Myrtle Cottage - Winter 2009

The harshest winter for 20 odd years apparently! The house was cold but there was no damage caused by the extreme weather. Although we were snowed in for a few days and we weren't sure whether we'd get out to get the Christmas dinner supplies, the landscape was magical. We only lost one plant. The conifer at the gate was also split by the weight of the snow but we grafted it back together and it seems to be managing fine.

Birds

The bird feeder directly outside the sitting room window has attracted loads of starving birds over the winter. We ended up buying seed and nuts by the sack full. We've had robins, blue tits, sparrows, chaffinch, greater spotted woodpecker, red-legged partridge, yellow hammer, pheasant, blackbirds, wagtails and greenfinches. We also had a slow worm at the front door early summer. With all the bird food we also had door mice nesting in the grass verge opposite the house (they've subsequently eaten my carrot tops - unless that was rabbit)

Burn-side Garden 2 - Winter 2009

The winter garden hid what would become a spring and summer spectacle of colour.

Burn-side Garden - Winter 2009

Evidence of a lot of clearing up to do before Spring. The ivy from the old outbuilding has since been removed.

Kitchen Garden - Winter 2009

A view from the far side of the kitchen garden with the arch leading to the basement garden. The conifer in the foreground played host to a nesting bird in the Spring (sadly the nest was subsequently abandoned and the chicks died).

View from Myrtle Cottage

A view to Ben Wyvis in the distance and Little Wyvis in the foreground on a cold frosty morning, taken from the sitting room window.