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.