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.