Magic on Tinto

In our continuing efforts to assimilate into the local culture, we went up Tinto Hill today, the second of the required local hills.  This one actually in Lanarkshire.  And what a hill!  A fairly steep just-over-two-miles to the top but with incredible views of the Southern Uplands (we spotted the M74 snaking its way through the valley past Lesmahagow and down through Abington), the borders and right north across Lanrakshire to the Campsies, what I think were the Ochills and the Trossachs in the distance.  I loved that you could see turbines in every direction - so many of them.  You'd not be allowed to do that in Yorkshire because too many people talk about it ruining the scenery - despite the fact that the one sure-fire way of runing the lovely countryside down there is through letting the world warm up but hey-ho, as long as it's not in my back yard... 

It was one of those fanstastic winter days where the sun was out, the ground was frosty and the breeze was certaily blowing!  Pretty difficult to stay on the top for any length of time, but luckily Tinto has a considerable cairn on top with a lee to shelter from the wind. 

Finished up the morning in the Tinto Hill Tearoom listening to a couple of the locals catching up, though the tearoom could have done with removing yesterday's brocoli and stilton soup from the specials board as it kept on being requested! 

This was the blip today, straight into the sun but I spent a bit of time figuring out how to apply the new mask settings in lightroom so this is the chosen one because I spent how too long fiddling with it!

Today's Sountrack: For Tomorrow by Blur