Before the rain

Loch Eck tends to look black from above, whatever the sky is doing - something to do with the steep sides, I think, and the relative position of the sun. But this afternoon it all looked quite severe, with the grey sky, the leaden appearance of the water, the arid yellow of the hillside and the dark of the forest - what R.S.Thomas called "the forest's scum". We were high on the path that runs parallel to the road, where the traffic noise could only be heard faintly and intermittently.