Cottage Diary - Aspenwood self catering luxury Holiday Cottage overlooking Loch Ness in the Highlands of Scotland.

Loch Ness is only used by working boats now and all small pleasure craft have ceased until next Easter. The magnificent 'Lord of the Glens' cruise ship is busy all year round taking passengers along The Great Glen to Fort William and then around several of the islands, depending on your choice of cruise.Trawlers use the loch rather than traverse the choppy Pentland Firth at the northern end of mainland Scotland. After a couple of days of rain we experienced an extremely chilly northerly wind yesterday which blew towards us straight from Urquhart Castle. Unfortunately we saw that the gutters were over flowing and blocked with the build up of leaves and pine needles - not one of our favourite jobs, especially in the freezing cold but unblocking had to be done. Not the usual number of birds about lately but then we have spotted the predatory sparrowhawk zooming about. Noticed swarms of long tailed tits flying past.The occasional greenfinch and blackbirds appear on the bird table when their favourite sunflower seeds are on the menu.