Weather or not.....

Last week was very cold and some days maintained a clear blue sky all day. On one of these days I took a stroll down to the nearby beach for a closer look of Loch Ness and the snowy mountains opposite. All the stones on the beach were frozen together and it was extremely slippery. Managed to get to the chairs and grabbed hold of them. They had a thick frost on them so decided not to sit down and stood up to soak in the view. Found that some kind soul had left a stout walking stick next to them which I gratefully made use of on the slippery walk back home. As the week progressed it began to get a little warmer and the temperatures for next week are looking good....even reaching double figures.

Weasel watching.

Sitting watching the birds feed one afternoon when I noticed a siskin suddenly disappear into the earth. Went out to investigate this strange phenomenon and found the dead siskin stuck head first in the mouth of a narrow tunnel. As I was digging it out and filling in the hole to ensure no more future accidents I heard rustling from underground very nearby. As I watched, luckily armed with the camera, two little black eyes and a head emerged from another hole about 2 feet away and I realised it was a weasel that we had merely glimpsed recently as it darted rapidly around under the bird table. It emerged from the hole, gave me a good hard stare of disapproval for blocking up one of his tunnel exits and disappeared back down the hole. The weasel will certainly keep the mice and vole population down but they have been known to take squirrels too. Luckily our red squirrels are not showing in this cold spell and are tucked up in their dreys in the forest only occasionally popping out for food they have stashed away somewhere.