It's further than we ought to be walking at our age but the temptation to take the track that leads up through the Ben Bhraggie forestry and out onto the open moor is too much. It's worth the sore legs. The sense of freedom as we come out of the confines of the trees and feel the world opening up around us is a tonic, and even the air seems, somehow, fresher and cleaner.
This morning we walked the winding track to Loch Lunndaidh. It's a classic Scottish loch, elongate, at times dark and mysterious, and beautiful, even though it isn't totally natural as the original loch was increased in size by being dammed at its downstream end.
We went there in the hope of seeing an osprey. Three pairs are said to nest around Loch Fleet but, we are told, range widely in search of fish. We didn't see one - we hardly expected to - but then we didn't say too long as the weather is still cold.
We did, however, see plenty of other things of interest including....
....three red deer hinds which, after inspecting us, crossed the track in the direction of the hills, and....
....an old friend, lousewort, just coming into flower and growing on the most unpromising and exposed land.
We walked through woodland filled with bird song, including that of more willow warblers than we've ever come across elsewhere. We also heard the year's first call of a cuckoo, and wondered if it makes use of the willow warblers' nests.
As we came back down into Golspie we found an area of council land in which several clumps of cowslips were growing. Cowslips used to be common flowers when we were young, particularly in hedgerows and meadow land, but they've become increasingly rare, so it was good to find such a healthy population.
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