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

The wintery weather has finally blown away and the less chilly, lighter, longer days have arrived at last. Ray and I enthusiastically disappeared into the garage armed with our design for the new bird table. The original old bird platform is rotten and very near collapse and if I put another hook into the upright for a new bird feeder - it will!
We had alot of fun and and a bit of brain-scratching working out how to surmount problems but we were very pleased with the final result. The new upright is a beautiful length of silver birch we inherited from when we had the trees cut down at the front enabling us to have a supurb panoramic view of Loch Ness. We decided it was very important to have a roof this time to deter the noisy hooded crows as well as the predatory sparrowhawk.

Mother deer and her offspring, which is nearly a year old now, are regular visitors now that the snow has gone and both enjoy munching the forest foliage and mowing the grass on the bank in front of the house. They come quite close and are not too alarmed when we go outside to watch them - although the mother naturally maintains a watchful eye and ear to protect her young who is getting quite bold.
It is very pleasing to watch them confidently wandering about the grounds quite close to the house inspecting certain things in 'their garden' as they go.

We had some business to attend in connection with our tourist group on the northern side of Loch Ness at the village of Drumnadrochit on Urquhart Bay and we were pleased to leave home with the sun shining. We enjoyed a pleasant leisurely drive into Inverness, crossed over the River Ness bridge and onto the busier A82 - the main road from Inverness to Glasgow.

After concluding our business near The Loch Ness Exhibition Centre at Drumnadrochit we continued on our homeward journey passing the ruins of Urquhart Castle jutting out on a rocky headland onto Loch Ness. Suddenly the clouds rolled in over the loch, the weather became more overcast and down came the rain. The water on the loch began to look more grey and menacing with the ominous rolling rain clouds approaching.

Luckily we were able to clearly see our house [Lower Birchwood House] and Aspenwood Cottage above it on the opposite shore of Loch Ness nestling in Farigaig Forest.
During the Easter break we are going to design and create a new bird table for our own garden area and - fingers crossed - it will be the highlight of the next entry here [watch this space!].

Drove over the mountains today to attend a very interesting and informative meeting associated with the Green Tourism Board at The Lovat Arms Hotel in Fort Augustus. There was an excellent turn out - mainly with accommodation providers from all over the Highlands, one coming from as far afield as Arisaig on the west coast. After a buffet lunch we listened to four very articulate speakers with different working knowledge and experience with regards to green tourism. On the journey over to Fort Augustus we drove through such beautiful scenery that we realised that we all have to do our bit for this wonderful planet.
Loch Ness has been quite calm over the last few days so we must be in the 'eye of the storm' which has been battering other parts of the UK.......so far anyway!

Yesterday was relatively calm and dry so we went into Inverness for a few items. Having done all our jobs we decided, on the spur of the moment, to drive for about 16 minutes to the village of Cawdor and have something to eat in The Cawdor Inn. After a most enjoyable lunch by the log fire we strolled round the village and through the ancient churchyard. Some of the cottages are very small and must be the original dwellings for the workers on the cawdor estate. The village was very neat and tidy and the snowdrops were blooming everywhere.