A walk for
Alexander.
Tuesday, 18 December,
2012
On Monday we decided not to walk this week.
Dorothy has a chesty cold and I am in a state of pre-Christmas panic. However .
. . my decision to stay at home and get ready for Christmas was overruled by
Tim on Tuesday morning. He said that Alexander needed a walk. It transpired
later that Tim had forgotten that Timothy was arriving this Friday He thought
there was another week before it all kicked off! Only a man could be so
blissfully unaware of Christmas looming.
I felt bad about not trying to contact Trevor
but it was rather late when we decided to go out and we were only planning a
short walk - through Skyhill plantation and then up the Millennium Way and back
down into the glen.
I stopped at the edge of the plantation to
take some photos of Ramsey, framed by a couple of birches.
And then stopped for a rest up on the Millennium
way near Skyhill Farm to photograph my favourite Scots pines and got a bit
carried away by the sky and the clouds.
I was getting ready to photograph the clouds
reflected in this puddle when some other reflections suddenly
arrived.
There was hardly any wind so I started thinking
about reflections on the dubs and persuaded Tim that we should take a detour
along the wall towards the Neary and then follow the sheep path to the dubs. I
thought it would be easier for Alexander than the direct route from the
Millennium Way to the dubs, through thick heather. Well, Alexander was
happy but Tim wasn't too thrilled by the condition of the path from the Neary.
We couldn't decide whether it was a path or a shallow stream or a long, thin
puddle. We ended up walking through the heather at the side of the "path". It
was quite heavy going.
My socks were damp from the wet heather before we
reached the dubs and they got even wetter when I got rather too enthusiastic
about finding the best spots to take photos and tried to pick my way through the
boggy area around the dubs. Tim stayed at a safe distance and took this photo
of me (which, for some obscure reason changed colour when it was transferred to the blog. Perhaps Picasa thought the original was too dark and gloomy).
. . . and then, while I was trying to balance on
top of a clump of heather to take this shot of cloud reflections, my
foot slipped and I felt an ominous trickle of cold water running down into my
boot.
After leaving the dubs we ran out of sheep paths
and Tim decided to carry Alexander.
We passed quite close to the ponies that we
saw from the North Barrule ridge last week. They appeared to think that we
might be bringing them food. We didn't want to raise their hopes and then
disappoint them so we turned off down the hill before we reached them.
Alexander was very relieved. I wonder whether they are the same ponies that
used to graze in the Corrany Valley.
Then we squelched our way home. There wasn't
much else of interest apart from a new "bridge" across the stream near the pool
at the old quarry. Someone has put a couple of sleepers across the stream. We
didn't go up to the pool but I crossed the "bridge" to take this photo. The
sleepers felt quite secure and the surface of the wood wasn't slippery (yet) but
there is nothing to anchor them in place apart from their weight. I wonder
whether they will survive if the stream floods.
Happy Christmas and all that!