Friday 17/01/2024

 Bearing in mind we`re surely not finished with snow and ice, took the opportunity to head for Bennachie on a cool but fairly benevolent day.

Felt a long time since the last walk up here but as always it was worth it: deep breaths (quite a lot of deep breaths on the steeper bits) and I missed the dogs - both getting a bit old for some of these jaunts now. They`d do it OK, still jump up when their leads are rattled, but they`d be very very stiff by the end of the day. In dog years (do we believe in them?!) one has just turned 98 and the other will in August, the upside being that when they`re not walking or eating they`re sleeping so don`t need a lot of attention. Taking on younger dogs would - will, eventually 😉 - be a whole new ball game.

Anyway, cobwebs were blown away, the climb up and down was done in a respectable time and it`s sometimes just good to be reminded how lovely the world is.

 

Thursday 16.01.2025

 It is so rare that there is no movement of air at all on our hill that it can feel positively mystical when it happens, whether it be one of summer`s endless days or, as tonight, a mild January evening. When the sky puts on a proper show it only adds to the magic.

January has done its usual trick of stealthily arriving at its midpoint while the world has been shaking off the lethargy of the descent into the shortest, darkest days. At least it always seems to come as a pleasant surprise at this stage to realise that while the fireside has often been the best place to be, the days have been drawing out and the snowdrops are emerging.

The last three days have been remarkably mild but during the last few weeks we`ve endured the coldest temperatures of the winter so far, very very cold some days; blizzards; torrential rain and, for some, ensuing floods.

Last week the amount of snow we had left us virtually locked in - not just the depth of the snow but the extreme cold which made moving about - on foot or in vehicles - problematic. So, to avoid the deep snow in the woods, there more road walks, affording fabulous Winter Wonderland views or forays through the deep snow in the top field, a proper work out.

 

Yesterday almost all the snow had gone and the woods were once more accessible. Walking on solid ground again comes a relief as do the greens and browns and greys. Pure white is all very well but you can have too much of it.

Thursday 14/11/2024

Good brisk walk this morning: a late autumn day that was cool, slightly overcast and calm, some leaves still on the trees but probably more bare branches now. In the woods as the sun emerged it felt a little warmer and there were still clouds of hovering gnats. 

The sun was already casting long shadows at not long after noon - it doesn`t tarry long at this time of the year - and by the time we got on the homeward path a brisker breeze was picking up, foretelling the change in weather that`s due. But it was a good, head-clearing jaunt.

It also helped to get the legs working again after a BIG walk on Sunday.

It would probably have been wiser not to go to bed late the night before, then, after about 2 hours sleep, drive over 100 miles to get to the titchy car park at the bottom of the path that leads up Schiehallion* 

It took a certain amount of moral fibre to get going as we were shrouded in cloud, it was damp, cool and we were knackered. However,once we set off up the path and the blood began to flow, we were congratulating ourselves at our early-ish start and deciding that the cloud would not deter us.

It was eerily still so we were a little surprised to realise that as we gained height we were walking out of the clouds and able to look across to see mountains on the horizon, the distinctive "nubbin" (technical word 😉) on the top of Clachnaben very clear. It also gave me and my climbing companion the perfect chance to strike dramatic poses......

Soon got our come uppance though as we continued climbing: we hit the notorious boulder field and found ourselves once more in cloud with a keen breeze picking up. Did spot - and hear - a couple of ptarmigan, already almost completely white which of course made them stand out - not quite what nature intended but the snow is on its way.

The boulders weren`t so bad going up the mountain (they would prove more of a challenge on the way down) but they did seem to go on for longer than we anticipated. Also, though we knew about the "false tops" it was much harder to assess how we were doing in the cloud. One enthusiastic young man tore past us at one point in an attempt to beat his friends to the top only to realise .... it wasn`t.

So a small congregation of us at the top, somewhat huddled in the increasingly windy and very damp conditions, a quick toast to our success (and to J.T.A. & H.C it being Remembrance Sunday) and it was time to get back down.

And as we tottered over the boulders, battling what was by now quite a strong wind, and got back onto the well marked path, Schiehallion relented: the clouds cleared, the wind dropped and we were rewarded with the most splendid autumnal views to make our descent.

Be good to go back when we can see from the top but all in all it was a memorable day.

*Schiehallion is not only a mountain of folklore and legend but also "the mountain that weighed the earth":

 https://www.scottishgeologytrust.org/geology/51-best-places/schiehallion

Monday 4/11/24

 A walk-for-ever sort of a day yesterday. So we did. Completely still, the overnight work of legions of spiders glistening in the sun.

As we set off for a longer walk, realised the wind turbines in the distance were completely motionless. 

Been a while since we walked up to them so it seemed a good destination for a change of scene.

 

 A  track between fields, with occasional glimpses of these behemoths standing sentinel,

 

then almost suddenly plunged into gloomy, damp forest, more spiders, (where are they all?!)

incongruously bright mossy decorations

and all the while being beckoned on by the turbines.

Once up close we wandered around between a few of them - simultaneously impressive structures and slightly sinister the way they just stood there......

 

 

 

 

until, as we began to retrace our steps, the whole thing became even more eerie as the blades on the one we were approaching appeared to shift. Thought at first it was a trick of the light but as we stood and stared upwards it was obvious that without warning, without any discernible change in the air, noiselessly, the blades were, indeed, almost imperceptibly beginning to turn. It was completely mesmerising.

It was as if someone had waved a wand.  All around us, one by one (though not all) the turbines began to wake up, either turning the blades or repositioning the way they were facing (which I have subsequently discovered is called the Yaw: "the rotation of the entire wind turbine in the horizontal axis") Fascinating.

Also a very good thing that we were there on a balmy autumn afternoon.

As we got back up on to the road and looked back it was possible to see that first one now bowling along merrily while others began to catch up, turning at different speeds (or some still not turning at all). All in all an education and an inspiration to find out how they actually work. Love to imagine Terry Pratchett style figures sitting inside what I now know is called the "nacelle", (though I don`t know how to  pronounce it) keeping an eye on the prevailing weather and making adjustments accordingly but I fear it may have more to do with algorithms.

Thus entranced we returned home as the sun gently began to sink lower and lower

briefly setting the trees on fire before finally disappearing.

Thursday 31/10/2024

 Clocks back on Sunday and yesterday afternoon it felt like the world was settling down, easing back, ready for long dark nights ( when we`re supposed to have time for jigsaw puzzles and long classic novels). It was mild, the air was still and rich with autumn scents, the sky a kaleidoscope of greys and blues, yellows and white but nothing moving apart  from the sun moving slowly towards the horizon, the light diffusing as it did so.

Today, woke up to more beautiful colours but in contrast the wind was stirring things up, sending the leaves whirling down and around as we yomped through the woods this morning, some of the trees almost completely bare quite suddenly. 

Then a final tramp up on our back field as it all came to a stunning finale: the sun slowly descending, creamy low-flying clouds tinged with gold spreading across the sky and, almost incongruously, a thin line of jagged black clouds sitting angrily on the horizon. A strong but strangely mild wind swirled around us and as the gold gradually turned a vivid scarlet, it would have been no surprise to see the hag on her broomstick silhouetted against the sky as she made her rounds this Hallowe`en. Back indoors the appropriate measures had been taken, just in case.

 

 

On Tuesday took another walk up Bennachie, Oxen Craig this time though I`d forgotten just how many steps there are on that route which is a lot harder than shuffling up. Still, a good view of Mither Tap as you pause for breath and it was a perfect day.

                                                                                               

When I came down I found the picnic spot where there`d once been a significant birthday party with lots of family and friends. Empty this time and with plenty of time before I had to get to work (hence no canine company which always feels a bit strange) I sat in the sun and watched the leaves floating to the ground.Privileged moments.

 

 

Monday 28/10/24

Can be quite salutary this blogging malarkey:  11th September! Suffice to say on this damp and grey morning that in the interim there have been stunning autumn days of colour and the associated evocative earthy scents of everything dying back. There have been the first storms of the season, winds that on one morning threatened - literally, and that word is not used loosely - to throw me off the top of Bennachie. Rain, rain and more rain with the subsequent flooded roads. Bright sunshine and clear blue skies or dry brown days, so still the trees were utterly motionless and you could have cut through the air with a knife. Some days the sun retained enough warmth to encourage a few butterflies and bees out for a last forage and clouds of gnats (or what we used to call gnats, not sure what their Sunday name is) hung in the air. The odd suggestion of a frost on one or two mornings but a lot of very mild temperatures as well, shirtsleeve order on some walks.  Beasts still out in the fields and sheep, some looking as if they are already in lamb, others raddled and in waiting. Earlier in the month there was still a lot of green about and it was possible to almost watch as the change began but by now we`re full into the blazing colours - especially on the beech trees. And there`s always the geometry of the grain harvest, the long rows of straw waiting to be baled, and then fields covered in giant checkers waiting
to be collected. And skies of course, splendid skies all part of the season`s warp and weft. No two days the same.s

 

There were excursions: along the coast from Sandend to Portsoy one bright breezy day, done on the spur of the moment because the weather made it irresistible;

And some interesting forays up to Mither Tap on Bennachie, one in the cloud,

and one on the aforementioned windy day .....

 ...and one day, also on the spur of the moment on a perfect walking day, a slightly longer route taking in a local monument which has been beckoning for a while. *

Always worth a foray of course because the day can feel very different once out in it from the way it looks though the window. Grey and damp it might have been this morning but it was very mild and the woods were all a-glitter and a-glow, the lichen positively pulsing with light, the beech leaves turning to a deep burnt amber and spiders`webs draped across the gorse and caught in the long grass stems. Love to think of all that manic weaving going on as we sleep - should be able to hear it.

*In memory of local worthy Colonel Alexander Shand.

Wednesday 11.09.2024

 So cold out there this morning! Temperatures plummeted yesterday, the wind whipped up and suddenly it`s light the fire and make soup. And keep walking, only a bit faster.

Autumn clearly signalling its imminent arrival as we took to the woods for the first time in a long time yesterday. You can almost smell it. The leaves are hanging on but there`s the first indication of the change to come

and berries of course - that old "mellow fruitfulness" - though it didn`t feel very mellow in the strong cold wind. Saturday, on the other hand, promised the quintessential autumn day, the early morning mist slowly retreating, the cobwebs laced over the gorse, the ripened grain, the clear sky and still air.

By the afternoon the sun was beating down, people were splashing about in a local river and summer clothes were getting a late outing.  That was it though. Back to cloud-enfolded and dreich for the rest of the weekend and now - arctic! Well, not quite but it is cold. Another brisk walk the order of the day, plus tales of gallivanting.