Storm Arwen

So Storm Arwen has arrived, bringing the first real gales of the winter. While Golspie has an amber warning for wind and a yellow for snow, areas to the south and east of us are set to fare far worse, possibly up to 90mph. The Met Office is promising us gusts to 52mph this afternoon and....

....while there's sleet and the occasional snowflake mixed in the rain at our level, his lordship is freezing in the first settling snows of the winter up on Beinn Bhraggie.

We have a walk designed for this weather which involves being blown down the hill to the A9 and across it to the Golspie Burn then, with the wind behind us to give our old bones a helping hand, along the shore path to Dunrobin Castle.

Today, along the sea edge, the cormorants and gulls seem unphased by the wind and even less interested in the unusual sight of a ship anchored offshore. She's the....

....NS Elida, an offshore tug and supply ship built seven years ago and registered in the Cayman Islands.

We rarely see ships anchored offshore, even for shelter in bad weather, so the Elida's master is either in no hurry to reach his destination or he's genuinely worried by the forecast.

The return leg of our foul-weather wander, which is largely into the wind, is through the forestry where the wind is much less fierce and a minor danger might be from falling dead branches.

We enjoyed our walk, wet as we were when we arrived home, not least because we met a very cheerful young couple who were walking from Brora to Golspie as part of an adventure. Having paddle-boarded from Land's End to John o' Groats, they're now using their camper van as a base to walk back to Land's End.