Evergreen Newsletter - September 2011

Hello Everyone 

With the schools all back things are much quieter again here on Loch Ness and the first signs of autumn are once again upon us. The leaves on the hazel trees are beginning to turn yellow, our two apple trees are dropping their fruit and of course it's now dark by 8.30pm. But, on a brighter note, the heather is in full bloom on the hillsides and as we often say to guests, September is a great time of year to visit the Highlands.

With the change in seasons, red squirrel activity is once more reaching frantic levels as they store the hazelnuts away for winter. The two regular squirrels to our garden seem to be at the the feeder from the time we get up in the morning until it begins to get dark! Talking of wildlife, I was speaking to two friends yesterday who live locally and they said that they had seen a dog otter recently playing in the river outside their kitchen window. We've known for some time that there are otters in the area but it's rare to actually see them. So too my favourite animal the pine marten. I had not seen any for a while but a couple of weeks ago up I was at a friends house early one evening and we saw a beautiful male pine marten make his way across the garden and into the woods. Wonderful!

On the 3rd September the now annual Monster Challenge took place. It is a 120km duathlon around Loch Ness. In teams of four each participant tackles two stages out of a total of eight (four running and four cycling). A great event and a great challenge, particularly for those who have the 'pleasure' of cycling up the hill out of Fort Augustus to wards Whitebridge!

Then of course on the 2nd October we have the Baxter's Loch Ness Marathon and Festival of Running. Now in it's 10th year the Marathon is well established as one of the premier marathon's in the UK. It starts just beyond Whitebridge on the south side and makes it's way along the shores of Loch Ness before the last few miles in to Inverness. I ran it six years in a row up until 2010 when I finally realised that my knees were no longer up to the pounding on roads but I still have thoughts about doing it again as it's such a great event. Instead though I'm just doing the 10km which is also a great event. For many it's fun, but for me it's serious - last year I did it in 44mins, this year I want to complete the course in 42mins. Maybe a faint hope as I seem to have picked up a slight leg injury playing football last week (yes, I know I'm too old to play football!). I went out this morning for a 8 mile run up by Loch Bran and Trimloist - beautiful day for it and running through the forest was a delight but I have to admit that I was tired when I got back!

I had an hour to spare on Friday in Inverness so went into my favourite shop (which is actually a church!) Leakey's 2nd hand bookshop. There amidst the thousands of books I found a book published in the 1920's called 'Glen Albyn Tales and Truths of the Central Highlands' and what a wonderful little book it is. Written by the monks at Fort Augustus Abbey, there are some wonderful stories of the Loch Ness area. My favourite so far is of a character called Roualeyn Gordon-Cumming, a larger than life character nicknamed the 'Lion Hunter' who lived around the 1850's in Fort Augustus. He would greet what would have been at the time the first 'tourists' to Loch Ness, attired in some 'grotesque' costume and preceded by a magnificent goat! I wonder what visitors today would think of being welcomed to Loch Ness in this fashion?!!


Till next month

Graeme and Fiona

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