Decades overdue, I've been dreading this moment. Moving stuff out, and having to purge my life of veeeeeery old tech.

So nice to be back on Kingdom Time for a few days 🥳 Weirdly quiet up the hill this evening. Where is everybody??

I took our drone up Glen Derry to try and find one of our farther flung fire signs, which has 'gone missing' 🙄 I successfully found another vandalised sign the other week by searching from the sky, but no luck with this one.....annoyingly. People are weird! #rangerdailydiary

Air quality and visibility in the Quoich massively improved this evening. Such a huge contrast to the choking smoke last night. Amazing effort over the other side of the hill, on very difficult terrain 👍 #rangerdailydiary

Smoke pouring into the Quoich this evening, on fire patrol. There's no fire on Mar Lodge Estate, it's still some distance to the north, but it's still way too close for comfort. #rangerdailydiary

Eerie light at the lodge this evening.

Smoke been bellowing north to south all day. #rangerdailydiary

The temptation to buy a lilo or an inflatable ring has never been so great 😉🇳🇴

Permanent brown haze on the Quoich horizon today, and visibility in Glen Dee was apparently down to about 20m at times. Too close for comfort! Best wishes to everyone on the other side of the hill! 🔥

After seven sun-soaked days in southern Norway, with temperatures nudging 29C, it came as a bit of a shock over the North Sea to hear the pilot say "Weather in Aberdeen this morning is foggy, with a temperature of 11C". I shouldn't have been surprised though. Reassuringly grey and cold 😆

Locals in good voice for the national anthem last night 🇳🇴

Speeding to shore cos apparently there's some game on tonight that everyone here is very excited about.

Revisiting another of my favourite spots today, on the protracted Farewell to Fife tour 😉🙂

One of the things I love about walking in Fife in the summer is this kind of thing. Whole fields swaying in the wind 🙂

Today however, was a brisk 8km loop up Geallaig Hill. Very windy but lovely, high, open walking 🙂

The skies mostly looked like this today. Clearly very windy!

It's been a good week at work - nice to get up to the peatland restoration site to do a bit of maintenance, and satisfying to have repaired a few steps at Linn of Dee that were showing their age. Also VERY nice to again feel the reassuring cosiness of a thick warm hat this week 😉 #rangerdailydiary

Another example of pine sawfly damage. A healthy tree vs a defoliated one. Most of the time, the sawfly caterpillars pupate before the new needles become palatable, which helps the tree to recover. But not always. This year the emergence feels later, and therefore new needles are being eaten too.

A cooler day today, with a high of 17.6C. The wind was bonkers but it did at least mean not being pestered by insects on the hill 🙂 Not great for the Scotch Burnet moths though, who were clinging on for dear life!

Two dips yesterday, on different parts of Deeside. I'm certainly no fan of heat but as it's the only kind of weather that can entice me into the rivers, I've grown to accept that it CAN have an upside 😉

Beautifully green and damp last night on patrol, but........not a breath of wind. Yep, midge nets were out! 😬 #rangerdailydiary

Speaking of sawflies, there's currently an outbreak of pine sawfly sweeping across the hillside. It did this last year too and while it looked dreadful, the trees did recover over the summer. Looks awful again.....but hopefully most of the trees will survive the repeated stress 😬

This sawfly landed on my window today. Wee beauty! I *think* it's Tenthredopsis nassata but many sawflies are disappointingly difficult to identify. Looks lovely, whatever it is! #rangerdailydiary

It's always with sadness that I have to remove a nascent wasp nest. But then there's the slight consolation of being able to see inside yet another one of these absolute marvels of nature.

Opening up the ranger hut this morning and was greeted by this.....slap bang in the centre of the doorway, right where visitors' heads are likely to be. I love wasps but sometimes I swear they do it deliberately 😉

The sight & sound of flowing water this PM, for those of you who are feeling overheated and/or land-locked 🥵 Hasn't actually been that hot here today (nudged 27.5C), but it was the warmest of recent days. It's been dry the last week or so, but it's nice to see more water in the Dee this year 🙂👍

High of 24.5C today, and I finally got the first swim of 2026 . Better late than never, and I made up for lost time by having a second swim lower down the glen on the ride out 🙂 Perfect conditions before the onset of what is easily the worst month of the year, with its midges, clegs and 'July Fly' 😬

Just been checking the forecast for where my dad lives in Worcestershire. Nope, nothing to see here. It's just summer, innit.

The light streaming out of the Quoich this evening was something else 🙂 #rangerdailydiary

Very quiet patrol this evening. Can't think why? 🤔