A bit of snow and I’m like a kid at Christmas
I’m still at Dundreggan. It’s still cold. And there’s been some snow at river level in the glen. Today Steve and Allan are busy so I get the opportunity to take a walk in the morning sun. Even though there is just a very light covering of snow, everywhere looks beautiful. I walk up the Red Burn, then cut across the hillside towards Binnilidh Bheag, before walking down past the wild boar enclosure. The boar are nowhere to be seen, but there are deer on the hillside, and I spend a few minutes watching a Red Admiral trying out it’s wings and sunning itself on a rock.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon walking the riparian planting area; a joint project between TFL and the Forestry Commission Scotland. I found some Alder that I’d planted in May in the FCS area, all looking very healthy, and some of the Aspen and Birch that I’d planted three weeks ago in the TFL area.
That was after Marion had left yesterday morning, and today I still have some of her squash soup to finish. It’s good soup. Almost too good. I know about the squash, the chillies, and some of the other veg that’s in there, but I can’t quite work out how she’s managed to get it to taste like a cross between soup and jam.
This evening I go and check out the wild boar, after dark but before tea. It’s below freezing and vegetation crunches under every footfall. I walk up the side of the enclosure, and eventually hear some low level grunts. I keep going a little way and then stop. I can hear one of the pigs walking down to where I’ve just been. In the dark it’s easy to imagine that there is no fence between us. As the two larger boar walk about looking for me, one above me on the slope, and one below, sniffing the air and sending out short deep grunts to each other, I get just a small taster of what it might be like to meet a potentially dangerous animal in the wild. It’s a buzz. Of course I’m safely behind a fence, but I feel sorry that in Britain we’ve pretty much eradicated this kind of experience from our lives.
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- A small family of fungi in the raparian planting area
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- Yellow Stagshorn Fungus. I think.
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- Allt Ruadh, the Red Burn.
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- It’s pretty late in the year for old Red to be out, but on a day like today, who can blame him
Time for my annual trip up Carn Ghluasaid
I’m away for half 9, and have climbed Carn Ghluasaid by midday. As I’m walking up I first of all see ice, then light settled snow, then big snow. Woohoo! The sun is shining, and it doesn’t look like snow will fall today, but there is light cloud around the tops of the mountains, which is preventing a view.
Aside from the fact that it’s mighty cold, the snow is fantastic. It’s at least 18inches deep in places, and maybe a lot more in others. I eat my lunch in it until I can no longer keep my gloves off, then sip hot Ginger, Lime and Apple from my flask. I wait about a long time, to see if I can spot any Ptarmigan. I have done on my previous two visits, in 2006, and last year, although both were a couple of weeks earlier in the year. But this time they are away. Maybe doing the walk on a Saturday, with too many other people about (6), is a mistake.
On the way down I pass someone who looks remarkably like Jonny Lee Miller. I step to one side, and say, “Hi”. He quietly says “Thank you”, as he walks by at a fair pace. The sun is already dropping. I wonder why he’s started so late in the day. Maybe there is a better chance of seeing Ptarmigan at night…
A day off, and some Boar spotting.
Actually six sows. Apparently a mother and Auntie, and 4 youngsters (ish). Anyway, they’re not about when I walk up past the enclosure. I carry on, walking up Binnilidh Bheag, and see a couple of grouse (look like red), and something fast under foot, amongst other things. The Sun comes out, and I take a couple of pictures looking down the Glen.
On the way down I catch up with the pigs. One of the older sows charges me, but there’s a fence between me and her. The picture is not good enough to upload. Yes, I bottled it slightly…
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- Looking down over the estate from Binnilidh Bheag. Dundreggan Farm is everything this side of the river. The wild boar enclosure is in the woods directly below.
Wild Boar, Bison and mass media coverage.
Wow, what a day. We’re on the road just after half 6. Surprisingly, it’s raining. In fact everywhere between Glen Moriston and Kincraig looks very wet. It’s also cold, the temp doesn’t get much over 4 degrees outside while we’re in the car.
We get to Highland Wildlife park at 8.30am. Alan Watson Featherstone is already doing a radio interview for the BBC.
Myself, Kate and Kevin are given a Landrover tour of the park. Elk, Bison and a family of Amur Tiger, are the highlights.
I also spend a fair bit of time watching the wolf that keeps trotting around their enclosure. Wolves are a beautiful and misunderstood animal. As a predator to Deer they play a key role in European ecosystems, and their extirpation from Britain, through hunting, is an important reason why the Caledonian forest is unable to regenerate naturally, without human intervention.
We struggle to get the trailer to the pigs, in the mud (they are surely going to love their new home). But we’re on our way before 11, and when we make it back to Dundreggan, there are a number of people having tea and cakes in the cottage.
After another brief inspection by a vet and the dangerous animals inspector, the release goes very smoothly. The 6 sows trot off into the woods, curiously exploring their new surroundings. It’s very cool to see.
There must have been a good 25 people to see the release, including representation from BBC Scotland, STV and Gaelic television. I’ve managed to locate the following articles:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/8370348.stm
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/wild-boar-our-new-eco-warriors-1.986562
http://news.scotsman.com/odd/Boars-to-return-to-the.5858725.jp
http://www.biodiversityscotland.gov.uk/library/Issue%2032%20final%20version.pdf
It is possible to find more articles by googling “Dundreggan boar” and any other words you think might help. I believe there is also a clip on bbc iplayer, but my internet connection is not going to be up for finding that.
Apologies for the terrible state of my pics. My camera and bad weather don’t mix (it’s not completely recovered from the soaking it received on Skye), and the light was poor and there was water on the lens. Really, there was…
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- The wild boar in their old home.
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- It’s a bit hard to see, but there is a wolf in the picture somewhere
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- When can we get some of these Steve?
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- They’re probably thinking they’ve had better days
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- Kate and Colin are clearly very excited
More wild boar prep
Today was pretty much all about getting ready for tomorrow’s arrivals. Myself and Steve started by checking out the electric fence. Unfortunately, after wondering why the ‘tester’ wasn’t working, we noticed that it was only meant to work to a max of 4 amps, whereas our battery was 75. Oops. “Guess we’ll need to use our hands then”, says Steve grabbing the fence…
We put signs and locks on the gates and Steve shows around the dangerous animals inspector, and a member of the local constabulary. Obviously word of the pigs is getting about.
Marion, the long term French volunteer, turned up today. She had been staying out in the bothy at Corrimony, but the weather had been crap. The last straw came when wind kept blowing the smoke from the fire she had lit down into the bothy.
Steve informs (asks) me that I’ll be travelling to pick up the pigs with him tomorrow. They are to be collected from Highland Wildlife Park. We’ll leave at half 6 in the morning. I need to go to bed early. So Steve brings round a bottle of wine…
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- Doesn’t it look cosy?!
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- The three gate system at the lower end of the enclosure. Surely no pig can escape from such a system
Life at Dundreggan – cold and wet.
It’s cold in the cottage and I wake in the night sure there is someone first in the room with me, and then just outside my bedroom door. I get up; nobody. The place is full of unusual noises and, almost certainly, a number of rodents.
In the morning Steve (Dundreggan Project Manager) comes round when I’m in the shower. He asks me to check the wild boar enclosure and add some fencing to the gates. It rains all day. I go back to the cottage to eat at 2.30pm. I’ve managed to sort one of the 6 gates. I’m wet, even with a full set of waterproofs on. The heater in the cottage kitchen is broken.
Half an hour later I find that Allan Common has taken the tools I’m using – I think that I’ve seen him drive off in the tractor, but eventually find him up by the enclosure gates. He’s working on the second gate, with a bloodied hand. It’s raining harder. I help him and, without much talking, we manage to finish two other gates in the remaining hour before it gets too dark.
I get in and make some food, then just about manage to pick up a couple of emails on my very flaky internet connection. They’re not the best part of my day. Solicitors and girls – I thought things had been going ok, but apparently not.
Thankfully Steve comes round for a chat, so I don’t get too much time to think on things, before tiredness catches up with me and I fall into a deep and relatively untroubled sleep…
Off to Dundreggan, and a quick liaison with Calum
Today I handed over the web site reigns to Jane, who’s back from holiday, and Claire, a volunteer who is spending a fair bit of time in the TFL office. Then I wished Craig good luck (it’s his last week in the office), before heading off to the highlands proper, at the end of the working day.
As I was driving towards Inverness I remembered that Calum was working on the Black Isle packing Christmas trees. A phone call later and a small wait while he did some food shopping, and we met up before picking up some chips. We drove them back to Drynie, where Calum lives in a caravan, parked next to a whole bunch of other caravans, all occupied by the other Christmas tree workers. The caravan was warm, and the chips were a bit of a treat (although perhaps not the best chips in the world), and it was good to catch up.
At 9.30 I had to be going, as Calum has to be up and packing trees for 7 in the morning. I put a Jody Wisternoff mix on in the van, and drove to Dundreggan with a smile on my face. When I got there it was a beautiful, clear starry night.
The Drynie Christmas Tree Factory. At night.
In the TFL office.
Actually, it didn’t turn out to be that cold. Some clouds came by and the temperature probably stayed over 5 degrees. And I had enough food for a decent breakfast, which I ate whilst sat next to the sea, watching a Tornado doing a near vertical take off over Kinloss.
And Jock was around on Monday, with a key, which he’s very kindly lent me for the week, as well as cooking me a meal on Monday night! So I have a bed for the next few days.
Ok, I’m working in the TFL office for the week, updating the soon to be published, new web site. It’s a beautifully relaxed place to work. So long as you don’t mind jets performing numerous thunderous take offs nearby. I managed to get a pic of Craig and his replacement, Colin. And, in exchange for a free meal, which I’m always on the look out for, myself and Colin painted a couple of rooms in Craig’s new place last night…
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- Craig looks on as Mick explains to Colin what the work week co-ordinator really does
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- Working with MACs. If anyone can tell me the keyboard shortcut to rename a file (F2 in Windows) I’d be very grateful..?
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- Another large jet engined plane flies past the TFL window
It’s a bit cold tonight…
After I drove away from Findhorn, I ended up in Roseisle FCS car park. It’s ok, lot’s of Pine trees, not all “Sylvestris”, but I’m sure I can see a red squirrel running about a few yards into the trees at one point. As it happened, it’s where I ended up spending the night, as the key I was promised, to stay over in a house in Findhorn, does not appear to be where I expect it to be.
This morning, I woke to sunshine, and a short walk through the woods brought me out to Burghead bay, which Roseisle Forest lines a good proportion of. The beach stretches for miles in either direction, to Findhorn in the West, and Burghead in the East. Last night it was windy, and the surf had been up. This morning the seas are calm as there is almost no wind.
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Ok, it’s now evening and still no key. Apparently, Jane, the TFL Marketing Manager, thought Jock would be leaving out a key, whilst Jock, who’s very kindly agreed to let me stay in his house, thought Jane would be giving me her key, while she is on holiday. Jane rents a room from Jock, but is on holiday for the next week.
Anyway, although it’s been a bright sunny day, the cloudless sky is letting the heat out. I’m parked up near Findhorn beach car park (away from the “No overnight parking…” signs). It’s cold. Due to the unexpected turn of events I’m low on water. I make up some rice, and chopped veg, the hob taking the chill off the air inside the van. I take a few sips of water. Then apply a few layers of thermals, before climbing into my sleeping bag. The sleeping bag should be able to cope with temperatures of 5 below freezing, but it’s cold… so very cold…
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- Looking West to Findhorn from the spot where I walked out of Roseisle forest, near the car park. I assume the concrete blocks are to prevent erosion
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- Roseisle Forest
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- Findhorn beach.
Trees For Life (or more importantly, me!) in The Ecologist.
Did I say that my favourite magazine was the Ecologist (now only available online apparently)? Fame, and surely fortune some time soon, has finally come my way. Check out the following article:
Trees For Life in The Ecologist
Thanks must go out to Eifion, who joined us (on the 24th Oct, Plodda week) for Monday and Tuesday, after the group had already been together since Saturday. Not an easy thing to do, and he was a great sport. He even managed to win at Cheat, if I remember correctly. Hopefully he’ll be back for a full week sometime.
(“Transformative”? Nice one…)
Trees for Life last work week of the season, at Dundreggan
So I’ve just finished the last work week of the season. It was great. My co-focaliser was the TFL legend, Gordon McRuvie, and the group was a great mix of young and experience, local, national and international. Norman had managed to squeeze himself onto the week following our encounter at Dundreggan, and I was glad to spend some time with Bill, given his thoughts for the future.
We spent a couple of days planting 2000 or so trees in the field by the river Moriston. The field had already been planted up during previous weeks and it was a matter of filling in the gaps. The first couple of mornings were crispy white, just as Scottish winter mornings should be.
The rest of our work was spent improving the plantation in the West of the estate for Black Grouse use.
After we dropped the group off in Inverness, myself and Gordon drove back to Findhorn. No change-over today. The last week of the season. It was probably more to do with how much I’d enjoyed the week just gone, as opposed to knowing that I was due a break from work weeks for a while, that made me feel a bit reluctant to say goodbye to Gordon when we dropped off the van. As we had done with all the volunteers, as we left them at the train station, we hugged good bye. Then we shouted “Shabbbroch!” to each other a couple of times, whilst passionately beating our chests with our right hand, as I drove my van out of the car park, with the intention of finding myself a quiet spot to contemplate the finer points of the week…
Anyway, check out these photos. There’ll be a link to more photos, when I have a better internet connection.
Ok, all photos are now uploaded. To view them click this link.
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- As a Focaliser, one of our roles is to work out how to remove the security tags from clothes that volunteers have recently ‘acquired’
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- The group on Sunday morning, looking decidedly happy with each other considering they’ve been together for less than 12 hours
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- Minus 3 on our first morning. These little icicles are created as the ground freezes and the expanding water is forced out
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- Project Manager, Steve Morris gives us a talk about the estate
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- Day 2 in the Trees for Life house and we wake to a picture postcard morning
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- The mighty Gordon celebrates after the last tree is planted. Irene is glad she made the trip from Holland to see this
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- The ‘re-introductory walk’ – we walk out above the trees to see the sun setting. It’s still only 1.30pm…
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- The Woodland Grant Scheme area on Dundreggan. Look at that growth! I nearly had to change my pants
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- Still in the WGS area – signs that the Black Grouse are settling in. Shortly after this, a male took off in front of us and we were able to watch it for a long time as it flew down towards the edge of the plantation below
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- This pot has ended up in my van, only half finished, after I found it in the ‘perishables’ box in the back of the work week van
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- Angela removes another volunteer’s head. Norman’s excuse was that he was checking out a caterpillar
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- Everyone was a star, but my prize for good sport of the week has to go to Lisa. She took a huge amount of ribbing and still smiled her way through every part of the week. She’s great at Pilates and can lop her own body weight’s worth of branches in minutes
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- The group look forward to their last bus tour with Jimmy and Angus
Last briefing of the season, and last briefing with Craig.
It’s almost time for the last work week of the Autumn, and 2009. Craig, the work week/volunteer co-ordinator, leaves at the end of the month, so this is the last time I’ll sit with my co-Focaliser, and listen to the great man’s instructions for the week.
Gordon arrives early afternoon and we get the food order sorted. Then we sit down with Craig – unfortunately I forgot to get a photo of the occasion – who gives us the low down on roughly how many trees we’ll have to plant during the forthcoming week at Dundreggan, where we might be taking out non-native weeds, etc
Afterwards we all go and get food at the Findhorn CC, with Ruth (Craig’s wife) and the kids. Craig brings efficiency, professionalism and good humour to the co-ordinator role, and I’ll miss him doing the job. But there are potential benefits to him moving on, I may finally get to co-lead a work week with him (after two aborted attempts) – we have one planned for the spring.
Taking my PCV practical test
It’s a gorgeous sunny day when I get up. I stayed the night in the car park at Anam Cara. Check it out, it’s beautiful. I meet Margaret and Alistair, who’ve very kindly let me stay, and use their facilities, simply because Craig (from TFL) asked them if I could.
I go to the VOSA test centre (in Inverness) slowly. I can’t remember being so nervous, although I probably was for my first driving test, but then that was nearly 20 years ago. My instructor for the day, Cameron, tries his best to calm my nerves, and it nearly works until I mess up stopping at a bus stop.
Things get worse when my examiner, Ewen, asks me where the fuel cut off switch is. No one has ever shown me the fuel cut off switch. I explain this to Ewen and tell him, hopefully, that I assume that turning off the ignition is sufficient. Is there a fuel cut off switch on the van?
Then I pull up opposite a junction, do 30 in a 40, drive over a mini roundabout, plough down a man in a teddy bear costume, and swear at a lollipop lady. I’m shocked when Ewen tells me I’ve passed. We debate indicating when pulling away (you shouldn’t do it unless there is no break in the traffic), then I go and tell the TFL office that “I can drive buses!” Woohoo! C’mon! Have that! Get in! BACK!! OF!! THE!!! NET!!!!
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- This building is fantastic, even down to the big wooden door handles.
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- Anam Cara sits on a hill to the South West of Inverness.
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- Thanks to Dave and Cameron and lady luck for getting me through this one…
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- I’m sat, hyper, in the TFL office, following my test, when Alan comes in to tell us there’s a rainbow outside
Driving Lessons and a fine day in the ‘Ness
So, the driving lessons for my minibus licence (D1) could be going better. But at least the weather was fine today (unlike yesterday). Managed to get some pics after finishing my morning’s lesson.
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- Kessock Bridge from Inverness Marina
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- Inverness & Kessock bridge from somewhere a bit further East…
Life since the office 
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