Wednesday 15 January - Glen Eagles Drove Road

Experience of the previous day's deep snow had us pondering where to go. It was too fine a day to be idle but equally the prospect of thigh deep postholing did not really appeal. The Drove Road down Glen Eagles seemed like a good choice with the possibility of an ascent of a hill if conditions were more favourable than expected.

For the most part the going was good on this fine winter day and we paused often to take in the scene.

In retrospect we should have headed up this little hill, climbed often but rarely in such good conditions

It is always a joy and privilege to enter the oak woods.

Once in the open again and sunshine on our faces, we found a level spot higher up and had tea and several pieces of Lynne's Christmas cake while the sun began to dip behind Wether Hill's northern slope. Time to move. Uphill.

The snow was deep, progress slow. Our original plan to climb Wether and return either via Glen Devon Reservoir or over the tops seemed an arduous prospect; either route, we felt, would take much time and effort and might necessitate a return by head torch. So, somewhat reluctantly, we traversed the slope above the drove road, now in cold shaddow, while across the glen all was bathed in sun.

Where we planned to go the following day.....

...but the weather forecast was wrong as usual. Rain swept in overnight.

St Andrews resident

Unperturbed by our presence, the 'local' heron enjoys the sun at the harbour

Winter - at last

A substantial snowfall last night provided perfect conditions on the hill today. Well perhaps not 'perfect conditions', since the drifted snow was waist deep near the top with blasting spindrift. But who cares with weather like this.

Enjoy the festivities and the hills in 2016.

Stunning weather in the Ochils

Click to enlarge

We met six people, so it was a busy day.

The Talking Greyhound

The astute readers who regularly visit this blog will quickly note that this post has nothing to do with hills. For others, please note that this post has nothing to do with hills....

A man sees a sign outside a house - 'Talking greyhound For Sale.' He rings the bell, the owner appears and tells him the dog can be viewed in the back garden.

The man sees a very nice looking greyhound sitting there.
"Do you really talk?" he asks the greyhound.
"Yes," the greyhound replies.

After recovering from the shock of hearing the greyhound talk, he man asks, "So, tell me your story."

The greyhound looks up and says, "Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the SAS"
"In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one imagined that a greyhound would be eavesdropping."

"I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years.But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at Heathrow to do some undercover security work, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded several medals. I got married, had a few puppies, and now I've just retired."

The man is amazed. He goes back into the house and asks the owner how much he wants for the greyhound.

"Ten quid," the owner says.

"£10!!? But this greyhound is absolutely amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheaply?"

"Because he's a lying b*****d. He's never been out of the garden!!.


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The Green Thing

The following has just been sent to me. Hope you enjoy!

Yesterday after shopping in our local supermarket, I was in the queue at the Check Out, and heard when the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.

The woman apologised to the young girl & then sighed, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. You folk didn't do enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older lady said "Ahh yes you're right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day." She sighed then continued:

Back then, we returned milk bottles, lemonade bottles & beer bottles to the shops. The shops then sent them back to the plant to be washed, sterilized & refilled, so those same bottles were used over & over, thus REALLY were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Grocery stores put our groceries into brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) were not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalise our books on their brown paper bag/covers. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.
I remember how we walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store or office building; walked to the grocery store & didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go 200 yards.

. . . But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.
Back then we washed the baby's nappies because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind & solar power really did dry our clothes back in our days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. . . . But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day. 

Back then we had one radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And if anyone did own a TV, it had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of a football pitch. When cooking we blended & stirred by hand coz we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send by post, we used layers of old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity., , , , But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a tap or fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, & we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the "green thing" back then. Back then, people took the bus & kids rode bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mothers into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's expensive car or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing".. 

Oh and we had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest leisure park.
. . . . But it so sad this current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then? . . . I think you should forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from some smart ass young person. .. ...

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smart ass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

A couple of pics

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Relieved. Perhaps

"We smelt the smell of heather when
We burnt it for the tea,
And granite struck by granite at
The back of Corrie Fee,
We saw the twisted strata in
The glaciated lands,
The little speck of mica that
Stuck glistening in our hands".

A verse from 'The Poem, 1972' by
Syd Scroggie

On our descent of the Marilyn Craigendarroch last week, I slipped on the narrow path. Nothing much; hardly anything at all really, just a foot sliding a few inches. However in the evening I felt a slight nip in my left knee which worsened after a walk through the Morrone Birkwood the following day.

It was the same knee that was operated on two years ago and I feared the worst. The Braemar Gathering came and went with no easing and on Sunday we watched a re-enactment marking the 300th anniversary of the raising of the Jacobite standard here in 1715. Both events were thoroughly enjoyable and involved a fair bit of walking, but I knew that on Monday I needed to get on a hill to either confirm the worst or, more hopefully, discover that I had done nothing more than irritate a tendon.

It was with great relief that at the Glas Maol cairn all seemed well. The midges arrived as did the black flies but not even a plague of midges could have spoiled this glorious day. A young lad appeared and told us that this was his 5th Munro. He was in the forces (REME) and was home for week from his base in London and would soon be posted to Leuchars, much to his obvious delight. On Creag Leacach we met again then went our separate ways. The Knee was still fine.

It was like summer, or at least what summer should have been like. A perfect day with the main Cairngorms looking magnificent, the hills of the western Mounth equally so.

Respecting the knee, we had an easy afternoon the following day lying in the sun on a carpet of heather on Carn Aosda. I picked up a small rock - the mica glistened in the sun.


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A question for TGO Challengers only

Where is this?


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