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Crackaig

Rain please, PLEASE NOW!

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Here in the north of Scotland we have been having a bit of a dry spell. Well more than a bit. We haven't had significant rain since at least April. This has had a few undesirable effects. The rivers are showing their bones, there is very little water in them. The loch are getting so warm fish are too stressed to fish for. Worse still we are seeing large blooms of blue green algae. At least one persons dog has died as a result of this.

The dry weather has lead to a huge emergence of cleggs. The horsefly, or clegg as it is known hereabouts is an evil critter. It has sawing mouth parts, and its bite hurts a lot. I would compare it to being stabbed with a red hot needle. They are also filthy insects. A friend of mine spent about 18 ours out on the hill, walking and camping out as part of a Mountain Leadership Course. She suffered 82 clegg bites. I am on standby to drive her to hospital if her condition worsens.

As if all this isn't bad enough we have a forest fire raging. Now I know many of you live in areas that suffer huge forest fires. You need to remember they are so rare here I have never seen one before. I've been out and taken these photos at midnight last night (yes this is the middle of the night here at this time of year).

Golspie is a village of about 1500 people, on the east coast of Sutherland. It is at the foot of Ben Bhraggie. Anyone who knows anything about Scottish history will have heard of the Highland Clearances. These were initiated by the first Duke of Sutherland. His statue is on top of Ben Bhraggie. That is the monument you can see atop the hill in one of these shots.

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My good friend, and boat fishing partner, Mike lives out that end of the village with his family. The fire got to within 100 yards of his home. Fire fighters prevented the fire jumping the track behind his house. For those of us in the village proper we're under a huge bank of smoke, but no danger from the fire.

Right now some rain would be very, very welcome.
Cheers,

C.

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Hope you get some rain soon to help fight that blaze. Forest fires are a scary deal. I remember when I was younger we had one upnorth that got pretty close to us and we had to find routes around it at times. Scared me enough that I still remember it today 30+ yrs later. Hoping for the best for you and your village.

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Thanks, they brought in the helicopters today. Ideal for it as the sea is only 50 yards from where I took the photos. They seemed to have turned the tide of it. The fire though has gone all the way round the back of Ben Bhraggie, and is now approaching from the other size of the village.

Cheers,

C.

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Apparently it was started deliberately. I don't have any more details, lots of gossip going around, but that was from one of the fire fighters. Still no sign of rain.
The way the village has come together to provide for the fire fighters is brilliant. Lots of supplies up at the control centre. Firefighters from all over the highlands have been brought in. This morning I can see the sea from my living room window, smoke has blocked the view for the last few days.
It has been noticeable that the Saddleworth moors fires above Oldham (the town I was born in) near Manchester, were national news. This doesn't even make the Scottish news. The first my family knew of it was when I posted those photos on Facebook, yet we have wall to wall coverage of their fires.

Cheers,
C.

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That's terrible someone would start a fire like that on purpose, makes you wonder what the hell is wrong with society. I hope they are able to find whomever started it and lock them up for a very long time.

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I proposed quite a lenient short sentence for the arsonist. 2 years. We lock them up, and then we start the two years when the trees have regrown to the same height they were last week.

Cheers,

C.

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2 step Community service.

Step 1: Make a personal apology (authorities supervised) to every person affected by the fire you started.

Step 2: Dustpan and broom ... clean up all the ashes from the fire you started.

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Hi Alan, good to hear you can breath again, I heard the chopper was using lundie for water???

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Yes mate, but we haven't complained about poaching!
This morning I awoke to rain. Not much but every drop is welcome.

Cheers,

C.

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Well ... we've had 20 straight days of 2 inches or more a day rain. Today, I got home a little early to mow my yard for the first time in about 3 weeks.

My little riding mower does NOT like foot high grass. It's so thick that a quarter would bounce off it like a military cot.

 

Supposed to be a good weekend ... and I'll probably have to mow a second time before it's over.

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Still little in the way of water here we could do with rain daily for a month to top up rivers and lochs.

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