Hello from Lossiemouth

[guardian]

What a lovely welcome .

I'm very lucky that I live in the countryside and have a large garden for wildlife. I rent my house from the local estate where they still practice private lettings on the old farms which have been absorbed over the years. I have lived here for 17 years so I'm still a newcomer in local terms.

The river Lossie runs alongside my garden which sounds idyllic until you see how high it gets when in flood

These last two summers we have been invaded by mosquitos, I don't know if that's a record for north east Scotland, I thought midgies were enough to cope with.

During the last few years our population of ring-necked doves has increased exponentially and they return each year with their young.

The woodpecker seems to be a loner but I'm sure he has a mate in Lossie forest nearby. the Forestry Commission owns and farms the land for timber, mainly pine but they have begun to be more wildlife friendly. Until the last few years it was quite sad to see the land stripped bare with logging activity but I think they've realised the benefit of being more sensitive to the environment particularly with habitat; leaving dead trees standing and large amounts of timber to rot naturally.

Our soil here is mainly sand and shingle where the sea has receded, much the same as Spey Bay a short way along the coast from here; it needs much manure and compost before it will produce anything much, although it's very easy to work unlike the heavy clays.

I will be planting out more Ash trees in the future hopefully not only in the garden, it's a new thing for me but I'm hopeful they'll grow ok.

[ron1863]

Hello from another Scot