Friday 30 October 2015

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 28 October 2015

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 October 2015

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 October 2015

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 4 October 2015

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. :)