Dry
At this time of year the burns are usually healthily full of water. Peaty brown, fuelled by melting snow. Ironically, in this first Spring after completion of the impressive flood defences, the watercourse of the Rothes burn is lower even than midsummer levels. I've seen this burn this low only once before, in the epic hot summer of 1975.
The lorry under the hopper is waiting for a load of draff to be delivered. This is the 'happy cows' feed of Scotland - spent grain from whisky distilleries.
Below, dusty soil follows a harrowing tractor.
And these rocks in the river Spey. Ordinary rocks in a river? I've never seen them before. Normally the only clue that they're under the surface is a swirl on the water.
This dry Spring is deeply unsettling.
I can so sympathize with your dry dry winter there Linda. So many places in our country have suffered as well. My son lives in Lake Tahoe, a very famous gorgeous ski resort. Part of it is in Northern California and part is in Nevada. This resort really depends on skiing, even more than the casinos for their economy and they are really hurting there. I know that it has hurt many such places here in the U.S. We have had very little rain here in California so it has affected our water supply too.
ReplyDeleteThose pictures you posted really tells it all though. Just seeing those rocks, which are normally under water tells a story. We can only hope that next year will be a good one.
It sounds as though your weather is much like ours here in Colorado. We had a rather nasty forest fire last week (4,100+ acres burned and three lives were lost)- here's to sunshine AND rain!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post...great photos.
ReplyDeleteA friend who lives out of the city here has told me the same story of low water in their local lake. We had basically no snow this year - scary stuff indeed!
ReplyDeleteWe've also had an incredibly dry spring - March is usually our snowiest month and we only had a couple of inches. We've already had wildfires that burned dozens of homes. But we did just get some snow. Anyway, those are such beautiful photos, I can imagine what the burn looks like full of water.
ReplyDeleteWow. Hope you guys get some rain this summer to make up for it. Felt like we had a dry winter, too, so we may not get a lot of moisture from our snow pack either.
ReplyDeleteDryness isn't a common word for Scotland , isn't it , ;)It's the same here we need water ...
ReplyDeleteThis dry Spring is most unusual, we have fared better than some as the reservoirs are 90% full but I have missed the day after day rain!
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you Linda, it is very unsettling indeed! I bought some shorts last week, and today it is once again freezing cold, and still incredibly dry. What's going on with the weather eh?
ReplyDeleteNice pics! Isn't there still snow on the mountains which will pour down later?
ReplyDeleteAfter the wettest autumn ever it is incredibly dry here in the northeast United States. The weather has been so irregular of the last couple of years it is nearly impossible to understand. I loved these photos. Its been 40 years since I've been in your neck of the woods and I just realized I missed it!
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping for some Spring rain to top everything up!
ReplyDeleteYou saw on my blog how precious each drop of water is here in southern New Mexico. We drive the to the river to watch water go by when it is rarely present. No doubt this strange weather pattern will change again and you will have the water you usually have in your rivers.
ReplyDeleteI do hope you have rain soon, and lots of it.
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