Scotland

Large willow dragonfly sculpture by the path from Kinross to Vane Farm RSPB reserve on the shore of Loch Leven. Well camouflaged in winter against the dried grass and reeds!

Rabbit is a frequent visitor to National Museum of Scotland in Chambers Street – he often pops in for a quick visit whilst in Edinburgh. This is the grand gallery, including the optic from the Inchkeith lighthouse in the firth of Forth, designed by David Stevenson in 1889. On this occasion Rabbit was at the museum to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018 exhibition, on loan from the Natural History Museum in London. Do try to visit it if you can! Some stunning images, including some which will make you cry in anger at what the human world is doing to animals, and some which will make you want to throw your camera away saying ‘I give up’ - such as the jaw-dropping images taken in the ‘aged 11-14’ and ‘aged under 10’ categories….! www.nms.ac.uk/national-museum-of-scotland/whats-on/wildlife-photographer-of-the-year One of Rabbit’s favourite images was this one: www.gdtfoto.de/seiten/overall-winner-22017.html HFF!

Spot the campervan! We camped this weekend in the 'Three Lochs Forest Drive' - an area of the Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park where wild-ish camping is permitted. The forecast sun failed to materialise, and, although it was mild in temperature, we spent two days peering through this mixture of smirry mist and very low cloud. There was an almost total lack of wind (hence the low cloud....), which meant that the lochs were like flat grey mirrors. Despite the lack of sun, it's a lovely part of the world for camping. ('Smirr' - a Scots word for a very fine mist-like dampness which isn't exactly rain, and can be almost imperceptible up to the point at which you realise you're soaked through....)

More from our camping trip to the Trossachs. On the shores of Loch Achray. Somewhere in the cloud is Ben Venue, still with patches of snow.

This striking little green hut stands on the miles and miles of sand dune in the Tentsmuir nature reserve, between Leuchars and Tayport in north east Fife. It was a second world war observation hut. There are various WW2 relics around here, including an old railway wagon which was actually discovered in the sand in 2010, and which had been used to transport ammunition and to provide a moving target on which aircraft gunners from the base at Leuchars could practise. As you can see, we had sunshine and blue skies. For three days in a row!

This life-size bronze statue, looking out over Montrose bay, depicts the local minesweeper whose job it was to patrol the dunes during the Second World War to keep a watchful eye for stray mines which might be swept into Montrose harbour on incoming tides. The sculptor William Lamb was born in in 1893 and died in 1951. He had trained as a stonemason before WW1 and hoped to work as an artist. However, he ended up losing the use of his right hand fighting in the trenches, meaning that he had to re-train to work with his left hand. Many of his statues are of the ordinary people of Montrose, often shown being buffeted by the wind in this very windy place! He was a friend of the poet Hugh MacDiarmid who encouraged him to stay in Montrose and focus his art on expressing the character and people of the area. HFF! www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/art/the-people-s-sculptor-celebrating-william-lamb-1-3172018 www.montrosereview.co.uk/news/the-sculpture-capital-of-angus-1-340619

We seemed to jump straight from a long winter into glorious early summer last week, with nearly ten days in a row of sunshine. I took myself off in my little van to the shore of Loch Achray, in the Trossachs. The loch is fairly shallow close to the shore, so the sun had taken the chill off the water, and it was warm enough to have a pleasant swim and then sit by a fire afterwards to warm up. Astonishingly, there were no midges. A perfect camping trip! (oh and can you see the tiny moon in the branches of the tree?).

Rabbit admires St Fillan's Episcopal Church in Killin. Built in 1876 by the Earl of Breadalbane for private use by shooting parties, St Fillan’s earned the name ‘Grouse Church’ among locals. It has been in almost continual use since then and has a weekly Episcopal service and a Roman Catholic mass.Constructed from corrugated iron, this ‘tin tabernacle’ was bought in kit form from a specialist manufacturer, likely to be the London Iron Church and Chapel Co., in which the Earl held shares. It's one of Scotland's smallest churches, and one of the best preserved of these little tin churches which are found in various villages. www.scotsman.com/news/six-of-scotland-s-smallest-churches-1-4283475 You will see that the sun is still shining. In fact, we're now entering our fourth week of almost continuous warm, sunny weather. It's astonishing! Rabbit has been too warm to sleep at nights. But he is certainly not complaining!