Storm Damage

image

image

A couple of photos of damage following last Friday’s storm-surge at high tide: several paving flags in the pavement dislodged and tarmac fragments in the carpark.

Preemptive

image

It’s not even New Year yet, and already that’s the leeks moved and replaced with the 20 new raspberry canes we got for Christmas…

The End of the World

image

It’s been a bit breezy the past couple of days – winds gusting over 50mph locally and up to 100mph nationally. Fortunately, the gardener has just finished staking all the trees that needed it, so the storms passed us by with no significant damage – the only loss appears to be this wooden trellis that’s blown over, with the honeysuckle creeper climbing all over it severed at the root. No sad loss, really, as I spent too much of the summer pruning the thing in an attempt to keep the walkway accessible underneath it anyway.

Pyromania

image

Bamboo makes for almost ideal bonfire material – dries out easily, burns efficiently, and being hollow, keeps a ready supply of oxygen in the fire core.
There can’t be many more bonfires left in the year…

Over the Water

image

Taken on a long stroll with Dog: from the Southern Upland Way, slightly south of Portpatrick, appreciating patterns of cloud, light and precipitation across the sea over Ireland.

Perthshire

Early(ish) mornings with thick frost on the grass, painfully bright in the glare of the sunlight as the world warms from -3C overnight.

image

Autumn sunlight in the grounds of Gleneagles

Thick misty clouds lurking in the glens.

Forests of primarily oak and birch, the trees green with moss while their fallen leaves cover the ground in a thick carpet of orange, yellow and red.

image

Autumn sunlight and a partially frozen pond

A red squirrel scampering up a beech tree.

Freedom to walk in the woods, basking in the joyful glory of it all.

image

image

A small cascade of waterfalls, just north of Comrie

The Wee Cauldron waterfalls, just north of Comrie