Winter Walking

We may have experienced some 'deep mid-winter' in the last few days with temperatures at night below -5C but this hasn't prevented the sun from providing a splash of colour at dawn. This is our view from the house across the graveyard car park looking southeast.

The cold weather has brought flocks of small birds into the trees above the village. Once again, these are mostly yellowhammers but there are other finches in there too - and what's in the picture is only a fraction of the numbers which were weighing down the trees.

We attempted to walk up the road into the woodland below Beinn Bhraggie but had to give up as the ice was lethal in places, but then found that the sea had very kindly returned much of the sand to Golspie beach so walked there instead. This photo was taken a couple of minutes before midday. Is it wishful thinking or is that sun just a wee bit higher in the sky?

We also found that the main beach which stretches away towards Littleferry was just about accessible even though the concrete ramp was icy, so we were able to....

....stretch our legs along the sands, sharing the beach with just one man, his dog, and....

....the few waders working the strand line.