Sgor Gaoich

Glen Feshie arguably the loveliest glen in the Cairngorms. From here the slopes of Sgor Gaoich open up invitingly. A gentle path from the car park at the end of the road takes you up onto Carn Ban Mor.

 

It's a grassy path initially with big, open views all around until you reach the ridge that leads to Sgor Gaoith.  The short, clipped grass giving way to a more stony top, but not one that is hard to navitage across in good visibility.

 

 

A highlight on the ridge and on the summit is the view down into Loch Einich and across to the likes of Braeriach and Cairn Toul.

 

 

Another good outing for my 20 year old Hot Ice rucksack !!

 

Broad Cairn

Occasionally you set off on a hill-walk in the rain anticipating a fairly horrible day with little to see. However, from time to time the weather can turn during the day and that was our experience on Broad Cairn.  From dull wet weather to sun shine, it was a great day out.

 

From Loch Muick we took 'the lightening' path and this gave us a great close encounter with some red deer hinds.

 

 One of the reasons for picking this walk was the fact that the paths are quite clear, which in a bad day can be a real bonus.

 

Our garden

At the end of a long day there is nowhere quite like a garden to relax.  We are very lucky with the spot we have.  South facing in the main we benefit from the drier climate that the east of Scotland offers ... and I say that after several decades trying to nurture plants in the much wetter west of Scotland.

When we got this garden it was just a plot, so we have had all the fun of planning and planting on a blank canvas.  Would we do it differently if we had the chance to start from scratch again ... you bet, but that said it hasn't turned out too badly.

 

To get from the above to what follows was great fun. Once the house was complete the first task was to get to work on turning the earth over and raking out all sorts of stones.  These varied from fist-sized right through to some that needed two of us to remove.  Wheelbarrow, after wheelbarrow followed, but gradually we had a soil that we could rake before laying the turf and erecting fences and a greenhouse.

 

 

 

 

Every garden needs a helper or two  The two that we have offer limited help !

 

 

 



Cairngorms

Cairntoul, Braeriach, Ben MacDui, Lochnagar ...   so many classic mountain names and so many great outings in one spot.

I'm not sure when I first fell in love with the Cairngorms, but after years of walking in the western hills these were a welcome change of scenery.  Vast plateaus, stunning long views and more often than not quite dry underfoot ... now that really was different.

The wildlife is marvellous in this area - from adders and lizards to golden eagles and red deer. I bought a Nikon D40 in 2009 and the first day I took it out we came across an adder near Derry Cairngorm. Unbelieivably lucky and what a great wildlife experience.

 
The Lairig Ghru is one of the great sights in this region. I had a great overnight here with my father in law, stopping in the Corrour Bothy on a summer Sunday night. A slightly damp weekend it was nevertheless marvellous to wake up in such a fantastic spot and the sense of silence first thing in the morning was eerie.

The remnants of Caledonian pinewood here are absolutely stunning, the smell, the colours and the beautiful shapes.  Heading north to the Pools of Dee and scrambling through a wonderful boulder field we eventually emerged into classic Scots Pine woodlands and within minutes had our first sighting of a crossbill. Yes, there is so much to see in this area no wonder it draws you back like a magnet.

Montalbano

What to do when you have to reluctantly leave your Italian holiday behind ?  

Read Italian books, of course.

David Gilmour's - The Pursuit of Italy is one of my favourites and R J B Bosworth's Mussolini's Italy is another fascinating read.  But for real escapism I love the Montalbano detective novels.  The scenery, quirky characters, amazing food and sheer love of humour jump off the pages. 

Another highly enjoyable element of Andrea Camilleri's series is the superb cover artwork in the Picador series.  I find it a tough call to decide where Camilleri or Michael Dibdin is my favourite at the moment. The Zen detective novels are another really well crafted series, and whereas Montalbano is set in Sicily where the dry, arid landscape often dominates, the Zen novels are by and large set in Rome with frequent interludes in Venice. As you can imagine the sophisticated Rome life-style seeps on to the pages and the escapes to Venice bring that watery wonderland to vivid life.  Both series are finding huge popularity in Britain now withe t.v. adaptations lending a boost to their coverage.