Snowandrocks

Yep, that should do pretty well. We have friends at ~300m in Cushnie just to the South of Alford and they do noticeably better than here, especially in more marginal conditions as you would expect.

If it's just snow you're chasing I reckon you'll do better in Rothienorman than you will in the borders, even with little bit of extra height. We have friends quite high up not far from Peebles and we get way more snow than they do.

RIP Puffy - always an entertaining read. Thoughts with the family.

Another hot day with pretty much unbroken sunshine, getting hazier now but still bright. Feels more humid than of late but obviously no sign of the forecast storms. The drilling guys got on well and after first hitting water at 6ft, eventually had to give up and call it a day at just over 30ft with water spewing out everywhere. The original plan was to go to 100ft and see how things went. Good news all round - so much water so near the surface that we won't even need to run power out there for a pump. Gravity combined with the existing pump in the house will do the job. HwVideoEditor_2022_08_14_164716562.mp4

Another perfect day - even a late breakfast outside an Aberdeen beachfront cafe was haar free with warm sunshine and a gentle breeze (although the ships just offshore were disappearing in and out of the murk). At home, stiflingly hot in the sun with barely even a breath of wind up here in the forest. The contractor is bringing the drilling rig up tomorrow ready to start on monday so running water hopefully isn't far away...

Another wonderful day here - gentle breeze, not too humid, perfect blue skies and unbroken sunshine. Still haven't got a proper thermometer set up but 27/28 being reported locally which feels about right. The spring has now dried up completely and even the backup burn supply is down to a trickle - we're waiting for a drilling contractor to come up and sink a borehole so problem solved soon hopefully.

Lucky you! The drought continues here - the spring that supplies our house dried up yesterday. It does happen in dry years so I have a backup setup that takes water from a nearby burn but even that's down to a trickle. I did find a couple of brown trout in my water tank - have since added a fine mesh to the pump intake! Hopefully get some rain soon but it's not looking promising.

Just sat for an hour in a t shirt watching the sun set from the summit of Oxen Craig - Bennachie's highest sunset. Me and the dog were struggling a bit with the heat on the way up through the forest but it was absolutely perfect above the treeline. Gentle warm breeze and nothing biting!

Certainly doesn't feel much cooler today - humidity must have dropped a bit though as the flies and clegs seem to cleared off for now.

The flies are also terrible here at the moment - certainly as bad as I can ever remember. The clegs are also out in force - 5 bites in the space of about 10 minutes with one right through my t shirt. Luckily I don't react too badly to them but still a bit itchy for a while.

Perfect blue skies and barely a breeze here too with the pickup showing a (probably slightly optimistic) 27 degrees at midday. I had a busy day of jobs planned but life's too short - sacked them off and went swimming with the dog. Your new friend looks and sounds great MairSnaw.

Watched the showers building to the SW over the Cairngorms as I ate my sandwich on Oxen Craig (highest of Bennachie's summits) before making a hasty retreat home. Just in time - hefty shower rolling through now.

That's interesting - our strawberries aren't even out yet. I don't keep records but we usually have a bbq mid July and there's usually plenty around then. Our badgers don't seem to bother with the strawberries but obsessively dig out any bulbs my gf tries to plant. Some steady rain this morning but the ground is still very dry - the spring that feeds the house is pretty feeble at the moment. Forecast looks promising for a showery few days though so fingers crossed.

Quite warm in the sun today and thankfully just a light breeze after yesterday's wind. Flies and cleggs out in force though, guess the warmth last week has brought them out.

Sorry to read this. I haven't been here for very long and only post occasionally but your posts make me laugh every time i visit. Got my fingers crossed.

Heading home today from a rather glorious week with friends in Dunvegan on Skye. They were needing some work done around their cottage so i offered to drive a borrowed digger for them with plenty of food and drink in return. All went well, aided of course by the wonderful weather and drying wind that makes everything so much easier. The less said about the Chinese digger the better, despite being brand new it was much, much worse than the knackered 20 year old little JCB i use at home. Even the train journey home has been good so far - first time on the Kyle line with great views back over to Skye.

Over staying with friends near Dunvegan on Skye for a few days. Sounds like we timed it wrong - thoroughly miserable day with continuous rain and occasional quite gusty winds. Not all bad though - managed to take advantage of the very low tide and found some nice oysters for dinner. Hoping to get the wetsuits on tomorrow and dive for some scallops.

Managed out on the XC skis this morning - some decent spells of sunshine but still snow showers blowing through every once in a while.

Occasional sleet and snow showers blowing through, no lying snow left at home but plenty lying up in the woods.

Thoroughly miserable here at the moment, some lying fresh snow from overnight and still snowing but very wet at the moment with a raw wind. The proper snowline doesn't look too far up the hill during any clearer spells, but if anything, the snow on the ground here is slowly melting.

Snowing steadily here too, nothing dramatic but flat calm and quite atmospheric i guess. Also a good excuse to put off sorting out the remaining firewood pile.

As above, maybe just shy of an inch of nice fluffy dry snow. Sunshine for now but what looks like some hefty showers not far away.

Equally perfect day over this side of the hill unsurprisingly. Followed up by an amazing sunset. I was up on an illicit walk this morning but there are still some fairly lengthy sections where a machete or a chainsaw would come in handy! Hopefully the forestry commission get on and clear the paths soon.

We're also almost overrun with badgers, i come across at least a couple a week when i'm driving in or out, they dug out a colony of ground nesting bees last summer and one even climbed onto a table to overturn a planter to get at the tulip bulbs my gf had planted! No hedgehogs or hares spotted for a while sadly and have never seen a single rabbit in all the time we've lived here oddly - not sure why... A glorious day today, cool wind but lovely and warm in sheltered sunshine. Looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

As above, the earlier cloud has cleared to leave some lovely sunshine but the wind is pretty brutal! I've retreated back inside to do something else.