Friday 24 April - Life goes on

Our seeds have now arrived from D T Brown, a delightful company to deal with, and planting has begun. Peas, cress, radish, spring onions, tomatoes, spinach, lettuce. and rocket, named :Rocket Artemis F1. When I pointed out to Lynne that the Artemis programme is NASA's current Moon mission and F1 engines powered the first stage of the Saturn V in the Apollo era, I was met with 'You're obsessed man!'  Oh well.

We also have Nasturtiums and Love in a Mist.

But we're not the only ones planting:

On our walk yesterday we came across this painted stone placed by the fence. Nice touch from someone. Thanks.

I'm beginning to think that a Twitter account might be better suited during the current restrictions than a blog. It's probably a better place to say nothing very much.

My birthday tomorrow, normally spent on a hill, but our usual walk will have to do.

Monday 20 April - I think this rather fine

It's taken a while, but this beautiful larch tree on the route of our daily walk, has come to life.

Taken with iPhone. Click to enlarge.

Sunday 19 April - four weeks on

These daffodils brighten up our daily walk but obviously they've had a close encounter with a tractor, probably delivering hay for the sheep. I like to think they were spared on purpose. Positive thoughts are needed at present.

We met not a soul before turning onto the now familiar single track road to Powmill. In the distance is King's Seat Hill, the snow patches on its steep north east slopes slowly shrinking.

At one of the few houses along our route the friendly dog barks his regular welcome; the cat observes us briefly then turns away, disinterested. It's a cat after all. I like cats. I like dogs for the opposite reason.

A lovely spot with dog, cats and hens.

At home I'm falling into an enjoyable routine, if jumping from one thing to another counts as routine.  
 
I've been uploading photos to Flickr, browsing climbing books and generally living vicariously on the tops and ridges of the Munros and others. I searched the bookshelves for Irvine Butterfield's High Mountains of Britain and Ireland, a book I bought over thirty years ago but never used preferring the SMC's Tables to identify the Munros and Tops using Grid References, then working out routes for ourselves.(Edit: We bought Butterfield’s book in 1988, three years before ‘compleation’ so I assume we thought it simply a book worth having for its own sake. Which it is.)

However, Butterfield's book is an excellent one and his photographs capture the landscape well. I remember a friend pouring over its pages at Ardmair the evening before we set off for Achintee, bound for a day on Bidein a' Choire Sheasgaich and Lurg Mhor. I teased him about using a guide book, and a non-SMC one at that, but he would have none of it!

There are other books to read of course;

Everest - The First Ascent, the untold story of Griffith Pugh, recommended by Sir Hugh and Gimmer.

James Naughtie's On The Road - American Adventures from Nixon to Trump.

The Haldanes of Gleneagles, a Scottish History from the Twelfth Century to the Present Day, which Lynne has read but which I might find a bit dry.

Unfortunately, all this is a poor substitute for being on the hills. But never mind. Following the Sunday Times report into the UK Government's handling of the virus outbreak in its early stages, Cameron McNeish has the answer to Scotland's coronavirus problem: "I think it's very clear now that being shackled to England is seriously bad for our health@DissolvetheUnion". Really? Cringeworthy to say the least.
 
To cheer you up (well it cheers me up) I leave you with these:

Cuillin Main Ridge Traverse - approaching the Thearlaich-Dubh Gap (hidden) with Sgurr Thearlaich (right) and Sgurr Alasdair (left). Top of Great Stone Shoot between them.

Cuillin Ridge from near Gars-bheinn

Scanned 35mm slide. Am Basteir, April 1991 two months before we finished our round

Saturday 11 April - Living in the moment

Apart from our daily exercise I've been uploading photographs to Flickr initially because my cousin - we rock climbed together in our youth - asked to see photos of our locality and the hills of the north. I do like Flickr but the free version has a limit of 1000 photos, so sometime soon I'll have to upgrade to Pro and take out a subscription. Looking again at some of the photographs I've uploaded, Corbett trips to Rum, Knoydart and Letterewe, for example, have made us long to be back among those magnificent hills. It's not about the Corbetts, it's about just being there.

In all probability though, it will be next year before we can return so what, we asked ourselves, would be something special to plan and dream about during what will seem, we fear, a very long summer?   Living in the moment is all very well, but a bit of living in the future wouldn't go amiss we told ourselves.

So now we have an idea. A long term project. Plans can be laid. OS Maps can once more can spread on the floor.

In the Cuillin in the days of breeches and ordinary shirts. (from a slide)

The Flickr link for anyone interested is here


If you do have a look, bear in mind that I'm using Flickr for storage so there will be some you'll want to skip through. There are adverts every so often on the free version.

Meantime we await compost and seeds to grow lettuce, peas and cress in our growboxes.

Friday 3 April - So what's been going on?

Well, nothing as far as hills are concerned what with the lockdown and trying to keep ourselves and others safe. We abandoned the idea of walking in the quiet Ochils which would have involved a three mile drive to the nearest parking spot so have enjoyed daily walks from the house instead, meeting only the odd cyclist or dog walker. Kinross-shire is very rural so options for walking are varied but so far we've stuck to the same circuit, a route past farms and open fields with newly born lambs beginning to find their feet.

 Click to enlarge all photos.

The road to Powmill, reached from the house by a pleasant track with sheep and cattle grazing either side. Views to the Ochils all the way

Social Distancing

It seems a long, long time ago since we were out to Skythorn Hill and before that, a favourite walk through Corb Glen and onto the gentle hills nearby - next three photos.

View from the Cadger's Path (and below)

Green Law

Setting out for Skythorn Hill and other tops

and a day on Wether Hill.

So what else is going on?

Yesterday my usual news update from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) included the latest on the Mars 2020 Rover, now named Perseverance following a US wide student competition when 28000 essays were submitted by students explaining their chosen name for the rover. Eventually this number was reduced to 155 then to nine, the eventual winner being from Virginia.

Perseverance at Kennedy Space Centre. The red arrow at the rear shows the plate which carries 10,932,295 names submitted from around the world. Mine included! It also carries the essays of the 155 finalists in the 'Name the Rover' competition. (Photo courtesy NASA, JPL)

The plate - the laser-etched graphic depicts the Earth and Mars joined by the Sun. (Photo courtesy NASA, JPL)

The three chips with the names stencilled by electron beam can be seen top left on the plate which will be visible to cameras on Perseverance's mast. Launch of the Atlas V carrying Perseverance is scheduled for July this year, landing on Mars at Jezero Crater on 18 February 2021. As I said in a previous post, I have my NASA Boarding Pass so am raring to go! By the time it launches I might be wishing I was on the pad in person rather than in name only.

Also on the space exploration front (well, sort of) I have a second, half-built, Saturn V model to complete and a new Apollo 11 Lunar Module to build which will compliment the Apollo Command and Service Module completed in February.

Like everyone else, our summer trips to the hills are off and we have only the faintest of hopes that our usual September holiday at Braemar will take place.

Stay safe and keep well.

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