Loch Rannoch and the last day of our holiday

Our last day of walking was supposed to be close to the Queen's View, however the forest was closed because of forestry operations, the timber is a crop and they do have to harvest it!  So we travelled a bit further on to Loch Rannoch and Rannoch Forest.

You can see how much peat there is in the area by the brown colour of the water.

We were fortunate to see this deer...we went up the wrong track and spied this little red deer in the wood, he/she stayed still long enough for me to get my telephoto lense onto the camera and take a photo.

On our walk there was a very still pool of water and the dragonflies were flying back and forth. Not easy to get a shot of them but I just about managed to catch this one!

 Loch Rannoch

Loch Rannoch with daisies!

Pitlochry Part Two

There is nowhere more beautiful than Scotland when the sun shines!

Fortunately for us, by the middle of our holiday week, we had blazing sunshine. These photographs were taken at the Drummond Forest, Kenmore.

 

Looking down on Kenmore

Part of the walk was through the forest and the sunlight was filtering down through the trees.

We walked back down to Kenmore and walked down to Loch Tay.  On one side of the water was mill pond calm with great reflections.

On the other side there were fantastic views of Loch Tay and the hills beyond.

I think this is my favourite.

Holiday in Pitlochry Part One and some good news

 

 This year we went to Pitlochry for our holiday.  We stayed in this stable conversion (upstairs) for a week and had some very good weather later in the week.

 

Our plan was to do some walking around the area and we started with a 3 mile walk to 'The Black Spout' waterfall near the Edradour Distillery.  We didn't visit the distillery this time as we have been previously.

On the way back from the waterfall, we passed this tree with it's 'giant pine cone',  very realistic looking, but probably created with a chain saw!

Our next walk was in Aberfeldy where we walked to another waterfall, the Falls of Moness which was made famous by Rabbie Burns in his song 'The Birks of Aberfeldy'.   'Birks' are Birch Trees for those who are wondering what I'm on about.

 

There was even a bronze statue of Rabbie for posing purposes.

This is Blair Castle at Blair Atholl,  we walked in Blair Forest before visiting here.

This Peacock was wandering around the front of the castle.

In the Hercules garden there were lots of ducks and this swan family.

Mama Duck and her ducklings

Isn't this one cute?

 This Scruffy Duck was going for a dip.

 

As we walked past part of the pond the water was boiling and seething.  On closer inspection we could see that the pond was full of tadpoles!  I don't think I've ever seen so many tadpoles.

This duck was certainly enjoying them!

I'll be back with some more photos soon, but just wanted to let you know the good news that Steven and Shona are expecting their first baby in February, it's all very exciting and we are very much looking forward to becoming grandparents.