Snowandrocks

There's a covering here but nothing exciting - we seem to have missed the bigger showers earlier. As Ravelin says - beautiful moon tonight and the snow is crisping up nicely under clear skies. Astronomy from the sofa - brought to you by Velux.

Friend over in Cushnie just sent me this. Definitely flakes landing on the Velux windows here too in the heavier showers.

Chilly day with showers steadily turning sleetier as the day went on. Absolutely the wrong day to be putting up a new tin roof - my fingers are have just about thawed after an hour beside the fire. Hopefully things should look nice and white by this time tomorrow.

Don't bother building an igloo - we built this one during lockdown and wished we'd never started. It took a ridiculously long time! Was cutting blocks in my dreams! I did sleep out there quite comfortably with minus 17 showing on the car at dawn.

There are a network of weather stations installed in cold Deeside and Donside spots by a local amateur weather guy based in Braemar. Don't think he has one in Tomintoul but has a few along Strathdon in Aberdeenshire and they're quite often quite a bit lower than even Braemar. Could be interesting if we get a proper cold spell.

The funicular was a mistake from the beginning in my opinion (along with just about every decision made at Cairngorm over the last few decades). For the same cost they could have easily built a new car park at Glenmore and built a modern gondola up over the forest along with some strategic replacement of other lifts.

Amazing the difference in conditions over what is really quite a small distance. The ground is still soaking wet here and our spring that dried up earlier in the year is gushing away. I think you'd have a job not getting the tractor stuck if you tried to plough! Although in fairness the heavy glacial clay soil around us does hold the water.

Beautiful day with a hard frost lingering on. Aside from deep powdery snow, this is definitely my favourite weather type. I reckon another few days and the sun won't quite manage to creep up over the hill. I also have a friend in Stavanger and he reckons the weather reminds him of Fort William. Endless rain and not nearly as cold as he expected.

The frost has lifted slightly as some murky clouds mover over but it seems to be clearing up a bit again now. Mud still frozen solid thankfully!

Surprised your commute was untreated - I met a couple of gritters on my way home from Aboyne last night. One just past Craigievar and the other at the head of the Brindy Hill between Premnay and Keig. Glorious frosty morning for a wander with the dogs, the endless mud of the last few weeks frozen hard and no wind for a change too.

Quite a nice afternoon with some sunshine after a wet morning. Cold now though under a lovely clear sky - although nearly broke my neck when I went out to fill up the firewood basket! The steps are like an ice rink.

Things not looking great for Ballater again with water already flowing through the town and still quite a lag before peak flow. It's still raining here but much lighter now, meaning the burn in our garden is dropping slowly, the trusty bamboo cane marker now high and dry. Will definitely be upgrading a few pipes come the summer though as things were a bit too close for comfort. A 4 inch drain is running at full bore out of this area but just can't keep up with the water flowing overland from the surrounding ground.

Very soggy indeed here this morning. There's a footpath through the woods near the house that's now a small river but otherwise just ditches full to the brim and burns roaring away. Still coming down heavily - hard to believe just a few months ago our spring had run dry and we decided to drill a borehole!

Just took advantage of a dryer spell (relatively speaking, still raining lightly) to take the dogs out and all the burns coming down off the hill are already in spate. If the forecast comes off they'll definitely be running well by Saturday morning!

Some really quite torrential pulses pushing in now - just had to turn the subtitles on as I couldn't hear the tv over the deafening roar of the rain on the Velux windows!

As Quinach said earlier, a bloody awful day with near constant rain, at times near torrential with a gusty wind. The shortlived lunchtime sunny spell lasted just long enough for me to walk half an hour away from the house with the dogs before the rain set in again and thoroughly soaked me on the trudge home!

Cooling down (relatively speaking) nicely now under the clear sky after a ridiculously mild but very windy day. I can still hear the breeze rustling the last of the leaves in the trees but it's calm and pleasant in my usual cup of tea spot tucked under the back porch. Definitely tempted by something stronger...

Currently sitting out in a sheltered spot in short sleeves with a cup of tea, feels very pleasant beneath a bright moon. After spending endless hours picking up leaves every year previously, this afternoon I decided to try mulching them in with the mower. What a difference! Even the area under an old horse chestnut that must have been several inches deep mulched away to almost nothing. Will probably do the grass some good too!

As others have said, was lovely first thing and then pretty miserable all afternoon with some heavy driving rain - wind still pretty strong now with the power off and on a few times earlier. Forecast looks quite good for the next few days though.

Are you in the same Aberdeenshire as me?! Absolutely beautiful morning with really quite warm sunshine! Clouded over a bit now buy still very pleasant.

The heat output of a modern burner really is impressive - we have a couple, one old villager and a modern ecoburn effort. The old one only really puts out meaningful heat if you feed it coal like you're on the footplate of the Flying Scotsman although it does work quite nicely with the doors open for some atmosphere. The modern stove however ticks gently away and keeps out draughty stone cottage at sub tropical temperatures on only a couple of big lumps of pine every few hours. Another good day today as northernlights said, cool breeze but fine for working outside with a jumper on.

The ground is pretty saturated so obviously some decent rain overnight but it's looking promising for another day of unbroken sun and a strong breeze.

Almost unbroken sunshine here today but pretty breezy. Good day for working outside and definitely not feeling cold despite the wind.

Unexpectedly windy tonight, first time that I can remember hearing the chimney whistle since the big storms last winter so wouldn't be surprised to see a few trees down in the morning.

No complaints today - lovely, warm, calm and sunny until well after lunch when a bit of a breeze set in. Most noticeable however, was the complete lack of annoying beasties - it's amazing how even the first light frost instantly deals with them.