Compo

No fireflies Jonab. Oddly, we don't have ants either.

I almost managed to grow some Portabella mushroms this year. The spawn grew and spread nicely but I misjudged the casing time and killed the spawn Trying again with a new batch of spawn.

Yep, sounds like me alright! Went out without my dressing gown the other evening and was near bitten to death by the dreaded Scottish midges! They go straight for the naughty bits!

Summer finally arrived in Caithness last Thursday, Fly. Looks like it's over now though.

Hiking boots, Beekay. Too muddy for shoes in this part of the world

Loch Gaineimh (Ganiv), central Caithness, November 2005:

Thank you for all the nice things you have said about my snapshots, gang. Much appreciated.

This one's for Beekay. The newly constructed footbridge over Ousdale Burn at the bottom of the gorge. Note "1 person at a time, please". It's quite flimsy but does the job. I crouched on this bridge when taking the photo of the burn.

Wahey! I wonder if I have been putting too many photos in one post and the server didn't like it?

If anyone wants to see a walk report from my coastal trip 'Ousdale-Berriedale' before the photos mysteriously disappear once again then go to: Members Hobbies and Interests/Photography/Out and about with Compo

Beekay: The John O'groats trail volunteers have built a small footbridge over the burn, which is where I stood to take the picture. If I can persuade SWMBO to part with one of her photos I will post a picture of the footbridge alater.

The next item of interest on the walk is Berriedale. Berriedale Braes are a pair of notorious hills either side of the village of Berriedale. At the bottom is a tiny harbour and to the north is a hairpin bend that frequently closes the road as articulated lorries get stuck on it. It is the only non-single track road into and out of Caithness so everything goes up it. Closure usually lasts for a couple of hours whilst the recovery vehicles remove the lorries. Work has begun on taking the road around the cemetery in order to remove the hairpin bend. The Berriedale roadworks:

These photos show the area around Badbea village and the conditions in which the families lived. Bear in mind that this is high summer and winter is a little bleaker! Cliffs at Badbea: The wall built by the families. They lived on the seaward side to the left of the picture:

Badbea village ruins: Inside the same house: The monument to the families:

A little further along the coast is the abandoned village of Badbea. People were removed from their homes in the straths by landlords and forcibly resettled in places like this in order to make way for sheep in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The period is known in Scotland as "The Highland Clearances". People at Badbea were forced to build a stone wall near the cliffs and live on the seaward side of the wall. It is said that they had to tether their children to prevent them from falling over the cliffs in winter. In 1851 there were still 60 peoplel living here but by 1903 the village

Last Thursday saw us off on yet another coastal section of the John O'Groats trail. At the end of our walk we went to the little café in Berriedale, where we met a young girl from New Zealand who was walking from Land's End to John O'Groats using the road as little as possible. It turned out that she had been about half an hour in front of us on our walk and she was having a wash and brush-up in the café as we arrived. She was wild-camping and we were able to give her some tips on the best places to pitch the tent between Berriedale and John O'Groats. She will be on her way home by now I shou

Beekay: The islanders were scraping a subsistence living off the near infertile island. As time moved on they, like other people, wanted a little more from life. Many moved just across the water to live near mainland relatives, some of whom still live in the district to this day.

Anyone ever do owt daft? Back in 1970 I had a friend who lived on RAF Sculthorpe. He had an old Mars Bar Viva that was making a bit of a racket from the back end somewhere. I went into the boot and hung over the back listening for the noise whilst he drove up and down the runway! Took a few runs but eventually we located the fault.

Found the culprit. I think it is a Sentinel D12 0-8-0 that I was thinking of. I was a trainee at Moorgreen during l;ate 1969 and these are the locos I remember.

Thanks Notty, I thought they might have had a D9500 class 0-6-0 shunter. All I can remember is the centre cab.

Does anyone recall the type of diesel locos used to ship coal from Moorgreen colliery to the main line during the late 1960s?

Hi gang. Katyjay has asked me to post this image for her so here goes........... Sorry I don't have a location but I'm sure she will add it soon.

Wot...has the climate changed again?!

Until recently if we had a plume of high pressure move up from Africa, bringing a spell of hot weather, it made for a good summer. These days if we have the same it has to be reported as the disastrous effects of "Climate Change". Why are we not allowed to simply enjoy the weather whilst it lasts without having to submit to the misery of the doom-and-gloom merchants? I, for one, am taking full advantage of the good summer - we've had three really nice days up here in Caithnness so far this year and I intend to enjoy every single day of fine weather we have whilst I can.

So here's me, semi-traditionalist....no smart phone, no fancy gadgets to go wrong in my basic car, second-hand computer the size of a small planet and books for reference. Grow my own veg and soft fruits, brew my own beer and cook from scratch every day and listen to Radio Caroline daily. What a boring old fart I must be!