
We had a cold dry calm day to welcome in the start to the new year; and the big spate that was coming down the system had just peaked in the evening of Hogmanay, and for the next couple of weeks the river level would steadily fall back to around the five feet mark.
Week two of the month saw the mercury plunging to as low as minus seven degrees, and barely getting above freezing at noon some days.
This was followed by a swing to a very mild spell that saw bees coming out of the hive
to enjoy the heathers and the Mahonia, it was good to see that the hive had made it through the winter thus far.
The acanites and the snow drops are all through now
and there was even a solitary (very small) flower out on one of the rhodi bushes which was a bit unusual!
The weather and conditions were near perfect on the 15th for the start to another fishing season on the river, it was a slower than normal start to the season for catches on the river but our Cargill beat did get off the mark before the month was out with a lovely 12lb springer.
There was devastation all over the country on the 24th when storm Eowyn wreaked havoc, causing damage and destruction everywhere in our area; gusts of 102mph were recorded at the Dundee road bridge! As the storm abated the big clear up began, we were quite lucky in that we avoided much structural damage and a lot of the trees and big limbs that were down missed hitting properties and fences.
After spending a bit of time lately with the chainsaw and log splitter topping up our wood piles, we were then presented with more as we got on with the clear up in our area, but you can never have too much wood.
With the dry cooler weather at the end of the month and the river level sitting steady around the five foot mark;
it feels like we are getting through the winter with January now behind us, hopefully the weather stays a bit more stable.
Dago