Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Preparing For A Holiday
05/11/2005
A fair spring day after another chilly night, lots of sun and blue skies, light winds and the temperature creeps up 16 degrees in the sunny spells. I have had an amazing response to my praises of BOGIE in yesterday’s dairy, a CEO (not entirely sure what that is) contacted me to encourage my daughters to apply for posts in the bureau as it needs a “Scottish Dimension” to their forward planning. This very polite gentleman showed a great interest in Scottish Grasscutting and hinted at an honorarium, plus expenses, consultancy for myself. The girls, boosted by the final eviction of the Columbian Cousin from the Highbury house last week, howled down any suggestion of my involvement making it clear that their commitment to BOGIE would waive flags like mad. I am slightly puzzled as I am quite sure that neither belle would know the sharp end of a lawn mower if it jumped up and bit them. Dearest Dottie and I are preparing for a short break in Lewis and Harris before summer completely takes over our rural lives, apart from the normal matter of chasing up missing shirts and socks mislaid by Mhairi, there are a few last minute maintenance matters to attend to. While I check round the lambing pens encouraging the ewes, Lachie hoists Dottie onto the high roofs to realign the satellite dish and cast an eye over our tricky gutter system. I never cease to marvel at the dedication of that woman. Yours Aye, Archie, The Baron Trollaigh.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Pied Flycatcher
05/10/2005
We are all reassured that it will be a bright Spring day, to-day. However, we do suffer a Glen Trollaigh effect with overnight frost, a dull morning, but a much cheerier afternoon with some bright spells and the temperature peaks at 16 degrees when the sun peeps through. I manage to spend much of the day considering conservation policies with Lachie. We develop a grass cutting strategy for the garden to allow more room for ground nesting birds, and with a little extra wooden fencing, we can reduce grass cutting in the front garden too. This project is encouraged by the Bureau Overseeing Grasscutting In Europe (BOGIE) that will reward us with brownie points for wasting hours of precious time and filling in mountains of paperwork to reduce the CO2 emissions of lawn mowers in Europe. I have suggested to both daughters that they ought to apply for one of the hundreds of salaried positions generated by BOGIE in Strasburg, as I can certainly teach them all they could ever possibly want to know about cutting grass having mown millions of acres of the stuff over the years, although fortunately I know nothing of lawn mower emissions. Lachie and I have also been encouraged by those great promoters of Beaver re-introduction, Scottish Natural Heritage to put up nest boxes to help the plight of Pied Flycatchers. We happily carry out this pleasant task arguing over the selection and orientation of each site, this is made more difficult as, to my certain knowledge neither of us have ever seen or heard of a Pied Flycatcher and we are therefore know nothing of its housing requirements! As a comment on the lack of “joined up thinking” in government agencies, I smile wryly at a note from the Forestry Commission that nest boxes should be attached to trees with soft nails so that chainsaws are not damaged in the future. Therefore, in the Pied Flycatchers case, what Scottish Natural Heritage giveth, the Forestry Commission taketh away. I for one will drink to the continued prosperity of the Pied Flycatcher, God bless them one and all.