Dragonflies

Started the long trip south with the 175 mile drive from Forres to Edinburgh where we’re staying for just two more nights.

Our journey was punctuated by stopping to see Susan’s niece’s little boy and say goodbye as we didn’t get a chance to do so on Tuesday evening.

From there it was a short but beautiful drive to Boat of Garten where we stopped at the Golf Club for coffee and scone in the glorious sunshine looking out over a tremendous view of the mountains.

Leaving the car in Boat of Garten we walked a 6 mile round trip to the RSPB Boat of Garten reserve, retracing our steps from 6 years ago when we walked through the stunning ancient Caledonian Abernethy forest. Today’s blip is of one pair of thousands of mating dragonflies buzzing around a bog pond.

The ospreys had already departed, it didn’t matter as there was lots else to see including more fungi, small birds, teeming ant hills and the truly magnificent Scots Pines.

We arrived back at the car just in time to see the last train of the day on the Speyside Railway calling at the Boat of Garten hauled by the 1934 built Black Five 5025.

We were planning to call in at the House of Bruar for a meal. The website said the restaurant was open until 6pm, when we got there at 5.45 it had long since shut - 5pm we we told. We jumped back in the car and carried on to Edinburgh.

Thank you for the overwhelming response to yesterday’s blip. On the first page of the popular! I was shot in an instant through a double glazed window from a moving train into the sun. Pure good fortune.