Wednesday, November 11, 2009

up above the clouds so high...

There's a bit of a strange temperature inversion over the Feugh valley this morning, with the result that there is a narrow band of cloud hanging over the village. From where we live, the cloud layer is more or less level with the downstairs windows, so it is possible to look underneath and see the fields, and hear the distant rumblings of another shoot (possibly a tad insensitive on Armistice Day*). From the back of the house and upstairs, you can see over the clouds, and have a view of the hills and the mountains, although there is higher cloud layer obscuring the peaks.

Yesterday I had cause to visit Ballater, in the heart of the tartan and stout walking boots zone, and as I drove back along beside the Dee, I was intrigued by the gathering mist, which collected over the surface of the running water and flowed like a second river. I assume that this is because the river was marginally warmer than the surrounding air, it has got very cold at night, down to -7 degrees for a couple of nights, and the temperature drops very swiftly when it does.

With a perspicacity I wouldn't expect, when I looked out of the kitchen window just now, in the stubble field that currently adjoins one side of our house, I saw a steady stream of pheasants running uphill, away from the guns. I'm wondering if this is a beneficial side effect of hanging out with our neighbours free-ranging chickens, or if it's because, a couple of days ago, I put out a bag of six year old porage oats for them to eat. The prospect of an intelligent pheasant is a little troubling to me. We went to Huntly for the farmers market this weekend, and on our way back as we passed along a back road a large hand painted sign screamed; 'beware of pheasants!' perhaps this is what they meant.

*They did stop shooting at the appropriate moment, allowing a Deer to break cover from behind them and run to safety (not that they would have taken a pot shot at it, but it wasn't to know that, the deer round here are almost as suicidal as the pheasants, just do a lot more damage to the car!).

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Monday, November 02, 2009

rain, rain, rain...

I suspect that rain might be a popular theme among Aberdeenshire bloggers, we had something in the region of two inches yesterday, and even from our vantage point on top of the hill we could see the already saturated fields gradually filling with water. Spare a moment of sympathy for the inhabitants of Stonehaven, filling pillowcases with sand from the beach to attempt to stay the waters. Our friends rug shop and art gallery was flooded out when the Carron burst its banks, we heard apocalyptic descriptions of paintings floating around in waist deep water. I hope that the rugs at least can be rescued.

Needless to say, on the day after, the sun is shining brightly and the waters are receding.

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