Christmas Day 2008

Merry Christmas from Cobleland campsite :-). No builders today to turn off the water, electric or create massive muddy trenches around us!

Lovely Scots Pine tree kindly donated to the cabin site by our friends at the Forestry Commission. I think Daisy enjoyed her roast dinner!

Nearly Blown off Ben Ledi

Wanted to finally get a view from Ben Ledi, but got about 150 metres from the top but too windy to make the summit. Excellent views though! Stayed in a cabin for the first time. It had a log burner and more importantly a bath - heaven!

Snowy Animal Tracks

A yeti? At last, evidence of the pine marten on the cabin site having licked the peanut butter off the log pile!

Loch Lubnaig Winter Sunset

How nice is where we work!!!!

Perfect Winter walk!

A brilliant walk on the hills the other side of the cabin site. Saw no other people and loads of wild animal tracks, squirrel, fox, mouse, pine marten and deer. Saw some Red deer too :-)

Snow is here!

Cabin number 1 with Ben Ledi in the background. We all snuck off to the other end of the site to play on our snow tube, I don't think the boss knew??

Here's what the site looks like from the other side of Loch Lubnaig.

Lovely Lichen & Brill' Bracket Fungi

There's loads of lichen up here, which means there's loads of fresh clean air to breathe...aaah. Also, lots of bracket fungi, this one is Birch Polypore, or Razor Strop fungi as you can sharpen a knife back and forth on the top like an old fashioned barber would on a strap. Brings it up better than a sharpening stone - the wonders of nature eh!

Faery Hill

Just around the corner from the campsite is Doon, or Faery Hill. Aberfoyle is also known as the enchanted village so there are loads of faeries living here! There are many secrets of the forest to learn from them, but to find out more and why they live in this hill with the Faery Minister, who disapeared from our world in 1692, you will have to come on one of my Ranger walks!

If you choose to go there on your own, be sure to take a gift for the faeries and don't take away anything from the hill! Probably best not to walk around the bottom of the hill three times either as you might dissappear!? Any wishes should be left on natural cotton, tread carefully.....

Ben Venue

Had a great walk up Ben Venue. Amazing forests and great views, a bit windy up top as usual!

Ben Ledi

Our local hill, Ben Ledi when we are working at Strathyre Cabins. We didn't have a view, but someone had made an impressive snow penguin.

Getting Accustomed to the New Surroundings

Will had to try a Deep fried mars bar, the restaurant was right, "not recommended, but the sorbet is great". It was nice actually!

Just before Dave and Eileen left the campsite for pastures new, me, Will and Dave completed the GoApe high wire adventure in Aberfoyle. It's got Britain's longest zip slide which was great, but the tarzan swing was less fun!

Cobleland Campsite, our New Home

Here is our home for the next year (oops it doesn't always flood!). Lesley and Graham - Site Managers and Dave and Eileen - Site assistants, ooh and Fingle and Kye the site doggies were so welcoming and helpful :-)

Strathyre Cabin Site

Here is a view from one of the Ranger walks we lead. Autumn is rapidally approaching and there's loads of Fungi up here in the Strathrye Forest.

New Job, New Place

At last, a new blog entry!

Sorry for the delay, after an intense year at work we have two weeks off and have found somewhere with a better Internet connection! I have loads of photo's and too much catching up to do, so I'll add just a few to make a start on catching up!

After a crazy summer at Hollands Wood Campsite in the New Forest, we were offered an amazing opportunity to go to Scotland last September and work on the Strathyre Cabin site and do Ranger Activities for the site and at Cobleland Campsite, Aberfoyle where we will live. Although thrown in at the deep end, exhausted with the intense amount of learning about the area's history, flora and fauna, we consider ourselves extremely lucky to have had the chance so it's definitely been worth all the hard work this year. One year on and looking back now, we were so nervous like nothing before (even Will couldn't keep out of the toilet for his first Ranger led walk), but it's been a worthwhile experience and I'm sure another positive step towards our greener future!

New Updates Coming Soon

Hi there, we've eventually got ourselves a laptop and slow internet connection so I'll be adding a few pictures soon. Watch this space!

We're still working for Forest Holidays, but are now both Rangers and are taking people out on guided walks in Scotland : )

Farewell to The New Forest Fungi

All the fungi is coming out to play! A wonder through the heather later and we found these lovely, but poisonous panther caps. Then, just before we had to leave the forest for our new job in Scotland, we found this delicious beef steak fungus hanging off an oak tree. We waited a day for it to grow a bit more, then took it to slice and watch it bleed like steak. We gave a slice to our families to try, but not sure if they tried it!!?? Unfortunately, our slice went off before we could eat it, but it's supposed to taste quite bitter, but lovely tossed in a salad?? Bye for now The New Forest!

Debates, Swings and Kingfishers

We went backpacking with Jonathan before he went back home, here he is with Will having one of their disagreable debates no doubt. At a guess, maybe they're discussing the life and times of camping cookers, or, another light weight debate?

Here's a naughty swing that isn't allowed in The New Forest, Jonathan had a go, but fell in the river :-). In the meantime I was the sensible one taking pictures and catching a flash of a kingfisher.

Hollands Wood Cart

Here's some detail of the Hollands Wood cart that I restored and painted for Ben and Louvain at the campsite in The New Forest. They are taking it to Bulgaria where they have a new business and holiday home with the same name. They will be there from October 2009.

Bat and mouse...

Verdigris toadstool and Fly Agaric...

Red Squirrel munching on acorns, just coming into its winter coat and soon to lose his tufts.

Peacock butterfly and a Nuthatch.

Freddie and Fungi

My family came up to visit for a few days camping, so it was great to see everyone. Here's my nephew, Freddie at the pub, zonked out after all that fresh air. We'd just found out we were going to go up to Scotland to work and do ranger walks, so time to revise... quickly! Alan, who is going to be a ranger in The New Forest in 2010 is helping Will identify some fungi.

Dorset

Had a few days in Dorest walking a bit of the South West Coast Path : )

Flora & Fauna

Here's some Six-Spotted Burnets, day-flying moths feeding on knapweed and an extremely mature mushroom.

Love That Coast Path

A bit steep, but really enjoyable. Especially when you can have a paddle to cool those sweaty feet!