A winter's pastel sunset

It is still very cold and the sound under my feet as I walked this morning was as if i was walking on the freshest cornflakes ever! Nothing had thawed since yesterday and the hard clumps of snow were still clinging to trunks, branches and even twigs in strange contorted shapes. There was no movement apart from myself and the two dogs and no birdsong at all and I couldn't help but feel I was walking through a black and white grotto which was completely frozen in time.

I needed to do some shopping this afternoon and hoped to find the forecast sunshine in the east of the country. It was not to be, but as I drove home in the late afternoon I noticed a glimmer in the sky and decided to make a detour to see if there might be a sunset after all. I was just in time to see the hills outlined against the weak rays left by the recalcitrant sun and then the dark clouds descended again. You can clearly see Ben Vorlich on the left and on the far right Ben Ledi (I think) and Ben More. I sat for a while, safely tucked up in the car, and watched as darkness descended. As with the morning, the icy cold gave the feeling that every living thing was holding its breath it was so quiet.

If you are interested, links are here and here to the magical wintry woodland encountered this morning and one of these would have made it to blip if I hadn't decided to record the peaceful sunset.