Grey, grey, grey … wait … that’s SUNSHINE !!
Well I have every tourist map ever produced, spent several days on the internet (the benefit of wi-fi supplied) and I think unless I want to go hiking, skiing, cycling, canoeing, quad-biking, horseriding or gliding I have exhausted the local entertainment. This is because I have driven over almost every track I have come across within 15 miles, the GPS keeps a log and I can see where I have and haven’t been. I cannot find a single photographic exhibition gallery in this part of Scotland and I have visited every pottery and “art” gallery and even a few “craft” galleries I have come across.
So I decide to just follow the Scottish Tourist Route which runs nearby. That doesn’t help a lot as it turns out that this is just the shortest route between all the whisky distilleries within a hundred miles.
So I just look out the window and enjoy the view … until I see these couple of “ponies” standing quite still in the paddock with the sun behind them. I can’t resist stopping and taking a quick shot.
They don’t seem in the least perturbed until I get right up to the fence to scratch the nose of the brown one.
At which point the white one seems to become quite agitated and although it doesn’t move from its spot it goes through an elaborate posturing procedure of flattening it’s ears, stretching out its neck, opening its mouth and poking out it’s tongue in a most peculiar fashion.
If it wasn’t just standing there I would be beating a hasty retreat.
After watching this fascinating performance for a few minutes it was time to move on down the next road I hadn’t yet left a GPS track on.
Although I had tried to avoid it I found myself at the Glenlivet estate castle. The castle is called something else but apparently is in the grounds of the Glenlivet estate. The climb from the carpark is quite steep but not too difficult. There is just under half of the original stonework left and the walls are quite impressive at about 2 metres thick. The remainder of the stone has been used to construct a farmhouse and outbuildings right next to the original castle. It is easy to see how the original three stories would have been built with wooden beams attached to the walls and how a single easily defended very narrow staircase provided the only access to the first floor.
But there is not a lot else to see so it’s time to move on.
Not far from here I spot an old a bridge over a nearby creek buried in the brambles and bushes about, what appears to be, 3 metres from somebody’s back door. But there is a public parking spot of sorts and a little path leading down to a plaque which indicates this is the “Bridge of Livet”. There were originally three spans but the nearest is clogged with modern rubbish and the furtherest was lost in the “recent floods of 1829” (or something like that) ….
It is quite dark in here so long exposures are called for and when looking at the images for this this blog there is so little colour that there is very little difference between that and monochrome. I think I prefer the black and white.
For the rest of the morning and early afternoon I spend the time skirting around the edges of heavy rain and black clouds but I manage to find some pleasant “pastoral” scenes which I quite like.
On the way back through Aviemore I attend to some necessary shopping and refuel the car. Even this tiny Citroen DS3 guzzles fuel at an alarming rate in the first three of its five gears, which is where I seem to spend most of my time, and at $2-50 / litre its generally about $100 dollars to “top-up”!!
Back in Thyme Cottage I have some afternoon tea and keep an eye out the window to see if any colour will appear in the clouds. Loch an Eilein is only about 5 minutes away … but the sky is surprisingly blue which means a boring sunset and the wind is keeping the temperature about 4 deg. C so I may well be in for the rest of the day.
The forecast for snow is also diminishing in likelihood by the minute but the over-night temperature is forecast at -4 deg. C so I will keep my fingers crossed …
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