The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
JOYS OF SPRING
With a path out of lockdown in sight, it’s time to appreciate the colour and smell of a new season
I fort’s hard to believe it’s been nearly a year since our way of life was transformed so dramatically. Not that any of you need me to remind you. I keep a garden diary, a written record of all the jobs that we do, which the Scone Palace head gardeners of the future may one day find useful. When I was scanning through my diary 2020, I was quite surprised just how much we were carrying on with the works as normal this time last year, preparing for spring and summer, completely oblivious to what was coming.
Even through April and into May, while only two of us were looking after the vast grounds, I was still sowing veg for the kitchen garden as if this Covid-19 wave would pass over us and life would be at least normal-ish come June. Showing my naivety there.
But it’s a year on and these tough times continue for us all and the industry I love being a part of.
Springtime, beginning on Mother’s Day, is when our local garden nurseries and centres wake up after their dark months of slumber before really bursting back to life at the Easter weekend as gardeners like you and me descend on them, needing replenished after a winter’s hibernation.
There’s no doubt as we look to brighten up our sitting rooms with bunches of daffodils, selecting packets of seeds and collecting bags of composts for the veg plot, plus picking out perennials to plug gaps in our borders for the gardening year ahead, this is an important period coming up for garden retailers.
Lockdown meant they were closed, unable to trade properly bar those who could manage a delivery service, and unfortunately the timing again sees the same problem a year later.
If we look further back, it is not only they who are affected, but the growers who supply them. Already they are growing the pansies, primulas, geraniums, petunias and marigolds, indeed all the plants that make up our magnificent and colourful spring and summer bedding displays. Sadly, like last year, they are unsure when our garden centres and nurseries will be open and so buying their stock which can be sold on to us.
Of course the priority is to get this pandemic under control; we can only hope that the timing of which restrictions are allowed to be eased, can benefit our plantselling businesses.
While we are waiting we can still do our bit to support our local garden centres as many just now are offering click and collect or delivery services to keep us gardening. I for one have been very grateful for this; with the snow finally gone I’ve at long last been able to get outside to do some meaningful gardening work at home, planting out some lovely dark-purple hellebores in amongst the white of snowdrops and the yellow of winter aconites.
Let’s not forget our favourite gardens too. Normally we would be well into The Scottish Snowdrop Festival, which sees the start of the season for many who would be opening their gates to us, being able to walk around and enjoy fantastic displays and specialist collections, receiving much-needed income to fund their maintenance. Very soon they will be welcoming us again and I can’t wait to be able to meet up with family and friends in those beautiful surroundings.
I am enjoying seeing our Scottish native hazel, Corylus avellana. It is a welcome sight as it is telling me winter has finally come to an end.
A good choice for almost every type of soil, these multi-stemmed shrubs can reach up to five metres tall, forming a nice rounded shape.
The flowers are borne on long and hanging yellow catkins in late winter and early spring; if you have both a male and female closely beside each other, the cobnuts produced will be enjoyed by red squirrels – if you are lucky enough to have them where you live.
Every plant I grow must earn its keep in some way and this certainly does, as I harvest the long, straight stems these shrubs produce as supports for beans in the veg plot or for sweet peas to scramble up instead of imported bamboo canes.
I also like the look they add to the kitchen garden. For these times when we need to be more sustainable in the way we live I couldn’t think of a more useful plant.
I prefer to nibble away at stems each spring after the catkins have dropped, cutting them right down to the ground when around five centimetres, or a couple of inches thick, although this can be done to the whole plant in a process called coppicing, allowing three to five years to re-grow before it is done again.
If you would prefer a more unusual version, one that makes a nice talking point for your garden, then choose a “corkscrew hazel” with amazing twisted branches – they are perfect for taking a snip off the end and placing in a vase with cut flowers such as snowdrops or miniature daffodils for a novel table decoration.
T he hills and glens of Scotland are littered with aircraft wreckage and there are many lonely monuments to those who perished in these tragedies.
One of the most poignant is at the area known as the Fairy Lochs, near Gairloch. Fifteen people lost their lives when a plane taking service personnel home to the US at the end of the Second World War crashed.
On June 13 1945 the B-24H Liberator had taken off from Prestwick, but while flying over the north-west Highlands in poor weather, the plane hit the top of Slioch, the huge mountain which towers over Loch Maree, and suffered severe damage to the undercarriage.
The pilots decided to make an emergency landing and made several efforts to find a suitable spot, but on the final attempt the plane crashed and disintegrated. All nine crew and six passengers died.
Most of the debris has remained where it lay, scattered over a series of little lochs and grassy rises and the site at Na Lochan Sgeireach – popularly known as the Fairy Lochs – is a designated war grave.
A plaque has been fixed to the rock, one of the huge propellor blades standing in the forefront, a sentry for the fallen. Teddy bears, prayer flags, good luck charms and other personal effects lie there also, placed there over the years by relatives.
The loneliness of the landscape seems fitting for a final resting place. The silence is eternally eerie; apart from the odd haunting bird call, there’s a hush here. Those who walk the hour or so in to see the site are also reverential. There’s no raised voices, no laughter. Even after all this time there is still the respect for these young men who perished so tragically.
A closer look at the plaque reveals the devastating details – the crewmen were aged between 20 and 26, from eight different US states. Four of the six passengers were also in their 20s and one was 30. It’s sobering to think that their parents, brothers, sisters are mostly long gone as well. Some will never have made it to this grave to say goodbye.
Access is near the start of the B-road which comes in from the A832 until it runs out some nine miles further on at Red Point, a fine viewpoint on the west coast.
Despite being off the beaten track, this is a popular walk, and is one to keep tucked away for the days when we can travel freely again. It is suitable for all ages but be prepared for a muddy trek over some rough ground. And if the cloud is low, it may be advisable to forget the circuit from the crash site and head back the way you came.
There’s a big parking area close to the start and the main route is well sign-posted. The uphill sections never seem too taxing, and there are some lovely views back down towards Gairloch when you are in need of a breather.
The trickiest part of the day is the crossing from the site to the more prominent Loch Braigh Horrisdale. The path is faint, in some places hard to spot, but there are a few cairns to keep you right. There is a ford to cross the stream and then it’s just a case of sticking with the track which leads all the way back to the start.
Those fancying an overview of the site should make the extra effort for the short climb to the trig point on the nearby summit of Sithean Mor, which sits slightly to the north of the lochs.
The sanctity of the site is a tribute to the people of this country, the strangers who take the time, whether through curiosity or the simple need to pay their respects, who have left it untouched and undesecrated all through the years.
ROUTE
1
Walk east from car park and turn right to track (signed). Follow past ruin and when track veers right at fork keep going straight on to reach cairn and sign.
2
Turn left on to narrow path, and when path splits at another cairn, take lefthand branch climbing uphill through trees. At next signpost, the path goes right to eventually reach deer fence and gate.
3
Pass through gate and keep following path as it keeps right of loch then heads down to second lochan and memorial.
4
Head south on faint path around left side of lochan and then turn southwest over rougher ground (some cairn markers) to reach the shores of Loch Braigh Horrisdale.
5
Cross the stream at ford on to track and turn right to head north past a smaller loch and then all the way to the incoming path junction and retrace steps to start.
Alan Rowan is a well-known author and walker. You can follow his regular mountain adventures at munromoonwalker.com
• Please observe government coronavirus safety guidelines in all outdoor activities