A Grand Day out

After an unpromisingly sleety start the day began to brighten. A mixed flock of resplendent bramblings and their chaffinch relatives which appeared under the garden bird feeders set the tone for an improving day. By the time we reached Logie Steading the sky had cleared - on the Moor there were occasional patches of snow. Walking above the river we came upon several very old beeches which had these strange excrescences - monstrous carbuncles on their trunks. Can anyone explain them? More pleasingly there were patches of bright green dogs' mercury, almost open wood anemones and frothy blackthorn in the hedgerows. There were rooks and a lone kite soaring above the wooded bank in the extra- A grand day out!