More than you might want to know about clegs (aka horseflies for southerners) by @countrysideben.bsky.social in @walkhighlands.co.uk newsletter. If you read until the end you will discover why imitating a zebra might deter them! PS I hate clegs 👍 www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/clegs-w...

Clegs: we really must stop horsing around!

Yes, I know I wrote about ticks last time. And yes, I know that makes it two articles on the trot about nasty wee beasties, but inspiration for subjects comes from whatever has crossed my path in the ...

walkhighlands.co.uk

I hate them more because it feels like malice with a cleg, whereas midges feel like weather. Clegs will come back at you if you try to swat them, and follow you looking for their chance even if you're frantically swiping your hat at them.

Weather warning today came to nowt, as is usually the case for rain / thunderstorm warnings in this neck of the woods. Always goes east of here. A grand total of 1.5mm of rain today, although just 2km away they got 13mm.

Here's this month's effort for @walkhighlands.co.uk, taking a closer look at clegs than many of you are probably comfortable with 😉 I challenge you to read this one without feeling like scratching a non-existent itch 🪰 www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/clegs-w...

Clegs: we really must stop horsing around!

Yes, I know I wrote about ticks last time. And yes, I know that makes it two articles on the trot about nasty wee beasties, but inspiration for subjects comes from whatever has crossed my path in the ...

walkhighlands.co.uk

Hyper-local interest, this post, but I picked this up in a Glenrothes bank (of all places) the other week. Couldn’t resist…..cos it made me feel oddly proud of the place 😆 I can also confidently say I’ve been to all of them 😉

Massive clearout of ‘stuff’ this past week. And this photo explicitly shows (to those who know what these are at least) just how long it’s been since the last clearout 😆

Added another day in the 30s here yesterday. This summer is well clear of the prior record holder (1976) for up to 3rd August. It's also taken the record for most days at 25 or above. 2018 increasingly faltered as August went on.

Woo hoo! We're off to the Cairngorms for our next trip 14-17 August, at the lovely Muir Cottage near Linn of Dee. A previous August trip saw us heading up big mountains and also enjoying the bonnie, blooming heather in the surrounding pinewoods. We have monthly weekends away, new members welcome!

Cleared this up today, right underneath a big old pine. #rangerdailydiary

Yep, it's been that kind of week down at the car parks 🫤 #rangerdailydiary

Vote Binface....

Count Binface@countbinface.bsky.social · 3y ago

Under a Binface government, anyone who doesn’t accept human-made climate change as fact will be sent back to school, from Year 1 right the way to A Levels, to see if anything goes in the second time round. #VoteBinface

Good grief, how can it be August??

Oh yes 😆

Met a Spanish guy today spending 3 days in the Cairngorms. Said today's temperature (low 3C, high 17C) was a dream compared to 40C+ at home! Then met a lady from Kent who said all the grass at home, in gardens and parks, was dead, and that it was lovely & fresh 'up here'. #rangerdailydiary

Another chilly one. 2.6C early this morning at Mar Lodge.

Barely any rain all month, and then more than an inch yesterday for the Lomond Hills. #fife

What's your opinion on waymarking in remote or mountainous places? 🤔This was in Norway a couple of weeks ago. Colourful splashes on rocks or trees are a common sight across much of Europe as a means of marking routes, but waymarking of any kind is pretty much non-existent in Scotland.

Today experienced the 24th day of year hitting 30C in London. For perspective in whole of 1980s we had 21 days.

The Office: Woman Holding 'HOT' Sign

ALT: The Office: Woman Holding 'HOT' Sign

static.klipy.com

Couldn’t quite believe it when I woke up, bleary eyed, and heard this. For many many reasons, this is the most beautiful and welcome sound in the world just now 🙂💧 Sound up!

Minding my own business today, taking fixed-point photos, when this circled, made a beeline for me and hovered nearby. For a nightmare moment I thought I'd accidentally pressed my Trackplot SOS button 😆 #rangerdailydiary

Chilly overnight at MarLodge. Down to 0.3C.

Can't say I'd ever seen anything quite like this before. A plant bug, apparently. Beautiful wee thing eh?

Suffice to say, I spent more time inside the vehicle than out this morning 😱 #rangerdailydiary

It's been a surreal weekend. Empty car parks and the sudden smell of smoke whenever there's a downdraft from an approaching shower. #rangerdailydiary

Out with the stalking team this afternoon, testing comms and trying to get a look from lofty viewpoints towards a smoking Strath Nethy. It's really not far away. Everyone is praying for rain tonight. #rangerdailydiary

Easily, one of the most dispiriting moments of my life was doing my best ever Bop It session, only for it to stop suddenly and announce I had reached the maximum. WTAF! Never picked it up again after that 😆

Decades overdue, I've been dreading this moment. Moving stuff out, and having to purge my life of veeeeeery old tech.

So nice to be back on Kingdom Time for a few days 🥳 Weirdly quiet up the hill this evening. Where is everybody??

I took our drone up Glen Derry to try and find one of our farther flung fire signs, which has 'gone missing' 🙄 I successfully found another vandalised sign the other week by searching from the sky, but no luck with this one.....annoyingly. People are weird! #rangerdailydiary

Lowest max here since early July today, yet at 24.2°C it was still almost 2°C above average. What more, it’s lower than most, perhaps even all of the days next week are forecast to reach. This month could well set a record for the largest positive mean max temp anomaly here.