Sunday 13.12.2015

Frozen and completely still with the sun pretty much at its zenith as we negotiated the icy road at lunchtime and then into the woods, parts of which sparkled and crunched under the feet

though elsewhere it still looked like autumn.....

Dogs were happy either way......so many messages to read.....

and now, almost to the minute the Met Office forecast, it`s raining. Time for bed. :)

Friday 27.11.2015

Dithering: "to be nervously irresolute in acting or doing". Not nervous but definitely irresolute with a couple of hours to spare this morning. Christmas cards? Chores? Reading? So in the end a walk`s the only thing even though the sun had already disappeared and we knew it was going to rain. :)

Stages of rainfall:
- desultory spitting as we walked up the hill and the clouds settled overhead
- short sharp pelt of icy stilettoes (or maybe stilletti) just as we walked out of the trees and into a clearing
- drizzle, occasionally given a swirl by the gusting wind
- the sky darkening, a steady rain, patterning the puddles

Hot shower, hot coffee, warm glow. In fact enough of a glow to light up a small town.
And no more dithering, time`s up - we`re away to Inverness to see Billy Bragg. :)

Wednesday 25.11.2015

Easy to forget how quickly the sun disappears for the next few months. As we went up the hill sometime after two this afternoon, into the teeth of a sharp wind, it was already well down, turning a wan yellow and then dropping behind a cloud that was perched on the horizon though it peeped out again briefly as we skirted round the trees in the woods.

We turned for home, crunching across frozen leaves caught somewhere between autumn and winter,

and by the time we were trotting back down the hill it was grey and still. Tea,toast and honey were the order of the day. :)

Sunday 22.11.15

In the meantime....
there have been more walks on mild November days,lunchtime from work





and at home under stormy skies.

Then work and events took over. Journeys south, a gig @Barrowlands, Glasgow that exceeded all expectations,

(thank you Frank Turner, Skinny Lister and Will Varley)

a sojourn in the Cotswolds, lunch in Bristol, a trip back up the motorways in a hire car with a particularly good sound system,temporarily lost in Glasgow and finally home - all in a long weekend :)

Since then more work, and more work, the Toad, but even if we didn`t make it to the woods today there`s always somewhere to walk...up on the hill on a wintery afternoon, perfect stillness and though not forecast to linger a taste of what`s to come.

Sunday 01.11.2015

Warmest November day on record apparently. Certainly irresistible this morning, not exactly first thing but before anything else got done.


Different time of day, different light,

new colours,

hot dogs. :)

Friday 30.10.2015

The temptation to stop every two minutes and take pictures on an afternoon like this is almost irresistible. Day started cool and greyish but the sun came out later, capturing the essence of autumn:


completely still air,a little bit of haziness in the distance,

stunning colours

dreamy light,

long shadows

a clear sky and...........peace.

So alright, I did take a few pics then - who could blame me.

Wednesday 29.10.2015

7 days are a long time for the British weather. A week ago today we were bathed in warm sunshine - 19-20 degrees anyone? - celebrating the opportunity to take in a bit more Vitamin D before the darkness descends.
The next day it was gales, the day after much gentler, all about that particular autumn light

and a chance to beat the bounds, reminding us that our own little bit of Scottish hillside can be quite something:

And then suddenly - no, not really, we know it`s going to happen every year - the clocks have gone back and in order to climb a mountain we have to set off in good time - even if it is "just" a Corbett* we`re aiming for.


`Good time` allowed for one of the best bacon sandwiches I`ve ever had at this delightful place:
www.riversidecottagecafe.co.uk

(there`s always time for a good bacon butty)

and then it was onwards and upwards, through a boggy field, past a derelict cottage with an intriguing vestige of the life once led there:

someone said it was probably a cheese press? For crowdie maybe?

And then it was Morven** direct, through shin high heather - not my favourite walking terrain as it keeps bouncing you off though its springiness is maybe what makes it - allegedly - good to sleep on, over exquisite vegetation

and up onto the rocky top,

a freezing cold wind keeping us moving at at a pretty good pace.

The icing, so to speak, on the top was the sight of a family of mountain hares, just turning white, scampering about and driving Dog number two into a delirium of howling and shaking in her desire to chase them.

And then it was down, a very welcome, enormous bowl of curried chicken and lentil soup at
www.buchananfood.com

before watching Aly Bain and friends (Alle Moller and Bruce Molsky) doing their thing at
www.woodendbarn.com
one of the couthiest venues in Aberdeenshire.

Good when a plan comes together but even better when you don`t really have a plan (this was all a bit spur of the moment) and it still comes together.

And then there was today - thick thick cloud and fog all day...fire lit and a good film I think. :)

*www.walkhighlands.co.uk/corbetts
** www.walkhighlands.co.uk/aberdeenshire/morven

Sunday 18.10.2015

Almost preternaturally still this afternoon as we walked up the hill under a grey duvet of cloud, plumped-up overhead but not actually threatening rain.


Damp and mild,the greyness as always somehow drawing out the green

but it was the silence that was most noticeable, deafening in fact,it is so rare to have no air movement at all up here.



Realised on the way back down that the beasts finally seem to have gone from the fields though only a few days ago they were enjoying the last of the grass

Reading an intriguing book just now but more of that later.........

Sunday 11.10.2015

Lowering, glowering clouds and cold breeze all day but needed to stretch the legs after a long day out in the mountains on Friday.

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/angus/mayar-driesh.shtml

Not quite so scenic when we were there - lots of low cloud on the tops - but still a good tramp,

in turn pretty

scenic

and downright stunning

The grey backdrop only enhanced the colours of the vegetation

and the cloud was lifting as we descended.

Definitely one to do again on a brighter day.

Sunday 04.10.2015

10 past six and getting gloomy. Partly increasing cloud, partly the nights are really drawing in. Got our fix of autumn sunshine earlier,straw chinese-chequers laid out everywhere,

a fresh-washed feel to the air, bright blues, whiter-than-white whites and still plenty of green enhanced by the late-ish afternoon light.....

And if anyone wants a good book just now try Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

which is a long, intense, brilliantly written family saga which ranges across continents, involves incest, hermaphroditism, emigration, immigration.....you name it really. It`s clever, funny, poignant and this is the opening sentence:

‘I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974.’

Thought provoking and highly recommended but you have to be in for the long haul.



Meanwhile I`m halfway through Katherine Rundell`s latest book The Wolf Wilder which is absolutely up to the standard of her previous two which I`ve mentioned before (Rooftoppers and Savage Girl) and has already given me my quote of the year:

"pointing a gun is a failure of imagination"

Indeed and absolutely. :)

Sunday 27.09.2015

So peaceful this afternoon it was like the woods knew the still air and warm sun can`t last and were making the most of it - basking in it even. Butterflies, flies, midges all out in force, the birds quietly chittering away with a buzzard overhead just about raising the energy to call out occasionally.

Same place but completely different atmosphere on Wednesday. Though dry overhead it had been raining. Feet soaked through within a minute of stepping off the road, lichens the brightest thing in the overcast light

which then put on a late evening show as the sun sank beneath the clouds on its way to the horizon

before disappearing altogether,

leaving a waxing moon hanging in the cold air.

And then on Friday the main feature was the enormous sky, rammed full of clouds some of which were definitely close enough to touch.

Already been back a week from the Cotswolds, another place of big skies,

autumn colours

but also little surprises in amongst the trees.

(http://www.giffordscircus.com/)