A Look Back on 2014 National Trust Summer

I have failed miserably to post on the old blog in the last few months - life just keeps getting in the way. So the start of 2015 gives me a chance to look back on the last few months....

As usual, volunteering with the National Trust for Scotland took up a number of Saturdays.

Tidying up the willow labyrinth at Falkland Palace in Fife. We had to cut the grass and weave the willow ends in so that people can manage to wander its paths and find its centre.

Building a new set of steps to the path alongside the river in Birnam, Perthshire.

Chopping fallen logs into wood for burning at Killiekrankie.

Not such a dry day at The Pineapple, chopping down brambles and other green stuff, creating space for a tree nursery....amazing that we managed to get the bonfire lit in all the rain and it was a little smoky. Last outing for Harry and Margaret before the emigrated to New Zealand.....

I was also lucky enough to spend a weekend in the Lake District with other NTS volunteers and the Fix the Fells volunteers. We were working on Crinkle Crags, mountains that form a ring around Great Langdale and Upper Eskdale. 

Our task for the weekend was to help create a new path up the hills whilst covering the old path which had created a large scar across the hillside.

The view from parking site. 

Hiking to the work site.

Cutting turf to create the new footpath, using the turf to cover up the wide, old path.

Cutting more turf to enable us to build mounds and dig ditches in an attempt to stop walkers from straying off the path and scarring the hillside. 

Putting the turf back on our newly created hillocks - like a very complicated green jigsaw.

It's been a good year. First trip of 2015 is to the David Livingstone Centre in Blantyre. Birthplace of the explorer/missionary David Livingstone.

Weekend in Perthshire

I was off out with the National Trust yesterday to Killiecrankie in northern Perthshire. We were doing some woodland work and emptying and refilling their charcoal burning kiln. They have been burning all the trees that have been blown over or removed as part of habitat management to make barbecue charcoal which they sell in the visitor centre. 

First we had to remove the lid from the kiln to see the results of  the previous burn. 

When the lid was removed it became obvious quite quickly that it wasn't a particularly successful burn - there was a large hole on one side where it had over-burned and the other side had lots of wood left that hadn't burnt enough. We emptied it and following sorting we managed to get 7 bags of charcoal. 

This is the kiln being prepared for the next burn. The black boxes are the vents in the bottom of the kiln and the wooden logs are known as spacers. Then you put some kindling in the middle and insert the "chimney".  The chimney (you can see our chimney before we pulled it out) is really a tube to keep a space in the wood, it is removed before the burn starts - it keeps a hole the length of the kiln that the hot ashes (from a small bonfire) are dropped down to start the burning process. 

You start laying logs as if they were the spokes of a wheel and try to fill up the kiln ensuring that there are as few gaps as possible - avoiding spaces for oxygen   to enter. We interspersed the new wood with some of the partially burnt wood from the last burn. Once the kiln is full you replace the lid - but not closing it completely to allow air to move over it until after it is lit. Once lit, it will start to smoke and once you hear the snap, crackle and pop of the wood so reminiscent of a good fire, you close the lid and seal it with sand. You add 3 chimneys to alternating external vents and block up the other 3, after 6 hours you swap the chimneys around ensuring an even burn (you hope). When you want to stop the burn you block up all the external vents with turf and earth to ensure no more oxygen gets in and leave the kiln to cool.

This is the kiln ready for the next burn and the site cleared, with the wood chopped and stored for future use. If you walk from the Visitor Centre at Killiecrankie about 20 minutes south along the river you will find the kiln site.

Lots of activities take place in the area, particularly on the river - this one looks like a lot of fun and some of our volunteer group decided we want to give it a try.

On the drive north yesterday I was amazed by the swathes of bluebells covering the hillsides. I don't remember ever seeing as many. So today I decided that I would go and look for bluebells (before the season was over) despite the grey and dreich weather. A friend had mentioned a lovely walk in Blairgowrie about 15 miles north west of Dundee to Darroch Woods, a native oak woodland with a glorious spring display of Scottish bluebells. I cannot believe that I didn't know about this place before. It was serene, beautiful, inspiring and that was despite the weather and the bluebells smelt amazing.

Just outside Blairgowrie on the B947 there is a path that starts just beyond Muirton House (a residential care home). It is a lovely 1 hour walk to and round the woods from there. 

My first glimpse of what was to come....

After the bluebell woods I headed on to Dunkeld to go to the Loch of the Lowes to see the osprey. Lady is a regular visitor to the Loch of the Lowes, she is the oldest known breeding raptor in the world. She has been nesting at Loch of the Lowes for 24 years, rearing over 50 chicks during this time.

Here's a link to the webcam on the nest so you can see for yourself - webcam.

I spent over an hour in the hides and the visitor centre, I saw a great crested grebe, siskin, yellowhammers, coal tits, blue tits, chaffinches, pheasant and a non-native mandarin duck. Alongside all the birds we saw red squirrel which are breeding in the area and a vole.

Oh and a few more bluebells on the way home.

The Great Outdoors

Since my little blog hiatus (partially caused by computer death and partially caused by laziness) I have been getting on with my conservation volunteering with the National Trust for Scotland. Late last year this included a little trip south of the border, into Englandshire. We spent the weekend in the beautiful Lake District working with a team from another volunteer project called Fix the Fells. We cleared drains on footpaths and worked on some dry stand dyking (in the rain), all the while surrounded by beautiful scenery.

Clearing the paths - military formation style! Fix the Fells repair and maintain many miles of paths throughout the Lakes - they are a great bunch of volunteers and make the Lake District National Park a great place for walkers. 

The view!

The following day we participated in the not so dry, dry-stand dyking. Repairing a fallen down wall - round stones don't make the easiest of tools for dry stand dyking, but you've got to work with what you've got.

The view from the worksite - Watendlath Tarn - a mountain pool formed by glaciation, high above Derwant Water. The village and surrounding countryside are owned by the National Trust. 

The base of our wall redeveloped....

Cottown, National Trust

Spent a morning with the National Trust yesterday. We were at the Old Schoolhouse in Cottown on the Carse of Gowrie between Dundee and Perth. The Old Schoolhouse was taken over in the 1990s by the National Trust for Scotland after it had been left to decay. It is an earth brick building, one of the few remaining in Scotland. Built between 1745 and 1770 the building has earth brick walls  (straw-bonded mud) covered in harling and limewash and a thatch roof. Harling is a traditional building technique that has proven to be the best way to weatherproof buildings be it traditional stone masonry or earth bricks. Lime rendering allows buildings to breathe, quite necessary for an earth brick building. 

It isn't open to the public and isn't really used for anything, but on Doors Open Day on the 22nd of September it will be open for visitors. It was therefore in need of a little bit (well actually quite a lot but I haven't yet learned how to thatch a roof) of attention and our conservation group were duly dispatched to tackle the overgrown garden so that visitors will be able to actually see the building when they come.

Here's the before photo.......

And after 2 hours of manic chopping....

If this bramble bush is anything to go by we could be expecting a hard winter.... I've never seen so many berries on one bush!

We had just finished up and were about to eat lunch when the heavens opened and it poured....we decided just to go home and eat lunch there and headed off towards Dundee to find that it hadn't even rained 2 miles down the road in Errol. Typical Scottish weather - if you don't like it wait 10 minutes or drive 2 miles and it will be different!

Woollie Weekend

This weekend I was away with the National Trust for a weekend of destruction, all in name of conservation. We were off to one of our favourite spots, Threave in Dumfries and Galloway in SW Scotland. Part of the estate includes Rockcliffe, a beautiful coastal landscape which overlooks the Solway Firth and this was where we were working this weekend. It is home to an array of birdlife, including the entire population of barnacle geese from Svalbard which winter here.

We were clearing footpaths along the coast and around the Mote of Mark, a dark age hilltop fort occupied during the 6th and 7th century and Muckle Hill. This involved removing a lot of prickly bushes from brambles, to blackthorn to holly - ouch! We learned about the correct way to prune trees to ensure the tree heals effectively and that it's best not to sit on a blackthorn branch!

The chopping team - March 2010!

Atop the muckle March 2010

Whilst we were lucky with the weather i.e it didn't rain, it wasn't quite as glorious as it was when we visited last May. I've put a couple of photos together for comparison!

Perfect lunch spot - May 2009

A top the muckle May 2009

But it was certainly warmer than when we were hedge laying on the Threave Estate in January 2009! We went back to look at our hedge and see the growth progress since it was laid, it was quite impressive and you could see why they make such effective barriers for livestock.

The hedge, laid in January 2009

The hedge in March 2010

Woollie Weekend

Spent the last couple of weekends doing conservation work with the National Trust, seeing friends and running.

First was a day out at Kellie Castle in Fife where we were planting up a new apple orchard and then this weekend was a day at Hill of Tarvit, also in Fife. 

I love the sweeping expanse of the grounds and the giant yew hedges at Hill of Tarvit and it looked particularly atmospheric this weekend because the weather has been glorious, cold and wintry, but the sky has been blue. There was snow on the ground at Hill of Tarvit which meant we didn't work on the hickory golf course, which has been reinstated in recent years and where you can play a round of golf using hickory clubs and tees and balls that represent the early 20th century golf experience, but in the woods behind the house instead. 

We were chopping down laurel, dragging it down the hill to be chipped and then spreading the chips on the muddy footpaths to make new surfaces. I spent most of the day with a wheelbarrow, a spade and a rake creating new paths with the laurel chippings. 

The tools of my trade.....rake, fork and wheelbarrow

The newly laid path

There were signs of spring around, aconites poking up through the snow, and snowdrops galore...

Today,  I drove to Tayport, across the river, and ran along Tentsmuir Beach to Tentsmuir Point, with the sea on one side and the forest on the other, frost underfoot and the sun overhead....a beautiful day for a run!

Woollie Weekend

Beautiful blue sky weekend...cold and bright and did I have my camera......

Spent Saturday at Dollar Glen with the National Trust doing footpath repairs and moving signs....it was great to be outdoors working again - our last project was cancelled so I hadn't been out since November. You'll need to click the link to see other people's photos of Dollar Glen and Castle Campbell.

I have also spent a lot of time these past 10 days helping good friends get ready for their move to Paris - not easy when you have to pack up a 4 bedroom house, with an almost 3 year old around. So we've wrapped and packed and boxed and stored and taken trips to the dump and eaten a lot of takeaway and finally today, was the last day, the leaving party.....a good old British Afternoon Tea (for our Costa Rican/Mexican Brits) with crustless cucumber sandwiches, crumpets, scones (made by me) with clotted cream and homemade raspberry jam.....

It was a lovely afternoon, but a sad afternoon, friends who have been part of my life for almost 9 years moving on....taking their adorable daughter with them and the bump......who knows when we will meet baby number 2.....

I have managed a little crafting and the latest blankie is progressing.

But as you can see, Little Red could do with a little more work!

Oh and the other excitement around here this week....the arrival of my new Camper shoes, straight from the  headquarters in Mallorca......comfy!

And a final little footnote....the old blog was 3 on the 28th of January and this is post number 348....perhaps I'll have a little giveaway when I hit post 350!