And again ...

The first thing that strikes me about today was how cold it felt - and having watched the news and seen what it was like in the south brought it home even more. Because I had a slow morning including a nice long chat with #1 son on the phone - only slightly interrupted by Po the dog letting his ball run down the hill and having to chase it - I didn't get out, and ended up going over a communion song for tomorrow instead. But I had a call from Di asking if I could show her where yesterday's path led out onto the hillside, so ...

So the afternoon found me back once more at Ardnadam, where we retraced the path from yesterday with only one deviation which we had to backtrack to remedy and ended up once more out on the rather devastated hillside with seems to accompany forestry felling everywhere it happens. The view above shows the Holy Loch towards its inner end, with the glen which houses Loch Eck in the distance. The remains of felled deciduous trees litter the ground among the stumps of conifers, and off-side to the left there is a tall fence (maybe a deer fence?) preventing access between the upper and lower slopes, though there is a tall gate as well. The air is cold though not windy, and at this point I was hot with climbing the hillside. Di is a trifle muddy, though the wetness is drying, after a slight mishap crossing a makeshift and half-destroyed bridge ...

Apart from the chill, or even despite it, the main feature of the day is once again pollen: my eyes streamed throughout, so that at times I could barely see where I was putting my feet. I guess going back to the woods, bursting as they are with catkins and new leaves, was a rash move; the interesting corollary seems to be that now, after an evening indoors, my eyes are dry instead of streaming and that hurts.

I'm going to double up my antihistamines tonight (another formula - it's ok) and see if I'm any better in the morning. To that end, I'm off...