Free Range.

This morning's Dawn Patrol.

Sign at Cairness Home Farm.

Free range bunny.

Now these are (free range) Zwartbles sheep.  Native to Friesland in the North of Holland.  These sheep are docile, friendly sheep and being naturally tame, prefer to be led rather than herded.  The wool is sought after by spinners and weavers.  The meat is very lean and sweet.*

Scotch Mule below, native to Scotland.  Now found throughout the British Isles.  It is a cross between a Blue Faced Leicester ram and a Blackface ewe, bred in large numbers since the early 1900s.
It produces quality meat from natural unadulterated grass and the wool is mainly used for knitwear and tweeds.*

No idea.  Hens at Watty's next door but one.  Watty also has a hand in the masses of pheasants we end up feeding in our garden.

Whilst the DP was off up some Lady's bosom and seeing Capercaillies, I was enjoying my Tuesday.  Free ranging around the Broch (Fraserburgh)

I joined the Knitting Nancies for coffee and then two of us had lunch in the Lighthouse Museum.  Most of the gang are now in the depths of their volunteering their skills in the primary schools.  The two of us who had lunch also rebuilt the bridge between the Knitting Nancies and the new manager of the Lighthouse Museum to the mutual benefit and approval of both.  More later.  And most probably - more free ranging.

Almost forgot to mention my Wednesday morning art class.  Next two weeks is farm animals/birds.  These were our free ranging hens where we lived over a year ago.  I am doing a painting of this view, with only three hens, and one of them has to be pecking its own feet as, yet again, I do not think ahea.....

*Know more sheep Jack Byard. www.oldpond.com.

Mither Tap.

Today the Dawn Patroller took himself off to Bennachie.

The hill/mountain in the middle of the picture is called Mither Tap.  This is Doric for Mother's Tap, i.e. a nipple on the breast.  

The most prominent peak, Mither Tap (518 m, 1699 feet) provides good views of the county to the north and east. Most of the tops lie along an east / west ridge, with the exception of Millstone Hill (409 m) an outlier or spur which is separated from and to the south of the main ridge. Mither Tap has an Iron Age fort on its summit. Unlike with many other hilltop forts in the area, there are no signs of vitrification in the stone.^[2] Bennachie is visible from a number of distant points; to the north it is visible from Longman Hill, a point considerably to the north.^{[3]Wikepedia.}

The iron age fort.

And some other people mad enough to go up the top, far better equipped than the Dawn Patroller.

The view from the top.   

And the one view that drives Mr Donald Trump wild, particularly if its in the sea next to his golf course.

And this was the real reason for the DP's trip.  To see a Capercaillie.  Albeit this lone female.

So lonely she takes herself off to the Visitor Centre Car park to meet up with teenage school children.  Only to find the males of that species give chase only to see her fly.

So this year she will not be being a Mither.

Bank Holiday yeuk, big moon and books.

The big moon.

 So here is the big moon phenomenen. 


Last night I told the DP to go and take spooky pictures of said moon at St. Combs Cemetery.  I had read that all you needed was a North East horizon as the sun set.  Well, thats where we are, on the North East.  So he checked the exact time of the sun setting and off he went.  Intending to take award winning spooky pics of huge moon.

 St Combs cemetery.


Unfortunately this did not quite work out the way I had planned.  The sun was set, but where was the bloody moon?


Some hours later he took the photograph of the moon which was most definitely South, South East of us.  (Yet again everything is described as from  bloody London.)


However come this morning he did get this spooky picture of a local farm with mist rising from the pond, and possibly a heron also rising.

And met Brer Fox.

And a swallow.

Earlier today I was reading others blogs and Making it Vintage triggered many memories of childhood books.  Not just my own but those read to our daughters.

So I went and had a a look at my bottom shelf.  The bottom shelf is the place I have put these books as they are easier to be selected from by a small child.,  


Ah, the memories.  Before I could stop myself I had picked one up and was away....  
So what book memories do you have?

Sunny Sunday.

At last!  A lovely day.  

The Dawn Patroller went off as dawn broke, though he is finding this more difficult as we now move into the days that dawn breaks very early and sun sets very late.

Cowslips growing wild, as they should.


Domestic geese and their goslings.  Who all decided to walk away from the camera.

Just when I need as many pictures of farm animals as possible for my next art class.

Going out so early means you can usually see a Hare.  Which would not of course be seen on a road once the traffic gets moving.

The DP also visited a nearby woodland, Logie Wood.  Trying to discover where the Osprey got its trout.  The fishermen there said they had not seen the Osprey and pointed him in another direction.  

This abandoned coach house, interestingly, has wires into it for telephone!

And what a beautiful bridge in the same area.


In the afternoon the DP went off to the Loch of Strathbeg and saw this rarity.

Great grey shrikes are regular but scarce visitors to the UK. They arrive, on the east coast at first, in autumn and many stay throughout winter and into spring (sometimes as late as April or May), when they migrate back to their breeding grounds in Scandinavia.

What they eat

Beetles and other insects, small mammals and birds. Food is often stored in a 'larder' by impaling it on a thorn! RSPB.

I was not totally inactive during this Sunny Sunday.  It took me all morning preparing a birthday gift for a friend.  The afternoon was spent down the shed starting on painting the pair of Gannets necking.  Some time spent on my own bird watching.  And later sipping a glass of wine.


A lovely Sunny Sunday.

Its the weekend - lets destroy the house!

Minerva McGonagall inspecting work in progress.

Actually desperate to inspect what is behind the board put up to stop her so doing.


Electric fire now removed.  


We found a lot of glass fibre insulation which will have to be removed.  Masks and gloves.  Also some strange wires we havent the foggiest idea of what they are for.


The Dawn Patroller has been on the internet.  Despite our stove supplier saying you will have to move the t.v. off the wall as it will get hot, the DP says those who sound intelligent on Google (i.e. agree with him), say you can leave it there.  
We agreed to call it a day today.

This morning I had to re-check the date as I watched blizzards of snow sweep across the fields.


Sunny and bright now.


Some of us are waiting for the sun to set.

Then they can get on to their favourite place on the DPs knee.

Have a good weekend, and I pray all your walls are intact.

May the Fourth

The Dawn Patroller informed me it was Star Wars Day.  Geddit?  Neither did I.

Due to the strange weather we have had the farmers are busting a gut to catch up.  Ploughing.  This is in the field behind us.
And sowing in the field at the front of us.

So its all a bit noisy at the moment.


If they are not following the plough or any tractor, on the off chance, they are where they really belong over and by the sea.  Herring Gulls

An Oyster Catcher.

The sort of picture where you get a prize for the best caption?

And a wee coo.  Where it belongs.

Back at the homestead yet another problem for the DP who is fairly good at DIY, blames a lot on the fact he is left handed.  We have to remove the electric fire.  Easy peasy.  And the t.v. and sky box and aerials and electrics, not so easy.  As they are all inside the wall.  All the time just hoping the previous occupants of this house did nothing awful like blocking the chimney.  

In our last house we found a beautiful granite fireplace in the kitchen, which had had a Raeburn in front, removed, but they had then gone on to fill the chimney with concrete.  Why?  So we had to just plaster over the fireplace again.  How sad is that.

Any advice, sympathy, prayers much appreciated.

May the Force be with you.

(May the Fourth be with you)>

Fit Like?

Interpretation - How are you? - Literal - What like?

Well I have spent the last two and a bit days entertaining yet more family, albeit from 'the other side'  i.e. the Dawn Patrollers side.  His brother and his wife.  The DP cooked a beautiful Duck Cassoulet and I am getting 'the look' as I am not sitting down eating it.

The following day they all went off to Troup Head which is the biggest on shore Gannetry.

In my opinion Gannets are one of the most beautiful sea birds.

Do you remember the word 'necking' from your youth?  Which was later usurped by the word 'snogging' and probably the term nowadays is so rude I cant print it.  Well these two are necking in the true sense of the word.  

Or I believe it is called 'Displaying' in the bird world.

Hoping to do a painting of this but my attempts at white birds, white anything has not met with success.

Later in the day they visited the Scottish Lighthouse Museum, which I have described before.  (also viewed my art display in the cafe there.)  




I had spent the morning at the Art Group but my over indulgence in red wine the previous evening (plus my desire for peace and quiet )  led me to chill out in the shed for the afternoon.  Plus I dont walk and I dont like heights.  




In the evening we went to The Tufted Duck for a meal.  This is the most godawful photograph.  But oh so typical of the natives.  The brown blinds in the frames of wood are hiding the North Sea.  I do despair.  This is the only hotel/restaurant around here that has views of the sea and what do they do?  Hide it.

Fortunately, last night, the blinds were up and we had a view of the sea as we ate.

We came home to this..... beautiful sunset.  What else do you expect in the Land of the Big Sky.


Fit Like?