"These rare moments proffered parsimoniously by this wayward climate of
ours, have to be snatched at greedily, for they can be speedily
withdrawn" (Richard Bernard, In The Quiet Places)
Well, we did manage to snatch this gloriously warm day before Christmas but since then, having been smitten by some virus or other, nowt. Nada.*
A couple of years back in early spring after a hard winter, the snow was banked up to the height of the fence providing a perfect launch pad into the icy reservoir for any unfortunate soul who slipped. We teetered across higher up contemplating our potential trajectory. It was the only significant snow encountered all day.
Today though, the only obstacle was the bracken. I bashed on through but when I stopped beyond the first inlet Lynne was no longer to be seen. Eventually I caught sight of her as she rose from deep cover having been absorbed in some finding or other. This not uncommon. Soon reunited we paused for tea and took in the scene, few words being needed to express our mutual content at being in such lovely country.
A butterfly fluttered past as we reached the top of Wether Hill. Distant (well not so distant really) Ben Vorlich, Stuc a' Chroin, Ben Lawers and the rest are always 'a sicht to sair the sowl'. It's some years since we were in these hills in winter but memories of those days are strong, even very early ones with the school climbing club, for example, when we traversed the Lawers group in perfect snow conditions. Alas in those early years I had no camera nor any thought of one and many years later I went through a phase of quite deliberately not carrying a camera. I can't really say what prompted this decision but even today I sometimes find the stops and starts to take photographs interfere with the experience of just being in the hills.
Once on the drove road through Glen Eagles we were in shadow but there is always something of interest here, sun or not.
* Today we had our first local walk since December so can now look forward to getting out on the hills again and thinking about our planned trips for the year.
Well, that's the rot stopped, albeit with a rather rambling post of little or no consequence. It's done me good though!
* Today we had our first local walk since December so can now look forward to getting out on the hills again and thinking about our planned trips for the year.
.JPG) |
| Some snow left on the hills from the falls of a few days ago. |
Well, that's the rot stopped, albeit with a rather rambling post of little or no consequence. It's done me good though!
5 comments:
Nice one Gibson, the rot is well and truly stopped!
Some lovely looking skies there, Gibson; skies of the kind we don't seem to see nearly often enough, although today has started off blue, if a bit watery.
I've just noticed that two of the photographs are of the same scene, though taken with different cameras, so I'll remove one. How did I miss that? And more to the point why didn't Lynne say when she noticed? We have lovely cloudless skies this morning but how long they will last is a different matter.
I know this may sound a bit odd, but looking at those pictures I could almost smell the earth.
I also went, from choice, without a camera for about ten years or so. I felt it was cheating the place and myself - stopping to look through a peephole to record something that would not, could not possibly replicate the feeling of wonder of being in the hills seemed at the time to be the height of foolishness. I'm not sure I regret it, as even now I can shut my eyes and those fabulous views flash brilliantly.
Lovely post, Gibson; it's done me a power of good too, Sir.
Thanks for your kind words Mr S. I don't regret my camera-free days either Alan and can identify completely with your 'fabulous views flash brilliantly' experience. In the days of 35mm slides we used to get the projector out regularly, settle down with a beer or two, enjoy the journeys all over again and plan new ones. Nowadays the photographs are saved on computer, backed up on several flash drives and on SmugMug and only occasionally looked at.
We met Dave Hewitt last year in the Ochils and he said he didn’t even own a camera. He was certainly travelling light!
All the best and good luck with the mobile blogging.
Post a Comment