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

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Fun at Aviemore

Taking full advantage of the clear blue skies that we have experienced for the past week, we had a pleasant drive of about 50 miles to the Cairngorm Railway at Aviemore and boarded the funicular railway. The journey to the mountain top takes about 8 minutes passing through amazing scenery. The track and tunnels have been very carefully planned in exact detail with the environment uppermost along all steps of the painstaking construction. The carriages were packed full of skiers and snow boarders making the most of the late recent snow showers and there was a good thick layer of snow and ice on the mountain peaks. The temperature outside the viewing deck at the top read just under one degree. Later when we had a picnic at nearby Feshiebridge the temperature registered 12 degrees so quite a difference from top to base camp.


Saw some hilarious sights on the slopes and a few skiers who obviously had been before. Took some video which will appear on the Video Gallery soon...so keep watching.

posted by Lyn @ 6:07 PM 0 comments  

Saturday, March 24, 2007

Spring has sprung.




Most of the snow has now disappeared from the mountain tops opposite us although the higher Ben Wyvis range northwards beyond Inverness is still covered. We have had frosty nights followed by crisp clear blue skies during the day and the temperature is rising slowly - about 12 degrees today and very pleasant. A lot of noisy bird activity about with an abundance of chirpy chaffinches and siskins flying about playing chase me. We even managed to spot an elusive blackcap which is normally an April visitor to Scotland as well as seeing our first red admiral butterfly this morning outside Aspenwood - again unusually early.

The deer have started to come down in the evening from the hill tops and happily munch away at the grass on the front bank. We can hear them calling to each other in the early morning mist often from the other side of Loch Ness as the sound travels easily across the water. Sometimes they are rather bold and enable you to get quite close to them and others are shy and speed away into the surrounding forest.






It is also getting alot lighter later and tomorrow the clocks spring forward one hour so even better. We really feel that the Winter is truly behind us and we can look forward to enjoyable longer daylight hours and sitting outside more often.

There have been a few more boating craft using the loch this week but today we saw somebody really making the most of the change in the weather and we waved encouragment as he bravely canoed past the house.

posted by Lyn @ 3:00 PM 0 comments  

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Mad March weather

As predicted the temperature dropped on Sunday and we had unusual March snow flurries during the day. We watched, from the warmth of the conservatory with a glass of red, as the snow flakes got bigger and bigger and then start to lay seriously on the ground. Woke up Monday morning to a very pristine white mountain range opposite silhouetted against the blue sky. Looking closer we could see the evergreen fir trees prominent against the white fields. Went into Inverness today on very clear roads admiring the amazing views along the way. Going to Rocpool Reserve Restaurant by Inverness Castle tomorrow to celebrate the first day of Spring-any excuse!

posted by Lyn @ 4:02 PM 1 comments  

Friday, March 16, 2007

Sailing boats and sunsets......

A few more private yachts have been gliding past our windows and the view now is quite amazing after the tree felling lochside. The boating craft have not been able to put up their sails and have had to rely on the engines for power due to the oncoming, quite strong at times, westerly winds. Watched The Lord of the Glens luxury cruise liner travel back towards Inverness after a seven day return trip to Fort William. The Loch Ness Express boat service will be starting again at Easter and this experience is always a great favourite with our guests as well as us.
Beautiful strange sunset yesterday evening which might be an omen of an unusual weather pattern that is forecast for Sunday night.....watch this space.

posted by Lyn @ 5:34 PM 0 comments  

Friday, March 09, 2007

'Lord of the Glens' on Loch Ness

During the winter months we do miss seeing boating craft on the loch. Sometimes we see the odd trawler going by so it was a welcoming sight to see the Lord of the Glens back in action and passing Urquhart Castle. It begins its four day cruise in Inverness and travels through the Caledonian Canal to Loch Ness and then beyond, berthing overnight at various stops along the way until finally mooring in the shadow of Ben Nevis near Fort William. For more details visit the Lord of the Glens. As it went past the house it looked quite magnificent and you could almost picture the passengers having drinkies with the captain.

posted by Lyn @ 5:05 PM 1 comments  

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Walk up to Easter Boleskine.

Beautiful bright breezy day with a slight chill in the air - just the day for a brisk walk. Strolled along the footpath in front of our house which is now much wider and brighter with the planned tree removal and we notice alot more light coming into our house. Walked to the end of the path and up passing Easter Boleskine house.
The view of Loch Ness looking down towards Fort Augustus from here is quite dramatic.
Enjoyed wandering slowly through Farigaig Forest just listening to the birds and brooks when we met our guests staying in Aspenwood Cottage also out for a walk in the woods...what a small world !

posted by Lyn @ 3:19 PM 0 comments  

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Keeping the birds happy

During last week we experienced a real mixture of weather patterns, at times not knowing if we should wear wet coats or T shirts. We have had mist, rain, rainbows, sunshine, starry nights followed by frost and even a late flurry of snow. Whatever the weather throws at us the birds still expect to be catered for and they reward us with an early morning chorus. Several mornings we have either had to break the ice in their water bowl or remove excessive rain water from the feeding tray. The nut feeders have to be regularly topped up as they are very busy places in this inclement weather. They are visited by a rich variety of birds such as the great tit shown here or the male chaffinch in the above photo.
In the evening we have heard many owls in the surrounding forest, several times thinking they were on the TV programme we were watching only to turn off the sound and discover they were for real and very near the house. As we drove up to Aspenwood yesterday evening to meet our new guests an owl flew across the path right in front of the car and perched in a nearby tree watching us watching him. We regularly have a gang of three deer visit us in the late evening, setting off the outside lights as they casually stroll in front of our conservatory windows giving us the odd passing glance. February has gone and we look forward to Spring and all it brings.

posted by Lyn @ 9:13 AM 0 comments  

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