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Hazelgrove Newsletter - September 2010Hello Everyone You may recall a couple of months ago that I flagged up that a group of six ladies from Serpentine Swimming Club in London were training hard in preparation for a sponsored swim of the length of Loch Ness. Well, this intrepid group were on the loch last week and they made really good progress. The conditions were pretty good with very little wind so as a result the Loch was pretty calm. They started at the south end of the Loch at Fort Augustus at 5.00 a.m. and finished at the north end at 6.30 p.m. What a wonderful achievement. We also mentioned at the beginning of the year that Graeme was really chuffed to learn that Destination Loch Ness had been given final approval by funders to support the creation of a South Loch Ness Trail. Over the last few months discussions have progressed well and all necessary agreements are now in place so that construction will start at Loch Tarff in the middle of this month. On the basis that everything progresses smoothly, it is expected that construction will be finished around the second week in October. Following construction the next phase of work is the signage and interpretation which will take place over the winter months. And talking about signage, a big thank you to all our guests over the last few months who have contributed to the Loch Ness Voluntary Payback Scheme. This is a scheme where guests and visitors alike make a small voluntary contribution and all monies collected is put towards specific aspects of major projects around the loch. The first tranche of monies collected is going towards the signage on the South Loch Ness Trail. Already, several hundred pounds have been collected which is a fabulous sum. Summer is the most wonderful time for soft fruit in Scotland. I love making up fresh fruit salad with a selection of fresh fruit but always with raspberries and strawberries. There are a few soft fruit farms close to Inverness and as it is now getting towards the end of the season, Graeme and I went to the Black Isle Berry farm a couple of weeks ago and picked up some strawberries for jam making. Unfortunately because of the really wet weather throughout a lot of July, the raspberries were not so good this year so I gave them a miss. My strawbery jam turned out reasonably well - not perfect but nonetheless still quite tasty - but our sole blackcurrant bush at Evergreen has again yielded a really good crop and I think my blackcurrant jelly has turned out tops! And finally, we are really excited to report that we have had a very special return visitor to our B&B, Evergreen.... Mr P is back!! For those of you not acquainted with Mr P, this is the name given by one of our guests to the Pine Marten who was seen on quite a few occassions on the back decking last year. He became quite a regular visitor and carefully (without cracking it) picked up the raw egg we left out for him every night. We think it was a young pine marten we saw just the other night. They are nocturnal animals and it was almost dark when Graeme spotted it on the decking. It had a good look around the bird feeder, then jumped on top of the wall before going up the steps and disappearing in the back garden. We have left an egg out for him, but as yet, he hasn't returned to pick up his evening meal. We will keep you posted! Till next month Graeme and Fiona
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I am really chuffed to be able to report that my West Highland Way walk was great fun and a great success! In the main the weather was very good - only one day with quite heavy rain for a few hours. We didn't manage to get to the graveyard at the Blackwater Reservoir but had a really good view of the reservoir from the WHW track. I put a selection of photos onto the Evergreen facebook page so if you would like to see some of the scenery along the way just follow the link.
Graeme has been doing more hill running and found a challenging route last week around Loch Ashie down to the shores of Loch Ness and then back up the hill again - mad but he enjoys it! On this run he came back particularily filthy due, he says, to an unavoidable detour through a boggy area. If you ask me he took a short cut through the loch!
Our friends and neighbours at Easter Boleskine, which is easily accessed from the forestry track beside Hazelgrove have called in the Army this weekend! About two years ago Frank and Katy began work on excavating a barren piece of former farmland close to their house to create a bio-diversity and educational project called Boleskine Wetlands. The project has been very successful and we were part of a group of local volunteers who last year helped lay a disabled access path, plant a range of native trees and also build a bird hide. Both primary schools in the area, Foyers and Stratherrick, have visited the site for pond dipping and monitoring the arrival of the different life forms on the pond. The building of a jetty will enable the children and others to be over the water for pond dipping without disturbing the pond edges. It will have a ridge at the edges which will also allow wheelchairs and visually-impaired persons to participate without danger of going too close to the edge. And that is where the Army comes in. After the jetty is built, the wetlands will be left alone to mature naturally.
Next weekend, Loch Ness will be rocking to the sounds of Rock Ness! This is the annual outdoor music festival - now in it's fourth year - which is held at Dores at the north end of the Loch. Work started last week to put up all the tents and stages for the various acts as well as all the walkways, lights, tents, tepees and other forms of accommodation. It is fascinating to watch it all come together. It really must take a huge amount of logistical planning but as in previous years it does seem to run like clockwork. I don't think there can be a more scenic backdrop to an outdoor concert than looking down the length of Loch Ness almost at midsummer.
And finally to finish on a quirky note this month, those of you regularly read Graeme's Evergreen blog will know that he found out this past week that Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame once stood and chatted over the fence at Hazelgrove with a friend of ours! Graeme is now intent on getting a plaque to mark the said spot ! (only joking)
Till next month
Fiona and Graeme
Hazelgrove news - May 2010
Hello Everyone,
So, here we are in May - one of the most beautiful months in Scotland when the landscape is a wealth of colour. By May we are usually looking across the Loch to the community of Bunloit and enjoying the vibrant yellow of the broom but at the moment there is only a tinge of yellow on the hillside. Similarly, the rhododendrons are just beginning to flower, helped along by the sunny weather we have had over the last couple of weeks, but they still have a long way to go before they look their best. And as for the bluebells I am pretty sure that they will not be out till June! Everything is probably at least 3 weeks behind because of the long and snowy winter but it is wonderful to see everything - trees and flowers beginning to emerge from their winter shutdown.
I just hope that the warner weather stays with us next week when I am on my West Highland Way jaunt. I think my training has paid off and I am really looking forward to some stunning scenery between Crainlarich and Fort William. It will be so nice to be able to take our time and really appreciate our surroundings. Graeme has suggested that if it is not too much of a detour from our route from the Kingshouse to Kinlochleven, we should walk up to the Blackwater Reservoir. The reservoir and dam were completed in 1909, built almost entirely by hand by a huge team of navvies who lived in a camp on the moor. The vast reservoir is over 13 kilometres long and the dam itself is almost a kilometre across, the longest in the Highlands. All this was built to provide the enormous amount of electricity that was needed to operate the aluminium smelters in Kinlochleven. Sadly, close to the dam there is a small cemetery where the navvies who died during the construction works were buried. Many perished when trying to walk back to the site over the Devil's Staircase following an evenings drinking at the Kinghouse. Although the power house and smelting works at Kinlochleven were closed some years ago and the buildings have mostly been demolished, a few do remain, one of which is now home to the Ice Factor, which has an indoor climbing wall as well as the largest ice climbing wall in the UK and where Graeme enjoyed an afternoon's climbing last year.
And continuting on the theme of excercise, albeit rather loosely - I recently saw a press release about a team of swimmers from the Serpentine Swimming Club in London who will swim the length of Loch Ness in August to raise money to build a hospital specifically for women and children in a remote part of Afghanistan. Five members of the team travelled to Dover last week for the start of the English Channel training season. The water was apparantly a balmy 9C, which is actually warmer than Loch Ness will be in August! The team have tartan swimming costumes which have been custom made for them and the oldest member of the team is apparantly 65 years old. You can check out how their training is progressing and find out more about this special fundraising event on their website at www.swimlochness.co.uk
Graeme and I have been trying to keep up with new technologies and in particular social networking. Not something that perhaps comes naturally to those over a certain age!! Anyway, you may have managed to read some of Graeme's blogs on our Evergreen B&B website but I have been busy posting items on our Evergreen Facebook page. We already have a number of guests who have signed up as fans or friends of Evergreen and we would love you to sign up too, albeit that you are really a friend of Hazelgrove! That way you can find out what is happening from day to day at Evergreen and around Loch Ness and in turn tell us if there is something you particularly like. Just click on the Facebook link to get to our Evergreen page.
Till next month
Fiona and Graeme
Hazelgrove News - April 2010
Hello Everyone
After 8 months of a pretty quiet house we at last have a new permanent guest at our B&B, Evergreen. Since we lost Kerry last year we always had it in the back of our minds that we would at some point get another cat at Evergreen. Last week we visited the Scottish RSPCA site in Inverness and came home with an adorable bundle of black fur called Coco. She is 8 years old and is settling in really well although she does have a favourite hidey hole behind one of the chairs in the lounge. She has a huge purr and just loves being groomed and petted. Things will get even more interesting next week when we have our friends' cat Tabitha to stay again. I hope that they will like each other!
So Easter is already behind us and we are gearing up for another busy summer season. As always there is lots to see and do around the Loch but this year we have a new festival to kick off the music events. Rock4Life is being held on 1 & 2 May. The headline act on Saturday 1st is Status Quo and on Sunday 2nd there is a lineup of Sugababes, McFly and Lemar plus much much more over the two days! The concert is being held just 10 miles east of Inverness at Whiteness. Rock 4 Life will promise to be a fabulous day out and weekend for everyone. Not only will it provide a fantastic opportunity to see some fantastic bands in beautiful surroundings, it will also help raise much welcome funds for Highland Hospice which serves adults with incurable life limiting diseases in the highlands of Scotland. Then hot on the heels of Rock4 life comes Rockness, now in its 4th year at Dores. This concert is again a three day event, starting on Friday 11th June. We learned just yesterday that Blondie will be playing this year. For those of us of a certain age, what more can I say!!
Now that the weather is more like it should be in April it was great to be able to get out and get serious with some gardening last week. Everything was looking very untidy but it is amazing how you can transform some of the plant borders with a few hours of hard work. Gardening is such an odd pastime - it is not something that I often really look forward to but once you get going and then you see the end result it is really satisfying. And as a bonus, you are out in the fresh air and getting some exercise!
But it is not just gardening exersice for me. Last year 5 girlfriends and myself climbed Ben Nevis, which at 4406ft is the highest mountain in the UK. Well this year we are planning another outing together. In the middle of May we are walking part of the West Highland Way, the long distance footpath which stretches all the way from Milngivie, just north of Glasgow, to Fort William. the whole route is 95 miles but we are only tackling a stretch of around 50 miles from Crianlarich. We have all our accommodation booked along the way (and we have even organised for our luggage to be transported for us each day!) so all that remains is for me to ensure that I am fit enough for the challenge. Will of course report back in a future newsletter about (hopefully) our achievement.
Our red squirrels (still 3 of them) and our deer continue to pay us frequent visits but we have a new visitor in the shape of a large male pheasant who has been strutting around in front of the house and calling pretty loudly to his mate (whom we have also seen on one occasion on the Hazelgrove driveway). Male Pheasants are unmistakable with their copper-coloured plumage. The head, small ear tufts and neck are green, though the throat and cheeks are purple and their face and wattle are red. Pretty colourful in contrast to the female which is simply buff coloured with dark brown markings. You may be very familiar with pheasants but did you know that the pheasant is a non-native bird that was first introduced by the Normans in the 11th century as a game bird!
Finally, a huge thank you to all our guests who have taken the time to write a review of their stay on Flipkey. This medium is becoming much more widely used and good reviews are quite literally, worth their weight in gold. We are really delighted with all the fabulous and informative comments which have been posted. These reviews are confirmation that our guests really do enjoy their stay at Hazelgrove and will hopefully be used by others to help them decide to come and stay as well.
Till next month
Fiona and Graeme
Hazelgrove News - March 2010
Hello Everyone
As you will know from reading our previous newsletters this year it has been a long, cold but beautifully snowy winter. Although there is still some snow on the ground at loch level, there is likely to be snow in the higher ground around Hazelgrove and most certainly in the mountains for many weeks to come. In fact there has been so much snow in the Cairngorms that the authorities have had difficulty in keeping the access road open to the ski slopes. But everything was open and fully functioning last week for a rather different charity event. Over 200 skiers and snowboarders took to the slopes wearing kilts. And before you ask, I don't think there were many brave enough to be a "real" Scotsman! Not only did the skiers raise money for charity and for a school skiing programme but also set a new world record for the most people in kilts going down a piste. The participants were led across the finish line by two pipers and drummer - all wearing kilts of course! The adjectives wonderful and quirky spring to mind.
But with all the snow you would think that the water level of Loch Ness and all other lochs in the area would be pretty high. Surprisingly though the opposite is true. The level of the loch is really low at the moment - in fact much lower than we have seen it before, even in the summer months. You could almost walk from Inverfarigaig to Dores along the shore. At one point there is a rock sticking out of the water which we have never seen before - a great spot for birds to perch on.
And talking about birds, in our last newsletter I spoke about the long tailed tits which had briefly visited the bird table. An article in our local paper, the Inverness Courier shed a little more light on the subject. The long tailed tits were originally insect eaters but they have adapted to eat peanuts (hence why I saw them at our bird feeder) and are now much more able to survive cold winters. Also, they are very sociable little birds and any adult birds that have lost their nest or failed to breed help the breeding pair in nest building. But it doesn't end there - at the end of the breeding season several families will band together to defend feeding territories. They also roost together - a very successful social interaction indeed.
Although the Falls of Foyers are just along the road from Hazelgrove, perhaps the most impressive falls in the area are Plodda. Plodda Falls are on the north side of the loch close to the village of Tomich. Tomich is interesting in itself in that it is a planned village built by Lord Tweedsmouth in the 19th and it looks more like a quaint English village than. a hamlet in the Highlands! When we went up to Plodda the other week there was still lots of snow on the single track access road and I don't think we would have made it to the car park without a 4x4. We followed the lovely circular walk from the car park, past the falls, down to the river and back. Only about 40 minutes but really beautiful. As you can see from the photo, the falls were pretty close to frozen which made them look even more spectacular. On our return home we stopped off at the Bog Cotton Café in Cannich which serves fabulous home made soups, scones, cakes and much more. They also have a small area displaying an excellent selection of local arts and crafts. A wonderful place to stop.
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I also discovered a really neat little walk much closer to home. I'd passed the markers many times when I was doing the circular walk from Hazelgrove via Glen Liath to Foyers but never really felt I had the time to explore another route. The route starts just outside Foyers and heads uphill through the trees until you come to a little reservoir. This reservoir supplies the water for both Foyers and Inverfarigaig. It was completely frozen and quite beautiful. The route skirts the far side of the reservoir before heading downhill to join a track just beside the Foyers shop.
But my favourite photo from my recent wanderings has to be this one of Loch Ness taken from Dores at sunset. I managed to make a panoramic shot and hope you like it as much as I do.
Till next month
Fiona and Graeme
Hazelgrove News - February 2010
Hello Everyone
There was a piece on the news last night that spring had moved forward about 10 days based on evidence of plant and animal activity. Well, as I write this newsletter the sun is shining over Loch Ness but there are very light snowflakes falling. I certainly don't think that Spring is in the air yet but I have to say that the weather is much improved from a month ago!
There is still a smattering of snow on the hilltops and in the Pass of Inverfarigaig and other similar areas where the sun does not shine, particularly on north facing slopes. But down here at Loch level everything is green again. And that is great news for the wildlife of the area. I mentioned the squirrels and the garden birds in my last newsletter and their activity continues. But I saw on two occasions recently a small group of long tailed tits at the bird feeders at Evergreen. We have lots of coal tits, blue tits and great tits on a daily basis but the long tailed tits appear to come and go. I must read up on them to try and find out why they don't seem to stay in the one place. But all the smaller birds suddenly disappeared last week and I looked out of the window to see a sparrow hawk perched on the garden fence. These birds of prey tend to prefer more open areas as they need clear space to swoop down at high speed, but we have seen them in the garden before. Shortly after it flew away the "all clear" obviously went out and all the small birds came out of their hiding places and returned to feed.
Other visitors to the garden have been 3 sika deer. We haven't seen deer round either Hazelgrove or Evergreen for a while (although we have heard them in the woods) but they visited the front of Evergreen and were even in the front flower border! As you will see from the photographs (which I managed to take through the lounge window) they look quite relaxed - that was until Graeme returned home in the car and they darted back into the safety of the trees.
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These three looked pretty healthy given the really bad weather we have had. But unfortunately this is not the case for many of our biggest deer. Red deer are not well insulated and have limited energy reserves as reflected in their lean meat. There have been reports in the press about large numbers of deer being found dead on the railway lines in the north of Scotland where they had tried to find some shelter from the severe cold and sadly, some had been killed after being hit by trains. Although the deer population has to be managed because the numbers have almost trebled to 400,000 since the mid 1960's it is sad to think that these majestic creatures are so susceptible to our harsh climate. But I suppose that it just nature's way of working.
Graeme was delighted to find out at the end of last month that final approval has been given by funders to support the creation of a South Loch Ness Trail. As part of his 'other job', this is a project that he has been heavily involved in and he has been pushing to get backing for it for some months now. It is hoped that when complete the trail for walkers and horse riders will create one continuous off-road trail stretching from near Fort Augustus to Inverness, a distance of almost 30 miles. It will pass through some of the best scenery on the south side of Loch Ness, opening up areas previously only accessed by locals who really know the area. There is still some ongoing discussion with a couple of the landowners and Graeme and I went up to Suidhe viewpoint last week to walk over a possible alternative to the route originally proposed. The views from Suidhe itself are fantastic but if you take the time to go across the stile and then follow the very rough track up and back towards Loch Tarff you can see not only Loch Tarff but also Loch Knockie, Loch Mohr and a little bit of Loch Ness - wonderful!
But that is not the only project which is progressing at the moment on the south side. The Forestry Commission are hard at work improving the paths and putting in interpretive signage around the "Change House". The Change House was a staging post for changing horses in the 1800's and its renown comes from the travelers Boswell and Johnson who visited the area. Samuel Johnson was an English author who made lasting contributions to English literature and he is also the subject of "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature" - James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. Hopefully the interpretive signage will include a little more information about this famous pair.
So, if you want to get on your walking boots and explore Loch Ness then we will be able to point you in the direction of these two new projects and of course much much more!
Till next month
Fiona and Graeme
Hazelgrove News - January 2010
Hello Everyone
As you may have noticed, our newsletter this month is slightly late - not because we forgot again but we finally got back home after a long extended holiday in the USA and Canada! Yes, we escaped this Christmas and New Year, firstly to the warmth of Florida and then to the freezing cold of the Canadian Rockies - which of course was perfect preparation for returning to Loch Ness! We arrived home at 1am in the morning on Friday to over two feet of snow and the temperature gauge in the car reading -12C. As a result the weekend was spent digging ourselves out,and I mean digging out - the weight of snow on the decking around the house was such that Graeme felt it necessary to clear it resulting in piles of snow almost 5ft deep around part of the house!. Icicles several feet in length reach down from the gutters which are bending under the weight! However despite this, it is all incredibly picturesque. Both cars started without any problems despite having been abandoned for over a month under lots and lots of snow and the roads are reasonably clear both on the south side of the loch and in and around Inverness.
So you can still get out and about and this is exactly what thousands of skiers have been doing at the Cairngorm and Aonach Mor ski resorts, both of which are just over an hour's drive from Hazelgrove. It is brilliant to see Scottish skiing doing so well. Both Graeme and I learnt to ski in Scotland (I won't mention how long ago that was!) but over the last decade skiing has been in decline because of a lack of snow. I reckon that there will still be enough snow in the mountains to allow skiing and snowboarding well into April. So if you fancy some of the white stuff but don't want the hassle of flights and transfers and the like, then why not think of a skiing holiday in Scotland this year.
Holidays (as I'm sure you will agree!) are fantastic but it is always wonderful to get home. We were a little worried that the wildlife around the house would have suffered because of the low temperatures and the piles of snow but it was really great to see that we still have a huge number of garden birds round the bird table - including a woodpecker which we don't usually see at this time of year. We still have two red squirrels feeding on the peanuts which is absolutely fantastic as we were really worried that our little furry friends would not have survived the extreme cold. And the deer have come down from the hills to try and find some food in the woods around Hazelgrove - you can see their tracks in the snow. So all and all on the wildlife front everything seems pretty well in order.
As you will know, we are putting in a new shower to the bathroom in Hazelgrove but because of the weather over the last month the work has fallen behind a little. Not to worry though - it is now rapidly taking shape and we will soon have a lovely new shower for you to relax under. So what else have we planned for 2010? Well, more of the same to be honest. So many of our guests suggested that we didn't need to change anything, we are just going to continue with what we offer at Hazelgrove for this coming year. There will of course be small changes which I hope you will like and we will always welcome suggestions to improve your stay at the Cottage.
We look forward to welcoming more guests from all over the UK and Europe to Hazelgrove this year - to those guests who will be staying with us for the first time we will help you to make the most of your time in the area and of course to those guests who are returning to Hazelgrove for a second, third (or even sixth or seventh time!) we look forward to giving you more information so that you can explore those areas that you didn't have time for when you stayed before.
Looking forward to a fun and busy 2010.
Graeme and Fiona
Hazelgrove News - Christmas 2009
Hello Everyone
As we mentioned in our last newsletter we were looking forward to the Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards Ceremony where our bed and breakfast Evergreen was shorlisted in the Customer Care category. As with the Thistle Awards we were again pipped at the post, this time by an excellent hotel in Forres, the manager of which also received the 2009 Highland Ambassador Award, the premier award for the Highlands. We can't deny that we were a little disappointed but we just have to remember that being shorlisted is a great achievement and one which we are really proud.
We must mention that Graeme had a significant birthday in November (mine was earlier in the year!) and we had a great day out with friends at theIce Factor at Kinlochleven, just south of Fort William. As well as being the biggest indoor ice climbing facility in the world, The Ice Factor features the UK's largest articulated rock climbing wall as well as a competition-standard bouldering hall. Although Graeme and Ed had a lot of climbing experence behind them, neither had had the chance to do much climbing over the last few years so I organised an hour of private tuition for them. With the expert help of their instructor they were both soon moved onto the larger and more difficult climbs. It was a fantastic afternoon and one which I am sure will be repeated in the not too distant future. The Ice factor is planning to build a new facility in Inverness so it will literally be right on our doorstep and something different for our guests to try as well.
Great news on the wildlife front - our red squirrels have returned to the garden at Evergreen after a couple of months away so they are probably in Hazelgrove garden too. We definitely have two but there is the possibility that there might be a third which is wonderful. I filled up three of the bird feeders with peanuts yesterday morning and by late afternoon one was completely empty! It is not only the squirrels who are hungry at this time of year with the colder weather - our garden birds are also out in force. But a couple of weeks ago we were treated to another fabulous event which we had not seen before. We were able to watch as a huge flock of redwings circled and then swooped down on the blackthorn bushes at the bottom of our drive. A friend also reported that they had seen the same spectacle in their garden when they swooped down on the rowan trees to feast on the rowan berries. It was a particularly good year for berries this year - certainly much better than last year and perhaps this is why we had not seen this before.
But, as another year comes to a close it is time to reflect on the last 12 months. We have had a fabulous year at Hazelgrove and have again met many people from all over the UK and Europe. One of the best parts of having Hazelgrove as a self catering cottage is chatting to our guests and helping them with some local knowledge of the area so that they can make the most of their time at Loch Ness. Thank you to everyone who stayed at Hazelgrove in 2009 and a warm welcome awaits those of you who have already booked for 2010, either for your first visit to Loch Ness or to return to familiar and homely surroundings
Wishing you a Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year
Slainte mhath! (good health)
Graeme & Fiona
Hazelgrove News - November 2009
Hello Everyone
Well, we certainly know it is late autumn up here at Loch Ness. No, it's not simply because the clocks have changed and it is darker earlier in the day or because the trees have now lost most of their leaves. We know the time of year because each evening in the forest around Hazelgrove we hear the somewhat creepy noise of stags rutting. The breeding season, or rut, for sika deer occurs from the end of September to November The stags give a high-pitched whistle during the rut or can emit a startling scream! I said it was creepy!! But during the day, there is a certain stillness and quiet around the loch which is just fabulous and which truly reflects our strapline of "listen to the silence".
You will remember that earlier in the year we were very excited about a pine marten that came to visit us at Evergreen each evening to pick up his evening meal - a raw egg which I put out on the decking for him. Well, after a few months on no activity on the pine marten front there is the possibility that he is back in the area. However, that may not be a good thing as guests at Hazelgrove thought that they had heard something in the loft space! Graeme went up to investigate and couldn't find any evidence of a pine marten but we certainly don't want one inside the cottage as they are protected and very very difficult to remove. It would be wonderful if he was back but just not in the cottage!
Last month we mentioned that we were looking forward to going to Edinburgh for the annual Scottish Thistle Awards where Evergreen had been shortlisted in the "Going the Extra Mile category for small businesses. Well, as we predicted, Pilrig Self Catering Apartments in Edinburgh received the judges vote but we were not too disappointed as getting shortlisted to the final 3 was a tremendous achievement. We had a great evening chatting to other finalists and winners and had an excellent meal. But perhaps the best part of the whole evening was a short acoustic session by Midge Ure - fantastic. Those of you of a certain age will remember his hits from his Ultravox days but he also sang "Do they know it's Christmas" as he was about to head off to Ethiopia the next day. We still have the Highlands and Islands Tourism Awards to look forward to later this month and we will report back in December on how we fared.
If you take a look at our Evergreen website you will see that we have added another navigation bar on the home page. This facility will link you to another website which provides details of events around the loch which you can book on line. Graeme has been involved with this new facility and although it has just been set up he assures me that there will be the ability to make an on line booking for major events taking place around the loch next year. He is keeping hush at the moment as to what these are so watch this space!
Over the past few months Graeme, through his position with Destination Loch Ness, has been very involved in liaising with public agencies and private landowners to bring together a submission for funding for a walking/horse riding trail the whole length of the south side of Loch Ness - from Inverness to Fort Augustus. There are whole sections where a trail already exists and it is simply a case of connecting these up. However there is approximately 7km of new trail that will have to be built. Anyway, it looks as if, subject to a number of conditions being met, that funding will be forthcoming. It is a really exciting project which will allow greater access to the wonderful landscape of South Loch Ness. It also has wider implications for the whole of Loch Ness - in the long term it is hoped that the path can be extended round to the north side linking up with the Great Glen way and this providing a 360 degree trail around Loch Ness.
Till our last newsletter of 2009
Graeme and Fiona
Hazelgrove News - October 2009
Hello Everyone
On Saturday 3rd October it was blowing a gale and the rain was pouring down and it was the most miserable of days imaginable. I don't know what the thoughts of all those in the area were that day but for those who had arrived in advance of the Loch Ness Marathon on Sunday 4th, they probably wished that they had stayed at home and not put their names down for a Highland marathon in October! However, the Highland weather changed overnight and we woke to a wonderfully calm and sunny morning. Just the perfect conditions for all the thousands of runners who had trained so hard for the event. Among those runners we had Graeme, who this year was going to attempt his sixth Loch Ness Marathon. Despite taking to his bed on Friday afternoon with a sore throat and a touch of man-flu, he had rallied well by Sunday and was raring to go. I actually missed him completely at Inverfarigaig as he was slightly ahead of his estimated time but I saw him at Dores and then scooted round Inverness to catch him as he crossed the fininshing line with a sprint to record a very creditable 3 hours 59 minutes. Just under the prized 4 hour mark! He said just after the race that this would be his last marathon but then again he said that last year......
But autumn has definitely crept up on us. Despite some warm days with lots of autumn sunshine there has been a real nip in the air first thing in the morning. Apparantly there was even a dusting of snow on Ben Wyvis which is the mountain which provides such a wonderful backdrop to Inverness. The trees are really beginning to change colour and lose their leaves and it will soon be time for me to try and capture some of the wonderul shades of gold, orange and red which will be on display. Also in abundance in the woods behind Hazelgrove are the annual display of mushrooms. Reds, yellows, creams, browns and even a purple are some of the colours you can see on the forest floor. We were discussing mushrooms with some of our Evergreen guests who had seen a variety of different types while out on a walk and even though we have a really good book on all the types of mushrooms you are likely to see, it is so difficult to actually identify each type as they can differ in the most minute way. What may look like a harmless edible mushroom may in fact be something very poisonous and deadly. So the moral of our story is unless you are a real expert at identifying mushrooms, don't be tempted to pick them for eating!
Last month I was busy putting lots of information onto our new Hazelgrove Cottage website. It is hard to believe that we have had Hazelgrove since March 2006 - more than 3½ years. We had a basic website for the cottage but we wanted to upgrade the site to the same standard as our own Evergreen site. It is almost a mirror image of Evergreen but of course gives you all the information about the accommodation and facilites which we offer at Hazelgrove. If you have visited the Hazelgrove website before we hope that will like the new version which has a better layout and graphics. Also, the other big change is that we now have a secure online booking facility which allows you to make a booking for the cottage by simply completing a few easy steps.
For those of you who have stayed with us at Hazelgrove already you may have been kind enough to complete our short feedback form. We very much value the comments we receive as it helps us to improve on not only some of the little things which are important to guests but also helps us to plan the larger projects. The big project which we have for this winter is to install a new and larger shower unit for the bathroom and it will be ready mid January 2010. We are also going to change the dining area at the back door as we know that most of our guests with dogs use the back door more than the front. We will move some of the furniture around and put up a big coat rack with plenty of pegs and also provide a show/boot rack for your use.
If you read last month's newsletter you may remember that we were looking forward to welcoming our friend's cat Tabitha to Evergreen for her holidays. Well, she duly arrived last week and has made herself completely at home. You don't need a watch or clock in the house when Tabitha comes to stay as you know exactly what time it is when she appears for breakfast lunch and supper!! She has managed to make an escape for freedom out the back door a couple of times but all you need to do is shake some food and she abandons all thought of exploring and darts back into the house! She may get wise to this but for now it is certainly working.
Till next month
Graeme and Fiona
Hazelgrove News - September 2009
Hello Everyone,
Well, to quote from a well known song, ' the summer sun has gone and the leaves are gently turning' but here on Loch Ness and the Highlands in general, September is still a very busy month with plenty going on. Indeed with the Edinburgh International Festival and Fringe now finished it is time for the Highlands to take centre stage. Running all this week is the Blas festival which celebrates traditional music and the Gaelic culture. Highlight of the week will undoubtedly be the festival celilidh dance at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness.
Also taking place in the Highlands last weekend was the Scottish Open Chainsaw carving Competition - an acquired taste perhaps but one I feel Graeme will soon be taking part in. Much of his time this summer has been taken up keeping the tree growth around Hazelgrove under control!
Aside from the festival though there is plenty entertainment of another sort here on Loch Ness. It's that time of year when the red squirrels abandon the peanuts in the bird feeders in the garden and instead go wild for the obviously more upmarket hazelnuts! Each day they can be seen jumping amongst the branches of the hazel trees. The only problem with this is that many of the hazel trees are on the shore side of the road in front of Hazelgrove which means the squirrels dice with death crossing back and forward across the road! But there is still enough entertainment in the back garden - there are chaffinches, blue tits, great tits, coal tits and robins which swoop down from the sky in large numbers like planes landing and taking off from a busy airport!
September also marks the final few weeks of training for Graeme before he takes part in the Baxters Loch ness Marathon on Sunday 4th October. This fantastic event regularly rated amongst the top marathons in the UK, is bigger than ever this year with over 2,200 runners taking part. This is only part of the Marathon and Festival of Running - if you don't fancy the 26 miles of the marathon there are also 10k and 5k fun runs in Inverness. This will be the sixth year Graeme has run the marathon and he swears that it will be his last (he wants to concentrate on hill running!!) but he said that last year ! Hopefully this time sense will prevail.
But turning back to August for a moment, we were very pleased to be informed that our bed and breakfast, Evergreen has been short listed in the Scottish Thistle Awards (Going the Extra Mile) category for small businesses. These awards are the premier tourism awards in Scotland. The big night is not until October 23rd so fingers crossed. Graeme was down at Stirling Castle last week at a reception for all the finalists and was able to meetthe owners of one of the other businesses short-listed in our category. As they say - let the best man win.
Sadly though this month we have some news about our dear old cat Kerry. She was an elderly cat with big eyes and a big voice. Well unfortunately as with many old cats (she was nearly 17 years), her kidneys failed and it was time to put her to sleep. In the last 19 years we have only been without a cat for around two months so no doubt in due course we will have another mog (or two) around Evergreen. However, we can look forward to another visit by our friends cat Tabitha who regularly comes to Evergreen for her holidays and who is a joy to look after. But for the time being it is a quieter house in all respects.
Until next month
Graeme and Fiona
Hazelgrove News - August 2009
Hello Everyone,
It's August and tourism on Loch Ness is, by general consensus, experiencing its best summer season for a number of years. A lot of this is due to the fact that many people in the UK have decided to spend their summer holidays 'at home' this year. However, it is also the case that the weather here in the Highlands has been for the most part better than in the rest of the country with much less rain. Couple this with the fact that never before has there been so much to do and see on Loch Ness and it all adds up to a bumper season. A couple of nights ago we even had a touch of Hollywood on Loch Ness when Oscar winning actress Tilda Swinton hauled up at Dores with a mobile cinema which she and her crew have been pulling (literally) through the Highlands over eight and a half days. The 'Screen machine' project aims to bring non mainstream films to areas of the Highlands which have lost their local cinema. Needless to say Dores was rather busy...
However, don't be thinking it's all crowds on Loch Ness. One of the really attractive characteristics of the area is that you can still, as we often say here in this newsletter, get away from it all! On my most recent run up into the Monadhliath Mountains a mere three miles from Hazelgrove, I was privileged to see a golden eagle a mere 100ft above me, swoop down on two unsuspecting hares who just made it to cover!
Here at Hazelgrove, not quite as wild but equally peaceful, our red squirrels continue to entertain. Usually when we see two together near the feeder it is all out war - or rather a frantic chase around the garden. But for the first time, two of them seemed to be quite content to feed together. Last month we had two woodpeckers together - now two squirrels - fantastic! Also for the first time this summer we had four in the garden all at the same time, all frantically scratching around and eating nuts and berries. Everything at this time of the year is plentiful. At the weekend Fiona and I picked wild raspberries and blaeberries from the garden along with with 2lbs of blackcurrants off our one solitary blackcurrant bush! Fiona has now made blackcurrant jelly which she is plying guests with at breakfast - Yummy!
Meanwhile out in the woods the wild mushrooms are beginning to appear once again in all their weird and wonderful shapes, sizes and colours. I was out walking with guests the other day on our most popular walk across to Foyers and back (approximately 6 miles) and encountered a number of varieties including the instantly recognisable but poisonous Fly Agaric.
Finally this month for those of you out there with an interest in the Highland game of shinty (a cross between hockey and lacrosse or rather all out war!) there is now a shinty shop at the Loch Ness exhibition Centre. Check out their website at www.shintyshop.com
Until next month
Graeme and Fiona
Hazelgrove News - July 2009
Hello Everyone
As we said in our last newsletter - how time flies:- well, the last couple of months have certainly flown past. So quick in fact that for the first time ever, we have missed a monthly newsletter!! It was only today when I sat down to write the July letter that I realised that our last newsletter was May - where was June??? How could both Graeme and I have forgotten the newsletter? No answer I'm afraid but I hope we can fill you in on two months of news with this one!
We were certainly very busy at the beginning of June with guests, we were trying to complete a submission for our Bed and Breakfast, Evergreen for this year's Scottish Thistle Awards which are the premier tourism awards for all tourism businesses across Scotland and Graeme also had a day down in London. London is very easy to do in a day - an early flight from Inverness means you can be in central London by 10.30 am and the return light in the evening gets you home by 11.00 p.m. Quite a contrast to the quiet and tranquility of Loch Ness. However, the reason for the trip was to collect an award we had received from the Institute of Hospitality. Last October we went through a fairly rigorous process and were accredited with Hospitality Assured, a standard for service and business excellence in the hospitality industry. The award we received last month was as the "highest scoring newcomer to Hospitality Assured in 2008". We are immensely proud to have achieved this as it is covers all businesses across the whole of the UK.
You will know from previous newsletters that Graeme is always out and about running the hills, but since early March I had been in training so that I could climb a mountain! Not any old mountain, but Ben Nevis which at 4006 feet is the highest mountain in the UK. It is not technically difficult but what makes it a challenge is that the climb starts from sea level - no easy drive in with just a couple of thousand feet left to climb. We started early in the morning and although the weather was disappointing - wet and misty - we got to the top 4 hours later, after trudging though 3 remaining banks of snow (yes - still snow in early June!) Unfortunately we didn't really see anything from the top but as we started to descend, the weather cleared and we got the most fabulous views of Fort William below and the surrounding area. Because of the large number of peop
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