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Molly & Goldens

2 lovely retrievers came to stay the w/end.

Molly's hogging the toys. These girls came from Australia - several years ago, not just for the w/end!!

Out & about

First wallflower to appear.

Moon rising

On the hill above Achtercairn

Rescue helicopter

The coastguard & mountain rescue team visited the school yesterday, to demonstrate how they go about airlifting casualties & later let the kids have a good look at the equipment they use.

The weather wasn't too kind during the demonstration, alternating between sunshine & downpours of hailstones.

Going up,

& up,

nearly there, now the difficult bit - getting the stretcher through the "hole" in the floor.

Preparing for rescue lift

The helicopter hovers above the field while the crew organise the stretcher to be airlifted.

The sun shines on them as they prepare for lift-off

I think the "casualty" changed his mind & baled out.

Coastguard rescue helicopter

Massive storm out to the south west as the helicopter comes into view.

Still blue skies in the north, as it circles overhead,

not far above the treetops!

Coastguard rescue helicopter visit

Here it comes,

Hovering above the school field, prior to landing, just as a hail storm arrived.

An indoor oasis

Floral Hall Gardens at Inverness

Margot's been on a girlie w/end at Inverness & between eating far too much, a couple of us managed a visit to the FH gardens at Bught Park. It was lovely to see flowers blooming in the middle of winter.

Some strange hanging flowers.

On the hill

Up above the cattle grid. Chilli's enjoying the sunshine.

Lovely, sunny day

Snowy Skye in the morning sunshine.

Most of our snow has gone.

Sunday walk

Up on the hiils behind the house,

plenty of snow makes for slow walking.

We watch a storm on Skye which eventually catches us out. Another coating of white stuff! Tonight it's thawing fast which will mean treacherous roads in the morning.

Andy's experimenting with screws in the soles of his trainers, ready for safe running!!!

Sunday walk

On the hills above the house,

hard going in the snow,

the trees are coming on. This is an attempt to recreate the Caledonian forest, in time to come, these slopes will be covered in native trees which is great, but the views will disappear.

Sunday walk

Looking down on the village from the viewpoint

same place, looking north,

and south west.

The white stuff is back again.

Complete white out when we awoke this morning , which continued for a couple of hours.

Who can resist making a snowman?

By this afternoon the snow had stopped & was thawing where the sun touched. Temperature got up to 1c here but Skye kept getting heavy snow showers all afternoon.

Yesterday's walk

The ice pond in Flowerdale is living up to it's name, still semi frozen a week after the thaw.

Out towards Skye which keeps disappearing under storm clouds.

Lots of clouds threatening but we stayed dry & avoided frostbite with copious layers. The wind chill was making it about -6c.

Snow on the hills & the sand is frozen hard. We stayed out until about 4pm & just made it home as the snow hit. Within minutes the ground was covered & this was followed by several more flurries throughout the evening.

Andy braved an evening run to the pier & round the arboretum. Margot chickened out & did an hour on the treadmill at the leisure centre instead.