the running wave

I rejoined the mountain hare survey team this morning.  It's the first time I have been walking on the Lammermuirs since mid-November, when I broke my wrist.  I took a walking pole with me today, just to help with tramping through heather and across rough ground.  Glad I took it! Sunrise was at 8.03 today, and we set off on our walk at about 7.45 am, early enough to see the hares before they hunker down, out of sight, during daylight hours.  Of course, bless their hearts, they have their white coats on, to camouflage themselves in the snow.  But all the snow has gone, so they stood out like sore thumbs!  We stood, at intervals, and scanned the hillsides (also a good opportunity for me to get my breathe back!!!) and when we could see a small white dot on a distant hillside, the binoculars would confirm that it was a hare.  Some were not so far away, and it's great to see them bounding off, leaping over the heather.  We saw 21 of these beautiful c...

At last!  Blue skies, a little warmth in the bright sunshine, and the wind has dropped to a manageable level.  Time for a proper walk with my little four legged friend. Flitting between old elderberry bushes, a rich golden yellow with lichen, and a run of hawthorn, wild cherry and lime trees, there were several yellowhammers, probably about eight or ten.  Their glorious lemon yellow plumage shone in the sunshine.  I can't find a collective noun for them, so I think I might just call them a chattering of yellowhammers, because their call of "little bit of bread and no cheese" accompanied them as they skittishly moved from one tree to the next. And then, a wood, full of snowdrops.  Happy days!

In this part of the world, sunrise today, Monday, 1 February 2016, was officially 0807.  Here's how it looked at 0715! Sunset was at 1645.  At 1715 the sky was moody, and beautiful.   The wind is roaring, as the latest storm blows through the wood.  Another noisy night ahead!

Quite a few years ago, when we lived in town, we had a lodger - an American PhD student, studying at the University of Edinburgh.  He had a very beautiful girlfriend - the young Rhiannon Giddens.  She stayed with him/us for a month one summer.  How we enjoyed getting to know her, hearing her amazing voice around the house, and discovering what an incredibly talented girl she is.  She plays the fiddle, banjo, her voice is trained for the opera, she can dance, and she even does beautiful beadwork.  I have a necklace she made me, to prove it!  She also sings in Gaelic, and if you pick up this link, you can hear her singing in French. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl64j0-fieY Her singing career is really flying now.  She was on Jools Holland's New Year show at Hogmanay (I missed that, dang it - I don't like Jools Holland much!), and last night my daughter and I went through to the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow, to hear her performing, for one nigh...

By Wednesday lunchtime, the heavy rain had finally stopped, and the sun came out.  The wood shimmered with diamonds, raindrops hanging from every single bough and twig.  It was breathtaking. In the garden, the hellebores are beginning to bloom, and the snowdrops have started to appear.  Hooray!

Once a year we have to take the car into Edinburgh, for its MOT and service.   On Tuesday morning, MOT day, it was very windy and the rain was lashing down, bouncing off the pavements and blowing about in gusts, highlighted by the car's headlamps.  It was just the most awful weather. But we checked the car in, found our way into town, milled around in John Lewis for a bit, and then walked through to the wonderful National Portrait Gallery, for some coffee and a leisurely read of the newspaper. Then, with lots of time to kill, we had a look round the gallery, admiring the handiwork of English artist William Hole, who moved to Edinburgh at the age of three, in about 1850.  In 1889 he began painting a processional frieze for the gallery's entrance hall.  It depicts famous battles fought through Scotland, over the centuries, featuring over 150 figures or "heroes" from the country’s history.  The work was described as "one of the most notable essays in mural d...

Winter has slipped away, again, and in 13 degrees C we headed for the beach today.  I rather wished we had taken a disposable barbecue and the grandchildren because, although it wasn't particularly sunny, it was balmy and very enjoyable. I know I repeat myself a lot with photographs of this beach, but it is my favourite place, and I love the colours, especially on a quiet day, like today.