Wildlife in various forms

As there had been a slight thaw I decided on Friday to assess the damage in the garden and try to release some of the tree tops that were buried in snow. There are signs that deer have been in the garden with bark stripped from the branches and hoof prints. There are also plenty of rabbit droppings around which is not surprising given the ease with which they have been able to scale the 'rabbit proof' fence by simply hopping over via the drifted snow!! We can only hope that they were on the outside when the level dropped and that we don't have a whole new colony trapped inside! The only one I have actually seen is our friend from the garden at the crescent....

While out walking we also spotted a mountain hare - greeted with great excitment by Rhema who chased it down to the lochside but then let the side down by sitting with her nose in the burrow while the hare cavorted around behind her - gun dog instincts still well buried I think...

There is much to do in the garden. The walled garden seems to have escaped most of the damage but many of our rhododendrons have suffered from the weight of snow and will need careful pruning to allow them to recover. Another casualty has been our young oak tree in the front garden which has split right through the crown and will need the attention of my chainsaw.

Sunday was the first day that I was really able to get out and start cutting wood. After a bit of a false start (not being able to start it at all actually!) I was soon off down the road to reclaim some of the fallen trees. Unfortunately, just as I was getting into the swing of it and the trailer was beginning to fill up satisfyingly I ran out of fuel - a lesson well learned as by the time I had taken the trailer back home I was losing the light and I felt it was tricky enough cutting while knee deep in snow without risking the half-light. I am looking forward to tackling some more when I get back from Sutton, by which time hopefully the snow will have thawed a bit more making the process easier. Even getting in and out of the outbuildings remains bit of a challenge at the moment as the piles of snow from the roofs have frozen and whilst not the North face of the Eiger are still tricky to negotiate while carrying equipment.

Richard arrived back on Saturday night after calling in to see Daniel and Julie and we were up early on Sunday morning to get to Glenmore for the sled dog racing. there has been great excitment about this as the races haven't been able to be run on snow since 1995 and there is no doubt that it added to the challenge and atmosphere to have such conditions.

As we got out of the car we were away from the road in Glemnore forest but we could hear a multitude of howls from all directions from the huskies. It really gave a sense of what it might have been like when those forests were occupied by wolves. There were apparently around 1000 dogs at the event which lasted for two days and was run over a four mile course near Loch Morlich.

Watching the start of the race it was easy to see that the dogs were desperate to run and their excitment was almost uncontainable as the final five seconds were counted down. The teams left at two minute intervals so there was a constant level of anticipation at the start.

We spent a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours there, fortified by a bacon roll ( could this be our Hampton Court flower show substitute?I left on Monday morning to go to a conference in Manchester with a friend from work, Nicky, and from there drove down to Sutton for three nights work. Richard, in the meantime, is 'home alone' as Sarah and Joe have also headed South and has had the surveyors at the house devising a work plan for the repairs to the house. He has been able to persuade them to wait until March before starting as the work is going to be very extensive and we have guests for half of February. It seems that not only will the walls have to be opened up but the floorboards will also have to be removed and the window over the stairs will have to be removed in order to replace the lintel above it which has cracked and has become displaced, presumably with the weight of the sodden stone above it. It remains to be seen whether the house will remain inhabitable throughout the work.

Ships in the night - again!

Yesterday I finally made it to the community coffee morning which was good as I hadn't seen most people since we put on the pensioners lunch before Christmas. Even the village hall had lost the guttering with the avalanche off the roof. The church services have been held there as it is still not possible to access Moy or Tomatin churches. Reg, the minister of all the local Church of Scotland churches, popped in the other day and inspected our damage so it was already known about by the time I got to the coffee morning - village life! It was good to catch up with everyone and it was heartily agreed that whatever damage we had all experienced Haiti put it into perspective!

Richard has gone to Sutton in his newly aquired 4x4 (KIA Sportage for those of you who are interested - black, engine, four wheels...) and I have spent the day doing my least favourite thing - paperwork. However - have completed my tax return and sent off two job applications in the midst of it all so quite productive and had to be done as I am leaving here on Monday. I am going to a conference in Manchester with a friend from St Helier and then we will drive down to Sutton together where I will work for three nights, hopefully catch up with a few friends before coming back via Winchester. It is Tims 30th next month and he has a party planned - Sarah and Joe will be going and are off on Sunday as well leaving Richard and Rhema 'home alone' again!

He is back on Saturday night and we are hoping to visit the sleddog racing in Aviemore on Sunday -there are often 200 or so teams competing so it should be quite a spectacle. The Cairngorm road has been impassable for some time so the mountain has been closed for ski-ing and boarding much to Tims disappointment. There have been 17ft drifts which have been cleared each day and then re-formed overnight which must have been soul destroying to see each morning.The thaw is a long time coming because of the depth of packed snow and the low overnight temperatures but although we had a light fall again last night there hasn't been anything of significance for some while now.

It is very windy which makes it feel much colder but I am hoping to get out tomorrow to collect some wood and start clearing out and organising the log stores. There is so much damage here from the weight of snow but at least it will be put to good use - we are allowed to collect any wood that has fallen - even in the forestry land so I'm off to find me some trees tomorrow....

When Joe comes back he will be back at the golf course which he is really looking forward to. Over the winter he was deployed to help in the leisure centre at the Highland resort. They have built a fantastic indoor play area here but it was very quiet and the couple of times we visited the pool was almost empty as well. Tim & Ruth and the grandkids made good use of it although its possible that Bethan now thinks of it as 'uncle Joes' playroom!!

Thaw begins...

Tim and Ruth had an easy journey back down to Winchester and report that there are no drips in their house!!

Fortunately these have been our only injuries! The thaw is now well under way although the falling ice continues to cause damage. Today a large block fell from the roof through the conservatory roof.......

......and the greenhouse hasn't fared too well either!!

The ceiling has now been taken down in the dining room and the landing (Bethan has now added 'ceiling gone' to her vocabulary) which has created a lot of dust but we have finally put away all the christmas decorations so will be able to have a clean-up now.

There is more snow forecast next week so we will try and get prepared this time. Richard is off to Sutton on Wedneday for a few days and I will be going down the following week so there is a lot to do in the next few days.

Well- a while since the last update so here is a bumper addition........


Elodie had spent six months travelling around the world and ended up being diverted to Edinburgh as the plane was unable to land at Inverness due to the weather conditions. The flight was still listed as 'on time' on the website and so we had set out in dire conditions to go and pick her up but after about an hour and a half (with me having baled out to remove some weight from the car!!) we still didn't manage to get out of our road and for the first time we were experiencing high winds with blizzard conditions. Resourceful as ever, Elodie gathered up a few other stranded passengers, booked them all into a hotel for the night and then got them all onto a coach in the morning, even persuading the driver to drop her off at Tomatin (4 miles down the road). It was lovely to see her and hear some of her 'travellers tales'.

Tom, (the son of David the farmer who had cleared our drive) kindly came and towed Elodies car up the drive after it had been dug out and she has now left and driven it back down to Sutton.

Tim and Ruth arrived safely on 9th Jan- bizzarely after the best journey they have had as the roads were pretty much empty. We all piled up the drive to meet them and carry children and luggage down as the drive was still very icy. It was a very clear night and Bethan was entranced by the stars. Tim & Ruth had got the children ready for bed at Perth and amazingly, despite the obvious excitement at being here they went straight to sleep. We have had a great week with them and had Christmas day all over again on Tuesday - we must have the longest surviving Christmas tree around I think!!

Bethan has been taught how to throw snowalls at Grandad and built a snowman who looks as if he wants to come inside, Toby has cut two teeth and learnt to sit this week and Bethan has added the words 'wet, drip, tray, bowl and towel' to her vocabulary - yes, the house is still leaking!

We now have five rooms plus the hall and stairs that have been affected in some way and at one point the water was running through the ceiling on the landing so fast that we were having to empty the buckets roughly every hour throughout the night. The builders are coming tomorrow to take down the dining room ceiling and the one over the stairs as they think they will fall down otherwise and they want to not only try to contain the mess but also try to preserve the (possibly) georgian coving and ceiling rose. All the work is going to have to be done in liason with the conservation department as this is a grade B listed building. There is little else that they can do until there has been a complete thaw and it is likely that there is more snow to come up here yet. In due course all the plasterboard will have to be stripped from the walls and ceilings affected and the walls allowed to dry out. This could take several weeks as they are 18"-2ft thick stone. Fortunately Sarah and Joes floor hasn't been affected neither have the kitchen, living room and guest room so we have still been able to eat and relax (in between emptying buckets). The silver lining is that we will be able to redecorate courtesy of the insurance company....

The surveyor who came yesterday told us not to go into the conservatory as he was concerned that the snow and ice might crash through the roof (could be the perfect murder - with an icicle in the conservatory!)- well overnight the snow slid off the garage roof and today the snow from the back of the house slid off and crashed to the ground taking the cast iron guttering with it - fortunately there wasn't anyone underneath at the time!! Those of you who remember our Christmas animals will be either sad or relieved depending on your point of view, to learn that the reindeer was decapitated and the penguin crushed!

Amazing to think that we thought the icicles were impressive three weeks ago - some of these reached almost to ground level!!

Just a thought for those of you who are regular followers of the blog - why not sign up as a 'follower' - you will be notified of any additions and won't need to keep checking to see if we have added to it?

New Year

Daniel and Julie arrived safely and we had a lovely time with them in the midst of which Neil and Dave came over, cleared the drive and pulled the 307 up to the road, all in a few minutes! What great neighbours!

We 'townies' have learnt our lesson and at the first warning of snow in the future will leave the cars at the top of the drive as the roads have on the whole not been too bad and it has been possible to get into Inverness once out of the drive. Richard however, went to Dulnain Bridge today and said that the road there hadn't been cleared and the snow was about 10 in deep so it was quite an experience. A 4x4 is definately on the shopping list!!

Whilst we have experienced just how dark it can be here with the lack of light pollution, it has been exceptionally light here this week with the combination of full moon and reflection off the snow meaning that there have been similar light levels to those we would normally see at dusk, even quite late at night. Added to which we witnessed an unusual (to us at least) phenomenon with a circle appearing around the moon similar to the appearance when a drop of detergent is dropped into a bowl of greasy water.

The snow has continued to fall and is about 2ft deep although thaws slightly intermittently and has caused an unforseen problem. The roof and walls are leaking seriously in about six places. We have no idea what has happened as the roof was looked at only a couple of months ago. It seems likely that the weight of snow in the gutters is stopping any of the melted water from draining away and that it is tracking into the walls and into the roof space. As the entire house is dry lined it is impossible to see what is going on but we have someone from the insurance company coming on Monday to have a look. In the meantime we put out an increasing number of bowls, buckets and towels

and are planning to decamp to the guest room tonight just in case the dining room ceiling (underneath our bedroom) collapses as it is beginning to sag.

I am currently incapacitated by problems with my back, possibly brought on by trudging about in knee deep snow so am frustrated at not being able to do very much at the moment. We didn't go out to celebrate Hogmanay but 'Our gang' of friends from Sutton phoned just before midnight to wish us a happy new year and me happy birthday and the family piled upstairs to join me where we opened a bottle of bubbly.

Hopefully things will improve soon as we are looking forward to Elodie coming up on Monday and Tim and Ruth and the children on Saturday.