"Scottish Snippets"

"Colour Supplement"

4 February 2006

Each week the Scottish Snippets Newsletter includes a number of photographs which illustrate the weather, flora and fauna of the current week around Scotland. There are so many such graphics worth including that a separate "colour supplement" is created so as not to totally overload the Newsletter. Here is this week's crop!

Frost and Mist

The predominant feature of this week's weather has been the lower temperatures which produced frost and mist, particularly in the west in the earlier part of the week. This chilly-looking picture was taken at Drumpellier Country Park, where much of the water in the lochs was frozen and the trees were still white with frost in the middle of the afternoon. It was almost a delight later in the week to find the water dripping from the branches as the temperatures rose above freezing.

Pochard

While much of the week was dull and overcast with mist, particularly in the west of Scotland, Sunday was a total contrast, with lots of sunshine. The sun brings up the lovely colours of this Pochard. Pochards are usually shy birds and paddle away as soon as humans approach - particularly, it seems, humans with cameras... But this bold little fellow was keen to get a share of the bread being thrown to the other ducks and swans. Being a diver, he was able to avoid the diving seagulls trying to snatch any bread from his mouth, by immediately diving under the water!

Camellia

No, the weather didn't suddenly get warmer - on cold days the sensible thing to do is to stay indoors. In this case, "indoors" is the greenhouse at the Botanic Gardens at Kelvingrove in Glasgow. Although I have seen one or two foolhardy Camellias in the open, it will be a month or two before they are in full bloom in central Scotland.

Hyacinth

This Hyacinth was also growing indoors at the Botanic Gardens at Kelvingrove in Glasgow.

Launch of HMS Daring

The launch of HMS Daring at the Scotstoun yard of BAe Systems was covered in the main Newsletter but the graphics there are relatively small, so here are a couple of larger versions. The picture here shows the destroyer heading towards the opposite riverbank - the watching crowds were kept back from the river at that point - just in case! After all, a launch of a ship last year did not go so smoothly and it bumped its stern into the opposite side of the river, denting a few plates!

HMS Daring

The full 152 metres (500 feet) length of this Anti-Air Warfare Destroyer can be seen in this shot as HMS Daring is towed up-river to be fitted out (including its superstructure including the advanced radar and armaments) at the BAe Systems yard at Govan. The drag chains which had slowed the ship down at launch, have now been removed.

If you want to look back at earlier editions of this Colour Supplement, there is an Index Page



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