FOUR SEASONS
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We have now settled into our new parkup,this morning the mountains have thrown all the four seasons at us ,at the moment the rain and wind are driving into us from the north ,giving both vehicles a free jet wash
clearing all the sand and dirt from the yard off them.
I woke to three Raf planes flying low over us (or maybe its the fact we are so high) i watched as the three of them created trails of smoke as they chased each another across the sky then in a flash they were gone leaving silence and rain behind.
I have always enjoyed full on weather it makes e feel so alive
Watching trees bending in the wind and birds being blown around the sky in a futile attempt to get to the other side of the glen.
Then as quickly as it has come the rain is gone and the sun bursts out from behind an angry looking cloud to shower us with light and warmth what a joy and a privelage to be able to live in such a powerful place so close to mother earth
I watched as little waves were born on one side of the loch and start to travel quickly across the open space.
slowly gather energy and finally crash against the other side of the loch in a final display of mother natures power.
Dylan is full of energy and everytime i move to get a pen or something he is at the door ready to go out and explore.
So i think it is time to grab a flask and my camera and take a HIKE.......
Home in the Scottish Highlands
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Like no other place i have been to, be it the wonderful Exmoor or Dartmoor to the lovely couty of Norfolk or black forest in Austria the the highlands seem to wrap around me and i feel more at ease with my life.
Travelling along the mountain roads as they wind there way gently through the mountains and glens one moment along the shore of
a long dark peaty wind swept loch, the next moment you are passing through a forest with trees full of long soft strands of moss hanging from spindly rain soaked Knarled branches of silver birch as if long forgotten xmas decorations.
As if watching some tennis match your head spins from the view too your right, a snow covered Ben, then just as you take in the perfect beauty of what you see ,quickly a movement or site catchs your left eye then back to the right.....
The sounds of the mountains be it some distant eagle calling as it effortlessly glides from glen to glen (making a mockery of them human clunky things called jets)or some stag bellowing his strength to anyone and everyone who will listen seem to flow through me as if electric passing through every molicule and resutling in feeling more alive ,more in touch with this amazing wonderful planet called we call Earth.
Everywhere history calls out,be it from the craggy moss covered rock an imagined clansman huddles from the northen wind and rain,
the little clump of trees nestled at the slowly flowing river an imagined ancient settlement of people busy their selfs getting ready for the oncoming winter
gathering wood and everywhere laughter..
Travel these roads with your window wide open and your mind as open....
And the mountains will reward you with a gift you never believed possible in the hussle and bustle of this modern computerised world.
Standing on the top of a mountain As you breathe in deeply your lungs scream for more, until they feel they will surely burst at any moment with the purity and sheer energy as the wind that threatens to blow you from the summit ,born unseen far out too sea ,by a distant moon and deep deep water in an endless timeless batle and has travelled unobstructed across the Atlantic ocean.
until it hits the back of your troat with a force long forgotten and then travels speedily and determind to your lungs. leaving a faint tint of the sea as it does, filling your body with a long and nearly forgotten strength.....
As a kid i would climb Ben Bowie and do the same ,as i looked out across at Loch Lommond (often when i should have been at double maths ) it feels like so many years since i truly breathed ....
Standing by a small burn as is flows golden into the loch with no visible lights from anywhere the sky so clear and huge yet it seems to be completly carpeted in stars as if unable to fit even a single star but somehow from the west a falling star is newly born and begins it's deahly journey ,weaves and squeezes somehow passing between them all.
leaving it's firey trail across the face of the new moon that is sitting lazily on the side of Ben Wyvis
Standing here in the highland moors i have never felt so at home and far from a lonely place the history and people of the highlands call out LISTEN my friend.....................................
Come ,whatever you do in life, if but once, to the Scottish highlands, and sleep on a bed of moss under a moon lit night and open your heart........
The Happy Dafthermit x
The Blackbus Group
