Snow

The gritting trucks were out early along Golspie's roads even though the air temperature was above zero and only about an inch of snow had fallen overnight. We were lucky: our day started in bright sunshine as we walked along Back Road and turned up towards....

....Rhives Farm from where a track leads up into the....

....Beinn Bhraggie  forestry. At it climbs it gives views....

....south along the coast towards Loch Fleet and the southern side of the Dornoch Firth - the waves give an indication of the strength of the onshore wind, certainly not what anyone could call a 'beast from the east', not yet at least.

We were the first along this track since the snow began. Leaving our footprints gave us the same sort of pleasure as does stepping out onto a sandy beach wiped clean by the tide; we were first, that is, except for....

....the residents of the forest like this deer. One of the joys of walking in fresh snow is trying to interpret the tracks.

We traversed the hill until we were above Golspie Tower before we we started to come down through the woods and then on to the complex of paths through Golspie Glen. The sun died and the snow came on again, with a little more determination, but it was a pleasure walking though it, through the silence of its settling, meeting not another soul out walking until....

....we came to the skating lake where we chatted to two young women who were giving their new spaniel puppy only his second walk since completing his inoculations.