After the storm.

Mounds and mounds of sea weed on Fraserburgh Beach, which is normally just golden sands.

No boats out yesterday!

A sad tragedy of the storm.

The Loch of Strathbeg near Crimond, just south of us.

Thousands and thousands of pink footed geese return here every year from Iceland, along with some Barnacle Geese, to spend the winter with us.

From now until Spring next year we hear them calling every morning as they leave the Loch to go out into the fields to feed.  Then as dusk gathers they return.

Their presence attracts others.  Above is a Marsh Harrier.  But bigger predators, such as Sea Eagles, also stop by. 

Which certainly causes a storm among the geese.

An exciting day.

A flock of cross bills seen by the Dawn Patroller up the lane.  All the text books state not in this area of Scotland.  So a first for us.

The wind came back, but in the proper direction (so it was not wetting all the wood stacked up in the newly erected wood shed).

The wreck at Cairnbulg, which remains, no matter what wind direction there is, shows the stormy seas.

The view from Cairnbulg across the sea to Kinnaird Head Lighthouse where the Lighthouse Museum is.  More stormy seas.

Wowee.

Lobster pots with their floats, you throw the lobster pots in, the orange ball floats so you can see where to gather it in.  But today they are not going out, too rough.

This weekend was the New Pitsligo Visual Arts Exhibition.

There were 216 paintings entered.

And one of mine got a HIGHLY COMMENDED.

After running round the exhibition and shouting "Yes, yes, yes."  I didnt actually do that, but wanted to -

-We went to the Last Bus Cafe and the DP had a banana muffin, we both had a cappuccino.

And he took this awful picture of me.

An exciting day.

And yes, a nice Merlot to celebrate an exciting day.

Wednesday - wind down, relax and

see what is around.

Cairnbulg.  Our nearest sea side.

Pretty relaxed.....

Chilling out surfing.

Rock pipit showing a lovely colourful contrast.

Ah, supper time.

Ooooh, not that relaxing.  Wrong place.

Could be wrong time?

Nae bother, they moved, car slowed.

Lets all slowdown now and enjoy a peaceful evening.  

I hope the wind has dropped and the rain ceased where you are.

Fraserburgh Fishing.

The harbour at Fraserburgh was built to cater for the herring fleet and the vessels which consigned the cured herring to Europe and as the fleet increased a further enlargement of the harbour facilities was required. The prominence in Fraserburgh in the herring trade resulted in the demise of the neighbouring ports of Sandhaven, Pitullie and above all, Rosehearty, which in the 19th century rivalled Fraserburgh as a herring landing port.

Accordingly, the dependence of the town on fishing is obvious but with the decline in the herring fishery at that time due to a lack of sufficient stocks, Fraserburgh has developed a substantial white fish, pelagic and shell fish fishing fleet. 

This morning the Dawn Patroller had arranged to do his patrol at the Fish Auction in Fraserburgh.

It was a wee bit wet and windy.  So where you would normally park your car, well, you didnt!

Auctioneer is the chap without the boots facing you, chap with his back and the de rigeur fishermens boots, was buying.

The fish boxes have labels to note which boat fished them.  As here "Gratitude".  A lot of the fishing boats have some allusion to him upstairs.  "Forever Grateful", another, Most fishermen are deeply religious.

Mindst you hauling one of these monsters out of the sea you can understand why.

The labels in the boxes are then of the buyers.

Only a few halibut, and these were sold individually, by weight.

Then it's off to the lorries, vans, trucks and away to you.

The auction was over in half an hour.  The fish were landed overnight and this morning, then packed in ice, off to the shops, supermarkets and stalls.

234 boxes of fish.  At Peterhead, a bigger port, there were 6000 boxes of fish at their auction.

Fancy fish for tea?

Monday mixture.

After catching up with household chores (yawn) removing corpses from under the bed.  (yeuk).  Sith had a good night, but no-one else did.  Washing out on the line.  

Out came the Combine Harvester.

He managed one length of the field before the rain came.  I got totally soaked bringing the washing in.  So we both packed in.

Hydrangeas look good in the rain.

My biggest, most spectacular orchid, looks good inside.

Not sure about this owl claiming to be a snowy owl, well it is snowing in the picture.

Fire going.

Sith waiting for me to sit down, draw the curtains, get on with the knitting, 
Aaaaah.

Theres something nasty in the wood shed.

Anyone else read Cold Comfort Farm, and loved it as much as I did?  

Nothing nasty in our wood shed, just lovely, lovely wood.  I love the smell of it and the smell of it burning.  I am sure there will be lots of mice moving in to the wood shed.  They are not nasty, but will have to be careful that they dont come to a nasty end from the cats.

We have often thought about solar panels, either on the roof of the house or on the shed.

But I never expected to see this.  This camper van was parked up at Cairnbulg Harbour.  This is not a camp site, so there are no plug in stands.  Who needs them!  Presumably the solar panels provide the electric.  Way to go.

This chap is up a pole in our garden.  He did ask if it was ok.  Apparently he is fitting sleeves onto the electric cables in case any of our trees rub on them.  Such strange things happen in the middle of the countryside on a Sunday morning.  It will be quite a few years before our trees reach said cables, that is if we let them.  Weird.

These two lady pheasants were not supervising the chap up the pole.

These marigolds are the only plant that grew and flowered from a free packet of seeds to attract bees.  Hopefully they will self seed.  The blazing colour really makes you feel warm.

This is strange, lilies in bud in September.

Didnt do much knitting tonight.

As there is something, rather lovely, in the knitting basket.  After coming in from checking out that there are no nasties in the wood shed.