Sunday 10.07.2016

It`s been a while but glad to report Bennachie still standing.
A post-work walk on a warm Friday evening:
a welcome fresh breeze once above the tree line,

and the view from the top as spectacular as always.

Then a weekend of exhausting sporting action.....Andy won without putting us through it too much but no amount of Coq au Vin, Salade Nicoise and Cotes du Rhone could help France win the football, delicious as it was. :)

Thursday 7.7.2016

Pics can`t really do justice to the walk this evening. There was the warm caressing breeze, an unusual phenomena up here where the wind is usually trying to bite off your ears, an immense sky,

soft light,

and enough unkempt,wild bits left for us to stray into.

All in all the perfect summer evening. And at least France beat Germany. :) Now to agonize over Murray tomorrow. Sport is such hard work.

Wednesday 6.7.2016

Somebody`s cut swathes through the grass in the woods leaving wide green paths for us to trip along although not necessarily always where we want to walk.

However, time was limited before work this morning so we took the path most travelled for once, the grasses displaying at their very best

and the sky keeping up appearances as well.

Loving this lush, damp, warm changeable climate.

And Wales lost. :(

Murray, on the other hand, won. :)

Such is life, which is a famous saying among bushrangers:

Friday 01.07.2016

Set off this evening with the warm sun in our eyes, dark, lowering clouds on the horizon,the noisy cry of at least two pairs of curlews distracting us from their nests and the air thick with the delicious scents of summer.

Within seconds of getting into the woods the feet and legs were soaked from the now nearly waist high vegetation but not until we were halfway round and turning for home did the skies open and soak the top half. Happily soggy we traipsed between the now dripping trees but it was clearing up already by the time we emerged,

the dark cloud now ahead of us

and the evening sky clearing behind.

A shower, a glass of wine, a rich and colourful Caponata with olive bread to mop up the juices....and Wales won!

Sunday 26.06.2016

We didn`t go walking today in the end, despite the odd meaningful look from the dogs. A beautiful blue-sky summer`s morning quickly became cloudy though warm and still dry but by the time a walk was on the cards it was raining quite hard and the dogs were looking the other way.
Plenty of varied walking in the last fortnight though.
A birthday Munro - it`s becoming a bit of a tradition - meant we went for Mount Keen,the most easterly Munro and therefore least possible driving to get to it. https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/munros/mount-keen

A long walk in through the forest with lots of weather beaten trees,

bridges.....

......lots of bridges (got a bit of a `thing` about bridges),

along the yellow gorse road

and up into the clouds.

Then the long trek back,

more bridges :)

and some good advice for the last mile or so.

Since then there have been walks in Bristol,Stroud, Aberdeen and, yesterday, back to the woods which in our absence have sprung up lush and pretty.

Meanwhile political turmoil rules..........and Wimbledon starts tomorrow - yay!

Friday 10.06.2016

Monday still as sunny and warm so escaped from work at lunchtime and couldn`t stop taking pictures even though it was just a walk round the bypass:

Cooler and cloudier since then, in some ways better for walking. Today a breeze but still dry - good silage-making weather: looks better before it`s all wrapped in plastic...... like giant green chequers ....

..... and then there`s this, right in the middle of the path...seemingly popped up overnight.

Same woods, different every day.

Rest day tomorrow ....apart from work :( .... before something a bit bigger on Sunday.

Sunday 5.06.2016

A full on June day -at last - after days of being in the clouds and a mini-monsoon on Friday: properly warm, splashes of bright blue forget-me-nots in amongst the greenest of grass, the scent of gorse and still air, the kind that allows insects to hover, apart from a welcome gentle breeze as we emerged from the woods and turned for home.

Hot dog, excitable beasts

and I knew that tennis match started too well........who`d be a sports fan. :(

This time last week on the way back from North Yorkshire and a wedding......(nearly) everyone beautiful, lovely setting and all went (more or less) like clockwork. :) Well done everyone!