Beavering about

Still raining!!!!

Went to a presentation about Beavers in Knapdale in ARgyll. It was given by a home grown group of traders hoteliers etc who call themselves Heart of Argyll. I found this rather interesting as there was a Visit Scotland rep (indeed he is from ARgyll though based in Glasgow) who was sat there for the duartion looking bored rigid and making it obvious ! The only time he spoke was when someone complained that the Lochgilphead local tourist info office has been shut & the Oban one was shut! He truned round and growled the Oban one was shut due to Health & Saftey reasons. fair enough but his gruff mannerism didnt endear him to anyone in the room then he ent on to sput al the usual corporate jargon "we need to seek alternative ways of promotion" well thats exactly hath these guys were doing!
The beaver presentation was very good and I thought put up a very good reason to have beavers. Waht this was about was how local traders hoteliers etc could benefit from having beavers on their doorstep and that is where this home grown group called Heart of ARgyll actually made perfect sense.

Sometimes it takes something to make these people get the finger out to promote themselves and their dissatisfaction with Visit Scotland and its employees and lattest way of fleecing its members was apparent there.

I know lots of island landladies who took themselves off the Visit Scot register as they charged excessivly for bookings, only promoted whisky , castles, Edinburgh & golf courses, were not remotly interested in the legion of hard working landladies. I have stayed in B&Bs which far surpassed some of the hotels VS nurture and promote.

AT the moment the BBC Springwatch team are there filming and will be showing their stuff at the end of May so keep an eye open for that.

I like the wee beavers and no they dont eat fish and though they gnaw trees these trees will sprout again. they do far less damage than the blessed deer that roam all over the place wreacking havoc on the roads and in folks gardens and no one to cull them. My only gripe today was their bad pronounciation of the Gaelic place names and the fact that ARgylls Gaelic heritage does not feature with any of these tradets etc. They have missed a trick here as many visitors even Continental ones love to hear about local language and culture, yet here in our Scottish heartland just a few miles from Scotlands cradle at Dunadd, our heritage and culture gets swept aside for deer, eagles, fish and indeed the cute wee beaver.

Now if we had Gaelic speaking beavers!!!!

Tonights pic is Sam as the beavers wouldnt stay still long enough for a photo shoot.

I hope the new Scottish Government can see the bigger picture and continue to support the wee beavers.