Compo

Members
  • Content Count

    11,636
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    371

Everything posted by Compo

  1. Lovely rock garden, Nonna!
  2. Berrriedale to Dunbeath extra: You think you have found a lovely, shady litte stream to follow in a wooded gorge but just twenty paces from where I stood the stream tumbled over the cliff edge as a waterfall. The stream: Twenty paces further along it becomes this:
  3. Berriedale to Dunbeath part 3. Other stuff from the walk: Part of the seabird colony on An Dun: Dotted around the 147miles of John O'Groats trail from Inverness to John O'Groats are walkers visitors books. They are contained in boxes like this: The hole in the drystone wall is known as a "Sheep Creep". The entrance to Dunbeath castle: Dunbeath harbour. the end of the walk:
  4. Berriedale to Dunbeath part 2. The scenery: Berriedale from the north: An Dun: A sea arch: Close up of the arch: o Same arch from the north: Yet another Caithness sea stack: A lonely house on the hill:
  5. Saturday morning dawned bright and clear so we took a walk along the Berriedale to Dunbeath clifftops. The weather deteriorated as the morning wore on but we made it to Dunbeath before the thunderstorm broke. Here's a few pictures taken during the walk. Berriedale to Dunbeath part1. Mostly wildflowers: A John O'Groats traill marker: Wildflowers abounded along the walk: A Spotted Heath Orchid: Foxgloves and grasses, all in flower. The grass pollen hung like a mist in the air: A Field
  6. My bike ride this morning produced these two sightings. A Reed Bunting and a Yellowhammer. Sorry abotu the quality but they wouldn't keep still!
  7. The sun shone yesterday morning so I took advantage of the rare fine day (Heavy rain and lightning later) and did a coastal walk from Beriedale to Dunbeath. The vegetation is now quite tall, so gaps in the clifftop path were difficult to spot and the chance of a plunge down 200+ft of cliff was never far away I took some photos, many of which I have deleted; the remainder will appear here, perhaps tomorrow. I use RAW format for my photos, so it takes a wee bitty of time to transpose them and edit for posting here. Meanhwile how's this for a lovely piece of treasure trove.... a huge 1½lb puffba
  8. On wednesday evening I attended a talk by an ex-WWII Stirling heavy bomber pilot, Sqdn Ldr Don Mason DSO DFC L.d'H (Chevalier), BEM. (Retd.) Just three months away from his 99th birthday, Don gave a magnificent 2½hr illustrated lecture on Bomber crews and their missions during World War Two. He completetd 67 missions over occupied Europe and was shot down twice. He didn't say much about when he was shot down so I tabled a question at the end during the usual "Questions and answers" session. I asked how he was awarded the DSO and DFC. His answer was illuminating and interesting, to
  9. Update to the above: Had an email from the Highland Council thanking me for letting them know about the dumping. They will clean up the site within the next few days. I have written to the locl paper and includded a photo of the incident. I have also made it clear that the bill for the clean-up is to be borne by the council and that next time the council make cuts, he/she (The dunmper) will have done more than their share to cause those cuts.
  10. Went for my usual mornnig bike ride and found that the stupid tw*t who dumps his takeaway boxes and Red Bull tins out of his car at the weekends has struck again but this time not just a single can and box.....there is a pile of Red Bull tins and empty fag packets all dumped in a passing place on one of the single track roads where I usually spot the cast out stuff. I've reported the tipping to "Dumb Dumpers" and it will be removed tomorrow but the point is that every Caithness household has recycle bins that take everything in the pile - so why go to the trouble of dumping in the countryside
  11. That's a good point, DB. I have thought of this and they seem to occur after a cheek or lip bite injury but also when building up to more visitors. I get quite stressed around groups of people.
  12. Thank for the ulcer tips, gang - tried them all over the years but to no avail. I get an outreak of ulcers about twice a year these days. They are about half the size of a five pence piece at their height and are very painful, expecially when they stick to my teeth in the night. They seem to co-incide with my biting a lip or cheek; so I'm thinking infection after a bite injury. Tried all remedies but they never go until after about two weeks. Just a few days left for this one to run its course........
  13. Day not going too well...have a huge mouth ulcer just inside my bottom lip and my face is swollen. I was looking forward to a couple of pints in 'spoons 'safto, too.
  14. GRRRRRRRR! Visitors who can't eat this and won't eat that - then you go to a lot of trouble to cook a feast of things they can/will eat.....they go out and then come back two hours after the time THEY set for it to be ready. THEN they start telling you how you should go about reheating it all because you are doing it wrong! Lose my temper with them? I told them to keep their opinions to themselves in MY kitchen. I was angry.
  15. My father was stationed at Watnall for some time during WWII and also further down the road at a place that was across the M1 from the brickworks Sadly he is now dead and connot tell any stories of as it was. He was something to do with communications but he never spoke much of his war. He had the Italy star and France & Germany star along with the three standard war medals - so he travellled around a bit.
  16. A winter squall off Britain's most northerly mainland point, Dunnet Head:
  17. Winter will soon be with us once again. This was my upper garden in January:
  18. Afternoon, 3rd July 2015. Dunnet beach north Caithness. Holidays will proceed as booked!
  19. Glen Feshie (Southern Cairngorms):
  20. Five years ago today. This is me looking back at the first of three tops on Scaraben, Caithness. Approaching the main summit of Scaraben:
  21. Dunbeath to Latheron [See bottom for album link] Here's a starter for ten..... Of weeds and walls: The rest of the album is here. If you can't see it I will post individual photos in small batches. Click on the first photo to open the bigger version and you will find captions to the right-hand side. Use forward arrows on right to move through album: A walk from Dunbeath to Latheron via the clifftops.
  22. Went for a walk from Dunbeath to Latheronwheel on Sunday morning. I took some photos that I'm going to post later. For now how about the giant beast walking through the water. there is a legend of "The Morven Giant" in Caithness. Named after the mountain it is supposed to inhabit.....could this be the legend?
  23. We were going to bid for both but there was a fault in the concrete retaining wall at the back of the house that would have cost more than we could afford to repair, Margie.