loch NaCraig totally frozen and sparkling.

Ben Lawers. above and below

And of course Schiehallion.

So two of what I hear you ask well here they are two little Dippers bit smaller than the size of a Blackbird but they swim in rivers and streams.  These two, a pair I reckon at this time of year, were diving in off the ice at the side of the river and swimming across on the surface something we have never seen before they usually dive under maybe the water was too cold.  They made me cold just watching them. We had a great day out and glad we did it with the lovely weather we had at the start of the week. I am wondering what it will look like today after all this snow. Just heard on the Scottish news that all of the north of Scotland is cut off, all roads north of Stirling are blocked, never heard of things being  so bad .

Here is a picture of our two intrepid swimmers standing on the ice.

That's about it for now will try to visit you all over the net couple of days.  Take care and stay cosy.

                                               Love, 

Wow Two Again.

 

We  a bad weekend by way of Stuart being laid very low for 24 hours after his Swine Flu jab I think he had every symptom on the information sheet he was supplied with. Today with Stuart being recovered again we did not want to stray far from home  just in case Stuart took another bad turn. We decided we would pay  a visit to Vane Farm our local nature reserve. We did try on the 6th of January but we could not get in the car park with all the snow that had not been cleared away. It is a great observatory for winter birding as it is heated and you are inside in the dry and warmth we love it as we admit we are getting soft in our old age. It was a dull day cold with light rain on and off.  The loch is still partially frozen and there is still a lot of snow around on the hills and it looked like some fresh falls on the highest of them.

While we were sitting at the telescopes I was fortunate enough to pick up a Sea Eagle sitting on a branch of a fallen tree at the wide of the loch.  This bird along with some other chicks that hatched last spring were released about fifteen miles away last summer and some of them have been hanging around Loch Leven. ( If you want to Google it on Google earth it is Loch Leven Tayside Scotland.)

As we were watching the sitting eagle another one flew right over the building we were in so we had a beautiful view of one in flight take my word for it they are enormous.

 

I did not take this picture it was one I googled, I did not take my camera today as it was so dull and anyway I could not have got one as good as this.

We had as very enjoyable morning out, it bucked Stuart up no end and to see 2 lovely Sea Eagles on our doorstep practically was such a bonus.  There were ducks and some waders trying to find some open water not in the usual numbers as yet. We are hoping more will return once the loch thaws a bit more.  The ice did not seem to be very thick today not like the 12 " we had two weeks ago.

I think that's about it for today so until the next time take care.      Love,

                                   

19th January 2010 It's Green.

If I am not mistaken the graphic above is green yes that's the colour the grass is just in case you have forgotten. At last half of our garden is clear of snow but in a dreadful state.  There is bits of apple, seeds husks etc all over the ground will have to go out and clean it up. We have had a new bird in the garden these last few day they are the tiny Siskins a lovely little green and yellow bird.  There is a small party of them three males and one female.  The niger seed feeder just holds three of them at a time so the little female just sits and waits her turn. I know its winter but everything looks so dead you feel that it will never recover from four weeks in the deep freeze.

On Sunday past we managed at last to get a walk to the supermarket for a paper and rolls it was the first time we have been able to walk anywhere in our village since the snow came on the 16th of December. There were still some dicey patches and we had to walk on the road some of the way but we got there.

Yesterday we went up to Perth it was sunny and mild what a change the mercury got up to 9c that's about 48f great, it was so good, in the winter it's amazing what a little sunshine does to the spirits.

There is not a lot happening just now doing cosy things like crosswords reading and on the pc but have been enjoying it just fine most of the time.

Stuart is off on Saturday for his Swine flu injection hope he will be ok with that. Well I think that's about it for tonight really don't have mush to say today so till next time.  Love