It has been a even longer time since my last post, so time to catch up before 2026 arrives. In early November, husband and I went for a ride on the Cairngorm funicular, open after many repairs and we were tempted by the £1 ticket concession for locals that week. Unfortunately, you can't exit onto the mountain just take in the views from the balconies. It was rather misty at the top (and cold) but just enough sun to get a rainbow.
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View from the top of the funicular on Cairngorm looking North towards Glenmore
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At the bottom of the funicular, at the car park, the weather improved:
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View from the carpark with Loch Morlich in the distance
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And as we got lower down to Loch Morlich it was positively sunny!
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| View of Loch Morlich through Scots Pine |
The sun shone through some fungi growing on a fence rail and there were plenty of lichens dripping off the trees.
The most surprising sight was evidence of beaver activity very close to the path. Felled trees, gnawed trees and plenty of chippings. I would have thought the area was too well used by walkers and would put off beavers.
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| Tree gnawed by beaver |
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| Teeth marks |
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| Tree felled on far bank |
We looked for dams but did not find any. I am a bit ambivalent about the reintroduction of beavers to the area as the down side of their felling trees, is that they also fell trees with rare lichens. The Aspen trees in the area host some lichens that are not found anywhere else, and Aspen is a beaver's favourite tree...
And now a short account of the tale(s) of woe. My computer gave up the ghost and was irreparable. I had only had it for 18 months (a refurbished Dell) but decided to get a brand new replacement. Luckily I could rescue the hard drives so could reinstall my data and all the programs onto the new machine. Then the new one crashed and the only option was a factory reset! Started all over again and it crashed again! Luckily I could reset it this time to a previous state. So blog posts were not a priority.
Second happening was that I got the flu and felt very ill for a few weeks. However all is well now so normal service will be resumed!
