Some more pics from the HARP work week
These pictures were taken on Sunday evening, when I went for a walk up the hill behind the cottage (Strathan, at Attadale), and one from Wednesday, when I walked the Beinn Laith Mhor ridge with Craig (see previous entry for more details).
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- Sunset over Loch Carron
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- I come across these chaps as I make my way down the hill.
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- This little fella wasn’t moving much, either because of the cold, or maybe because of death.
A Trees For Life work week with HARP Southend
HARP stands for the Homeless Action Resource Project, but it does a lot more than just running a drop in centre. It’s aim is to give those that come through the system the opportunity to get a home, and make a dignified return to society. Each year HARP sends a group of people, making their way through rehabilitation, to the highlands for a TFL work week.
All bar one of the group are male, mostly young lads. Most have had some involvement with drugs, and some have got into trouble through drink. It’s easy to assume that they are going to hate Scotland, not eat the food we’ve brought, and avoid doing any work if at all possible. If you thought this you’d be wrong. Right from the start of the week the group help with unpacking the van, lighting the fire, and preparing meals. One of the group has been a chef in a previous life, and the first meal of the week, following some grumbles about the vegetarian diet, goes down well.
Paul, the chef, is easy going and well mannered, and I find it hard to believe someone like him could find himself in a situation where he’d need to use HARP’s services. And as the week goes on it seems obvious to me that most of these people’s lives have been driven by the circumstances that surround them, a set of events that has seen them end up in trouble in some way. During conversations with pretty much all of them I find myself thinking that I like them and that I could be in their shoes if I’d been through the same things they had. Except, that I’m not sure I would be where they are now, because I’m not sure I’d have the guts to have fought my way out of their story.
Anyway, this week turned out to be one of my favourite TFL weeks. We managed to plant over 3700 trees in under four days; we had great food every night, despite the group’s initial reservations about the vegetarian diet; I tried acupuncture in the ears for the first time; we played card games and wink murder every night; and myself and Craig made everyone hold hands at least twice during the week!
I also had the opportunity to spend a lot of my time planting with Wayne, another great guy who’s outlook on life seems to have been moulded by his circumstances. I’m not sure how many trees Wayne planted on the first day planting, as he seemed more interested in smashing up the dead wood on the hill. On day two he and myself became a team, and planted 120 trees. On planting day four we planted 150 trees, just in the morning. I’m sure when Wayne gets back to Southend life’ll be the same for him as it was before his trip to Scotland, but I know that Wayne enjoyed his time in Scotland, and I feel pretty disappointed that I’m unlikely to ever see him again.
I focalised the week with Craig. We’ve been meaning to get a week sorted together for some time, so that was good. On our day off we walked Beinn Laith Mhor, which was a top day out, even if my waterproof trousers finally gave up being waterproof half way back to the van.
Finally, if you want to know more about HARP, then look at their web site http://www.harpsouthend.co.uk. And if you want to know more about how people are changed by the situations that they find themselves in, then read a book called “The Lucifer Effect” by Philip Zimbardo.
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- The first day and Jamie, who’s seen one before, has to explain hills to the others
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- Wayne, Jamie, Alex and the Pauls are impressed by the tattoo of a pair of jeans on luke’s backside. Aaron is wishing that the stitching was for real.
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- Soon all this will be trees
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- Looking West along the Beinn Liath Mhor ridge.
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- Myself and Craig having conquered a munro and the worst that nature can throw at us
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- Chocalate pancakes, a sample of the some of the fine dishes on offer through the week.
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- Wayne and Aaron model an ear full of needles, thanks to Mike, who’s inspecting Luke’s ear in the picture
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- Happy to be planting trees, or because it’s their last day?
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- The group try their best to prevent me from photographing the van they hope will get them back to Southend. I wonder if it did…
Last day of the Loch Ness mini tour
Tomorrow I have to be back in Findhorn for a briefing before next week’s work week with HARP. This morning I wake up in a parking area on ‘General Wade’s military Road’, which runs along the East coast of Loch Ness. I spend some time walking the trails from Inverfarigaig, which is a pretty cool place. Lots of big craggy hills, and a river flowing fast into the Loch. Finally I head across country, via the back roads, to Forres, where Craig, my co-focaliser for the week ahead, has agreed to let me stay for the night. I’m grateful for a shower and a chance to get some washing done.
I’ll have to upload photos when I get a better internet connection
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- Lobaria Pulmonaria, a type of lichen fallen from a tree, as big as my foot
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- A close up of the underside of Lobaria pulmonaria
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- This is a liverwort, a more basic life form than a plant, and not a lichen
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- Cladonia, possibly polydactyla, looking like a small fairy village
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- A bench on the green walk at Inverfarigaig
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- As I’m sat on the bench I’m blessed by the company of another Crossbill
Another day another loch, and walk in another woods…
All the lochs are frozen and the sky is blue… I walk up another hill, Tom Bailgeann, and do more woodsy stuff, and have to stop my van at one point, for some Crossbills, in the road, fantastic.
I go to Loch Ruthven, looking for Dougie, but I don’t find him in the hide. And I don’t find any Slav Grebes on the Loch, which is mostly frozen. Dougie should have been sitting in the hide waiting for visitors and the Grebes should have been around braving the ice, like the pair of tufted ducks and mallard that were there. But never mind, it was another good day.
Ok, I’ve added some more pics here, now that I’ve had the chance to sort them out…
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- A beetle in some water in the woods
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- Mrs Crossbill, having hopped up from the road.
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- Mr Crossbill
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- A glacier floating down Loch Ceo Glais
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- The view South from Tom Bailgeann
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- Looking North from Tom Bailgeann, towards Inverness
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- And to show off my zoom, the Kessock bridge, without setting sun today.
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- Loch Ruthven.
Loch Ness East
Last night I kipped on a hill on the Eastern side of Loch Ness. Today I walked in the woods and walked up a hill. Not many pics, the light wasn’t great, but it was my first time exploring this side of the great Loch, so that was cool.
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- Baeomyces Rufus, on a rock next to a spring.
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- Drumnadrochit from my hill
Some sites from the Moray Firth
So, last night I kipped in a wood off a small side road between Nairn and Fort George. This morning I went walking in the wood, and saw some cool stuff. Then I drove to Fort George, where I ate lunch watching a guy kite surf the Moray Firth. As the sun was lowering I drove to a little place called Alturlie Point, which offers a great view of the Firth. I’m quite pleased with some of these pics.
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- My van is much bigger than a ship
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- It’s been a few years since I’ve seen one of these, but I’m guessing wood pidgeon
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- Birch polypore (Piptoporus Betulinus)
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- Click on this one to zoom in on it – there’s something cool in the hole
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- Pardosa Lugubris I’m thinking
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- These appear to be stump puffballs, aptly gathered on a stump.
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- Kessock bridge in widescreen
Roseisle
So, I have a new laptop, hence I’ve started uploading pictures again. By the end of the week I’ve finished some work for TFL (IT stuff), and am wondering what to do for the next few days. I decide to sleep in the forest at Roseisle, which backs onto the beach between Findhorn and Burghead. There are some nice walks here, and already quite a few visitors for the time of year.
Even though there is a fairly persistent drizzle, one family I walk past have bought a disposable barbecue with them. A man, lets call him ‘Outdoor Dad’, is barbecuing some food on a nearby table while the rest of the family sit in their car. Outdoor Dad is passed uncooked food out of the window, and then carries the cooked stuff back to the car. I wonder whether Outdoor Dad used to be into outdoor activities. Whether he used to go cycling with the lads, or climb rock faces. I wonder if he’s given up trying to change Indoor Mum, or if he still harbours some hope that this experience will be the turning point.
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- Peltigera Hymenina, a fairly common Dog Lichen. This was taken just above the beach.
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- This little fella doesn’t appear in the Collins guide to British wildlife.
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- When I was at Abernethy the RSPB were accused by the locals of making a mess when they didn’t remove dead wood. Here the foresty commission explain that stumps are left for nesting and as a food source.
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- A song thrush
A couple of days out at Dundreggan
Yesterday and today I was lucky enough to tag a ride along to Dundreggan with the TFL staff, who were all over there for a staff meeting. Yesterday I entertained myself by setting up shared printing, via a MAC, to a windows laptop, and with a few other IT bits and pieces, while the staff meeting took place. Today I gratefully gave a hand to Dan and Colin who were setting out plots in the new planting area, to be set aside for ‘experiments’.
The aim of the ‘experiments’ is to determine whether different planting conditions aid the growth of the newly planted trees. The plots that I’ll be most interested in are those using soil samples containing fungal mycelium. The more I read about fungi and their place within ecosystems, the more I discover that it seems trees (and other plants) derive huge benefit from them. Fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is well known to form mycorrhizas (translates to ‘fungi root’, where a plant root becomes sheathed with mycelium to form a symbiotic relationship between the two) with Birch trees, one of the trees that will be planted in the planting area.
The planting site is at roughly 400m. Allan tried to take us up in the 4 wheel drive pickup, but that couldn’t find its way through the first increasingly large snow drifts on the track on the way up. So, after a rethink Allan and Steve picked us up in the Argo. Woaw, another big kid adventure. We all hung on whilst Allan negotiated enormous near vertical drifts, taking us teetering over the edges of huge snow formed chasms, eventually getting us to the gate of the planting site. From there we had to carry our stuff in because, due to the snow, we couldn’t get the gate open.
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- Let’s find some vampires
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- The Dundreggan Crevasse
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- Allan and Steve take stock of the damage caused by the snow. This fence is two meters high, but here it’s slowly being pulled apart by the weight of the drift
Some pictures of the bay
The weather has been very spring like, even with the freezing cold mornings. The sun is warming during the day, and the birds certainly seem to be enjoying it.
I’ve decided that a new laptop is required, and so have been frantically looking for bargains online. Laptops are, thankfully, cheaper than the last time I had to buy one. I’m grateful to TFL for allowing me to use their office and internet connection to sort out what I need.
Anyway, here are some pictures from my wandering today…
Some minor set backs.
I’ve been having such a good time I suppose it was to be expected that my luck would even out at some point. So, after a reboot, my laptop informed my that it was suffering from a “fatal system error”. It was pretty blunt about it, no other hints at what the problem might be, and no room for maneuver.
I’m fairly sure the hard drive had some bad blocks on it, but this was disappointing. And I don’t have the tools on me to test the hard drive, etc to narrow down the problem. So at the moment I’m having to rely on the very charitable IT folks at Findhorn to find out what I can recover.
In the mean time I can continue to let you know what I’m up to, but it might not look as pretty. I’m currently doing a spot more work in the TFL office, and, since Jane’s move to Dundreggan, staying in my van. The weather is slightly contrary to what I’d consider ideal. In the daytime the sun is out, the birds sing, spring is in the air, there is a hint of warmth. The park looks lovely while I sit in the TFL office browsing the net for a new laptop. At night the stars come out, the sky is clear, and the temperature falls beyond freezing. This morning I found it most difficult to extract myself from my two sleeping bags. I then had to scrape the ice from the inside of the windows to see the ice on the outside of the windows.
The cold weather seems to be affecting some of my other ‘toys’. The van roof only raises after it’s been driven a while, and the flow to the tap inside has failed completely due to ice in the system. And my mobile now only works after it’s been left on a radiator for an hour in the mornings. Without this process it will happily ring when someone calls, but none of the buttons work, so the call cannot be taken.
The tree nursery work week that I was supposed to be leading this week was initially postponed, and has now been cancelled. Apparently it’s not possible to prepare the trees to be shipped out for planting, as they are covered in snow. However, I do plan to spend some time at the Plodda during the week beginning March 13th, helping Gill out with the work that needs doing, assuming things have thawed out a bit by then.
I have some more pics of Forest Lodge to post at some point, including some of the igloo that Ross and Jordan built. Hopefully things will be sorted in due course. To finish on some positives, this morning I saw Shelduck on Findhorn bay when I woke. The bay looked fantastic, with snowy hills behind it, and all the surrounding pools iced over. There were also plenty of oystercatcher, curlew, and geese about. Unfortunately the geese were too far away for me to see what they were, but it’s great to hear them chattering away to each other at night.
Ok, things have now (11th) improved, so I’ve added my last Forest Lodge post, and added some pics below…
Some Shelduck and other waders feeding in the bay on what is a pretty cold morning
This 60 second exposure shot shows the flight path of a plane being flown repeatedly around the airbase, with Forres in the distance
From snow to freezing.
It was pretty much impossible to get away from the lodge over the weekend, due to the snow, and besides, the TFL tree nursery week that I was supposed to be Foclising has been postponed. So, I made the most of the weekend by walking in the snow.
On Saturday night, after myself and Tom had gone to bed, Dougie watched a couple of Pine Martin on the bird table outside the kitchen window. So, Tom put some more food out on the table, and we thought we’d see if they turned up on Sunday night. At about 8pm I checked the table with the torch, just in time to see a tail running away from the table. Tom replaced the food again, but had no joy before bed time. In the morning the food was gone.
This morning I managed to successfully steer the passion wagon down the snow covered track and made my way back to Findhorn. There is some more IT work on offer in the TFL office, and so I’ve something to do for the week.
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- There’s enough room for me to lie down in here
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- This was the view yesterday from the hide where I took the pictures of the buzzard
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- What is this red blob?
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- This yellow blob seems to be resin from the tree (P Silvestris)
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- One last walk about Loch Garton.
Life since the office 
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