Natural highs and lows

As I type, Winter has arrived in Orkney, with sub zero temperatures, a dusting of snow and a personal preference for hibernating on the sofa. This change of weather was preceded by a weekend of gales and we had to spare a thought for any Grey Seal pups on a west-facing shore who will have had a miserable time of it. Shortly before our trip to Aberdeen, we visited the pupping beaches at Burwick in South Ronaldsay. We counted nearly 100 pups in various stages of maturity: from recently born; through the "white fluffball" stage; to moulted into a sea-worthy black pelage and about to take the plunge towards independence. Here are a few photos of the day: Pupping beaches A recently-born pup A suckling pup, piling on the pounds  A mum (on the right) warning off another mum who has strayed too close to her pup It's a wonderful bit of coastline Distant sun rays over mainland Scotland The walk also provided a bit of ornithological interest with a big flock of Barnacle Geese, a cou...

Well, what do you know? Another gale. This one's from the east, so all the plant pots which we'd moved from the back of the house to the front for protection from the previous westerly, have had to be issued with return tickets and re-routed (re-rooted?) to their former location. Perhaps we actually sowed seeds of doubt? This particular hoolie has been designated as Storm Gerrit, and horizontal sleet is currently splattering madly against our east-facing windows. Mocha and Cookie, our cats, are taking it in turns to monitor the west-facing windows, staring out at the flailing grasses, as well as every leaf which dances in the vortices beyond the lee of the house. We're forecasted to have 70mph gusts after lunch, which sounds more like curried beans on toast than a weather prediction. Wildlife watching in December has suffered from the prolonged period of gales. Whilst there have been moments of calm to enable us to assuage our cabin fever, the short Winter days have meant p...