The Scottish Snippets Newsletter in its original format began in April 1997 and continued in an unbroken series for 591 issues. Although no longer produced in that style, there is now this regular update on the new and updated pages on the Rampant Scotland site including "Scottie's Photo Diary From Scotland".
To receive a text version of this newsletter as a reminder to look at these Web pages when they are published, just send an e-mail to Scottie@RampantScotland.com with "Subscribe Newsletter" in the subject line.
Kingdom of Fife
Facing the North Sea and with the estuaries of the rivers Forth and Tay to the south and the north, Fife is almost an island. The Fifers have a reputation for being a bit insular too, but the towns, villages, castles and coasts - and golf courses - welcome visitors with open arms. I've created an extended slide show on YouTube with a large selection of illustrations of many aspects of the Kingdom of Fife. See YouTube - Kingdom of Fife.
For a more leisurely look at Fife, there's also an illustrated Virtual Tour of The Kingdom of Fife with links to many pages on this delightful part of Scotland. See Places to Visit - Fife.
Scottie's Photo Diary From Scotland - March 2011
We found a few years ago that although the visitor centre and the castle at Culzean don't open until (usually) 1st April, the country park is always open, and towards the end of March the Magnolias, camellias and early flowering rhododendrons make a brilliant display. If you get there before 3pm, there is a second hand book shop that serves basic tea, coffee and biscuits there too! Un creating a "Diary Page" there was the usual problem of what graphics to leave out as well as leave space for pictures from a trip to Lochwinnoch and Castle Semple Loch in Renfrew, Finlaystone Country Estate in Inverclyde - and my own garden! The diary page has pictures of some of flowers, scenery and buildings (and a surprise picture too) taken during the month. See Scottie's Photo Diary from Scotland - March 2011.
There's also a link in that page to a slide show on YouTube of most of the graphics.
Lady Returns to Loch of Lowes
There was great excitement in the media and in the birding world this week when "Lady", a female osprey returned once more to her nest at the Loch of Lowes in Perthshire. Female ospreys live an average of eight years and produce about 20 chicks in that time. But over the last 21 years "Lady of the Loch" has produced 56 eggs and has now seen 48 fledge. This individual osprey is thought to be the oldest known breeding osprey ever recorded in Britain and is estimated to have travelled 123,000 mile from West Africa to Perthshire and back again. Last year she seemed to be unwell and there were concerns that she was going to die - but she astonished everyone by recovering and flying off to Africa as usual. Now she has surprised and delighted everyone by returning to take up residence once more at Loch of Lowes. There are live webcams and blogs recording progress at Scottish Wildlife Trust. The osprey graphic here is from the Scottish Wildlife Trust (my own pictures of the osprey at Loch of Lowes are a bit distant!)
Yours aye
Scottie
Previous editions of this Newsletter are available in an Archive. The Index to the other pages of the Rampant Scotland site is available here.
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