January 2025
So, here we are… the start of a new “photo a day” project, the 15th in a row and now I am bringing it to my website! It is something of a diary with photos that records life as we move through the year, and I think this year could be quite significant one way or another.
2nd January 2025
An absolutely amazing evening over Glen Coiltie tonight with the smallest slither of a moon sitting over Meal Fuar-mhonaidh.
4th January 2025
The holiday's are over - just a day tomorrow of packing away the decorations and evicting the tree... then back to normal on Monday.
Weather dependant!
This is the view back up from the village towards the house up on the hill, high above the landslip and slowly becoming icebound! Next week is looking generally pretty chilly so it is going to get interesting!
I am still not used to writing “2025”….
1st January 2025
New Year's Day arrived with fresh snow fall, which makes a change from the incessant rain. We start the year though, not snowed in, but "rained in" as the road out of the glen is now precariously positioned at the top of a loose mud cliff with quite a considerable drop into the river below. The river has continued to undercut the escarpment, so more is quite likely to go, and the angle of the slope looks too steep to be anything close to stable too. We do have a work around, but that isn't really sustainable either and still the tourists keep driving up to look at the falls....
Anyway, I thought this was a good photograph to launch my 15th "Photo a Day" project that has mapped life over the last decade and a half!
3rd January 2025
Out for a walk down to the bridge, and inspect the devastation caused by the river bank collapse on Hogmanay. Hopefully we will hear something about a plan of action to repair the road soon!
6th January 2025
First job of the year - and off to Portknockie in the snow to complete it!
It was a little touch and go getting out to the job with heavy snow on the A96… and then touch and go getting home as we live up a steep, rough and currently very icy, track! But all done safe and sound!
8th January 2025
The glen is so peaceful when the snow falls - we had more last night and a substantial freeze too. Angus was off school due to a heating failure (now fixed) whilst the others were in, and I seemed to have enough grip today to get down without snow chains too (this is now my cut off point for snow days, if I need chains we ain't going as I need to put them on, take them off at the bottom of the track as I hit tarmac, then repeat the proceedure on the way back, so it adds about 45 minutes+ to the journey!)
I stopped off on the bridge over the Coiltie to take a photo of the winter wonderland though. Quite a contrast to how much water was coming down on Hogmanay when the river undercut it's banks and caused a massive land slide!
5th January 2025
Sunset as we say goodbye to the holidays - tomorrow is back to reality, both work and school. I am kicking the week off with a trip out to Portknockie which will be a nice change of scenery!
The snow is still very much present that fell on Hogmanay and is sitting on a sheet of ice which makes driving down the track a little treacherous but I haven't needed to break the snow chains out.
Yet.
Hopefully this week we will get some kind of update regarding the collapsed bank/road situation too. And I am praying for a rapid resolution - whilst anticipating a lengthy delay (this is a worry as the longer it waits, the greater the chance of complete failure!)
7th January 2025
The first “snow day” of the year. It isn’t a huge accumulation, but sitting over ice in parts makes the road out the glen particularly trecherous. Particularly the section where the current diversion ejects you directly towards the sheer drop from Hogmanay’s landslide. Ending up 10m vertically down from the road in the river is not how I want to start my day!
The gritter has been up now so tomorrow it may be worth trying the school run, and if successful, carrying on out to Elgin to get a couple of early year jobs wrapped up!
9th January 2025
Another day and more snow! There was a fairly good amount that came down in the early hours this morning after a good hard freeze. The schools are closed, not that I would have attempted to get there anyway (I can… but putting snow chains on and off for a 3 mile journey and the same at home time is a faff - once the chains are required it is emergency travel only!)
This is the view down the track this morning!