Happily Ever After
Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running
Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.
A Day Filled With Snappery
by admin - 23:22 on 21 May 2010
Matchgirl, long-standing readers will know, in the aftermath of a cold does an impressive impression of a sealion. Her cough booms around The Rural Retreat with little respite.
That's why she left the marital bed at 3am today, in case she woke me. Remarkably, she didn't. But when I returned from the Land of Nod three hours later, to find her absent, I descended the stairs and discovered her on the sofa, glorious sunlight streaming through the windows.
After I'd confirmed that she was in no immediate mortal danger I turned to admire the view – just as Master Marten leapt on to the garden gate in search of Nutella. This was a great, if unexpected, start to the day.
Our mustelid mate stayed only briefly, for he or one of his friends had eaten all the free food the night before and all that remained were scraps. This gave me only moments to take a few snaps, of which this is the best. You'll find a few more on my Flickr site.
Excitement and a too-wide aperture meant that their sharpness is not good – none are worth printing – but there will be more to come, although I'm unlikely to make many 6am starts.
More snappery followed after breakfast when I joined Andrew and Dolphin James for a look around Macfarquhar's Bed, an area near Cromarty that features spectacular coastal scenery, a picturesque ruined salmon station and a not-much-less-ruined fishermen's bothy.
Many snaps were snapped to the lyrical accompaniment of waves, seabirds and muffled gunfire from the training range at Fort George across the Moray Firth. A helicopter added to the symphony as it scooped water from the firth to help extinguish a nearby moor fire. Dolphins were seen rapidly disappearing into the distance, fearful of being dropped into the landscape.
Even more snappery took place in the evening when Matchgirl and I attended an adopters' evening at Highland Wildlife Park. Highlight was three very playful year-old tiger cubs. Photographic evidence will be posted tomorrow.
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