Naturally I scheduled my Burns Night celebration at Balintore Castle slap bang in the middle of storm Éowyn on the evening of the 24th January. Thankfully, most guests did make it. Angus was not as badly hit as the Central Belt of Scotland, and I only had a couple of pull-outs due to the weather.
So while conditions were undeniably windy and snowy, it has been worse, so I was surprised that Éowyn took out one of the huge Sycamores lining the east drive. I can only surmise that these trees are the same age as the castle (165 years) so it is extremely sad. This is the first one to be lost.
These Sycamores survived almost total ring-barking by rabbits during a previous snowy winter. As no grass was visible for months, the rabbits had to live off bark. A small inner core of the tree was rotten, possibly as a result of the ring-barking, and this looked to be the point of failure.
With my positive hat on, the tree will supply much needed firewood for Balintore for perhaps a whole year.
Some friends stayed on after the Burns Supper, so I took them for some walks in the vicinity. During one walk at dusk, my friend Thom got his right foot stuck in a snare and got brought down. He had no idea what was happening to him and he was panicking. My other friend Aislinn, with great presence of mind, ordered him to stop struggling, found that the snare had tightened around his ankle, and managed to loosen it off. I am putting Aislinn forward for the George Cross!
In fact, we were discussing the Order of the Thistle and the Order of the Garter, and I mentioned these were the highest order you could get. However, on checking online, these only come third, and are trumped by the Victoria Cross and the George Cross, It is only proper that courage should be put ahead of privilege and aristocracy! :-)
My group of four friend and myself realised that we represent the British Isles perfectly. The group had someone from Eire (Aislinn), Northern Island, England (Thom), Wales and Scotland (me)!
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fallen Sycamore
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| rotten core of fallen Sycamore |
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| snow from storm Éowyn |
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| snow from storm Éowyn |
