A post to stop the rot

 "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proffered parsimoniously by this wayward climate of ours, have to be snatched at greedily, for they can be speedily withdrawn" (Richard Bernard, In The Quiet Places)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.

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!