Exploratious meanderings

Life in the freezer continues to be rather beautiful in this blessed corner of the country - such a change from my usual complaints about cloud and incessant rain, no? Clear sky from sunrise this morning - in fact, a good hour and a half before the sun actually appeared above the hills on the other side the sky was totally clear over thick frost. Soon I must apply myself to present-wrapping and tree-decorating, but for today I had a bit of a plan ...

I was business-like in the morning: I phoned our friend in hospital, where he sounds outrageously like himself despite the hellish week he's had; I did my Italian (have I said how much I'm hating the new-look Duolingo, with its mean allocation of points and the lack of ordinary revision practice?);I did my physio exercises;  I washed a couple of towels and hung them outside to freeze-dry. I had an early lunch. 

Di arrived at my back door just after I'd finished drinking tea, and shortly after we headed off down to the south in her car, which we parked beside Loch Striven in the usual fashion. But instead of walking along the loch side road, we headed back up the hill and off along a road I've often wanted to explore but lacked the will to persuade Himself that exploration is fun. It was quite a pull up a long hill, the road going through two forbidding five-bar gates (reader, we opened them) and turning into a track. We followed the left fork to stay above the loch, rather than heading inland, and were rewarded by new and lovely views of the sunset, sometimes through stands of conifers, sometimes through gaps, as in my photo above. We turned back after the sun set, as the track had the odd icy patch and we didn't want to have to use a torch, coming back to the water's edge in that marvellous afterglow that is like stage lighting. We'd only walked 3.5 miles, but we'd climbed quite a bit and my heart rate had been up over 100 bpm which is more than I tend to achieve these days of old-people walks.And on the way home we startled an owl, which flew off the road just in front of us - all rather magical.

The day ended with online Compline and actually feeling warm enough in front of the telly. I suspect the fleece Harry Potter blanket may have helped ...