Early Morning Glories

Aberfoyle oak wood SSSI

Ben Ledi from Lime Craig

Waterfalls at the David Marshall Lodge

For the last two days, the cold sharp winter weather has returned and I have fallen back into the routine of climbing a hill before breakfast. The burns and waterfalls were frozen from a hard overnight frost but the still dry air made for the best of walking conditions. It is the perfect way to assail the senses and to appreciate the splendour of deciduous forests of oak and birch.

The icing on the cake this morning was a thin veneer of snow which let me follow the tracks of a fox up to the treeline. The sunlight shafting through the trees angled onto the snow crystals which acted as prisms to create a carpet of snow speckled with all the colours of the rainbow. The views from Lime Craig were sharply focused against the unblemished blue skies apart from a cloud cap over Ben Ledi. To the south, the Forth Valley was shrouded in a hazy white mist.