Bog Myrtle & Peat

Yet more snow is now falling in the Galloway hills, and a brisk south easterly wind is making it drift in some places to several inches. It’s not exactly apocalyptic, but the way it’s coming down is pretty unpleasant. There is a smoky mist of driving snow which gets down collars and up cuffs, and although the forecast claims that it will turn to rain by late afternoon, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were several more inches to come.

There was no signs of life whatsoever on the Chayne this morning when I walked round to check my snares and traps, and in fact the only activity was around a white vauxhall astra at the top of the glen which had ambitiously tried to cover ground which was patently beyond it. The driver stood meekly in the blizzard, and although I tried to pull him out, I had no luck. It fell to the keeper on next door’s estate to tow him back onto the road with his land rover, which involved a great deal of swearing and clashing gears.

Usually sullen and motionless during bad weather, something about this latest fall of snow has inspired my pet blackcock into activity. He has spent the morning strutting around in the open, even going so far as to display for a little as the cold wind whipped through the chicken mesh and lashed his carefully arranged tail feathers. Sometimes I don’t understand him at all.