The Lemon Fool

Where I lived in Italy, I could walk[1] out of my front door and up a peak that would, if transplanted to England, be our third highest. The Italians call it a hill, not a mountain.

A bit further afield - but visible from where I lived - I could head up the Apennines. Within (strenuous) cycling distance I could go higher than any UK peak, and in driving distance I could be in the real mountains at more than twice that. Though most of the roads out there make the most potholed of our surfaces look smooth!

[1] Or preferably cycle: too much of it was on roads for the walk to be much fun. But in terms of distance it was a walk.

Snorvey wrote:One thing I discovered last week. I thought at 2800 feet it was the highest in Moray (and officially it is). But......although according to various sources the UK's second highest peak, Ben MacDui at 4,295 ft...... is on the southern edge of Moray’s border.

And Wiki puts it at the Moray / Aberdeenshire border.

It can be a bit touristy though. Maybe I'll head down during the week and give it a go.

MacDui is a rather shapeless lump, just the highest part of the plateau, though it does afford great views of Braeriach and Cairn Toul, and down to the Lairig Ghru. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/cont ... age%2Fjpeg

If I was round that way, I'd walk off the plateau down to Loch Avon via the Shelter Stone (though the descent might be a bit "interesting" in snow and ice), then to the Fords of Avon refuge (not-so-fond memories of slipping off the nearby stepping stones into 2-3ft of water one new year and spending the next week walking around in cold wet clothes), then up Strath Nethy to Ryvoan bothy and then to Glenmore Lodge. Quite a long trek, mind.

--kiloran

We found this handsome critter on our drive earlier in the week:




He was with wifey:




I guess there'll be baby chameleons on the way. Note how dramatically his colour changed. Mating took some 30 minutes:




GS

That's my sort of hill-difficult to fall off. A few trees, and maybe a hand rail, would make it even nicer.

AleisterCrowley wrote:That's my sort of hill-difficult to fall off. A few trees, and maybe a hand rail, would make it even nicer.

And it's already got a motorway going up it

--kiloran

Snorvey wrote:The missus uploaded one of my pictures from Friday to a site that makes the images a bit more dramatic (I can't remember the name of it. It'll come back to me).

Anyway, I thought it looked quite good.

Did you recall the photo editing site name? Would like to have a play!

VRD

vrdiver wrote:Did you recall the photo editing site name? Would like to have a play!
VRD

Snapseed is a good app for this sort of thing. Easy to edit photos on your phone as you go.

For example this taken in Regent's Park:



Or these taken in Monet's Garden in Giverny: (with/without filter):

kiloran wrote:

AleisterCrowley wrote:That's my sort of hill-difficult to fall off. A few trees, and maybe a hand rail, would make it even nicer.

And it's already got a motorway going up it

--kiloran

Well a Model T Ford went up Ben Nevis in 1911, and that was before there were motorways.

There was a permanently manned weather observatory on top of Ben Nevis for twenty-one years (around 1883-1904)
Hell of a posting in winter, you could hardly wander down the pub for a swift pint.

AleisterCrowley wrote:There was a permanently manned weather observatory on top of Ben Nevis for twenty-one years (around 1883-1904)
Hell of a posting in winter, you could hardly wander down the pub for a swift pint.

The Scottish Meteorological society proposed the setting up of the Observatory in 1877, and to show their determination, one of their members -Clement Wragge - made daily ascents in the summer months to take readings - and public funding for the Observatory followed. When funding became a problem, and the Observatory closed in 1904, it continued in use as the "summit hotel" in the summer months. It is believed that some of the team that aided with the Model T climb up the mountain made use of the hotel. But it was a temperance hotel - so it would still require a serious wander to get a pint.
http://www.ben-nevis.com/information/history/hotel/ben-nevis-summit-hotel.php

From what I was reading earlier the observatory was separate from the summit hotel, but part of the observatory was used as an annexe when it (the observatory) closed
https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/arti ... bservatory

Sainsburys..mid afternoon.

Several rows of shelves almost empty ( there were more shelves empty but I didn't take a picture).

Sainsbury were the only store which had a small supply of big paper ( none at Morrisons, Tesco, Aldi (2 stores), Asda). Limited to 1 four pack per person.

Can I please suggest that all shopping-related chat is moved over to the thread linked below in Beerpigs Snug, where there are already discussions going on regarding this subject?

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=22218

I've moved some earlier posts on the subject from this thread to the one linked above.

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

It was a beautiful morning - so with my son having taken over the supply task, we felt no need to fight it out with other oldies in Sainsburys this morning (unlike Kiloran). We live in a village just south of the Campsies and in a fold of ground between us and the hills, a series of small earth dams were constructed many years ago to provide pondage for the Corn, Lint and later Cotton mills in our village (all long gone). Some of the dams still exist, and they provide an attractive back ground to a walk. Or perhaps I should say - it used to be an attractive walk - but with the large winter rainfall, and insensitive use by farm tractors, it has become almost impossible to traverse it in anything short of welly boots. We managed it (just!) with walking boots.
At the top of the chain lies the Ashen Wells



and further down we have the Alloch Dam - which very many years ago was rented by our fishing club. The boat house has seen better days



Then back home I was tasked to clean the boots , while my wife laundered the muddy trousers.

We are still determined to get out and about - while avoiding social interactions. So instead of planning a walk in agreeable surroundings, accompanied by a pleasant eating-out lunch, we have now decided to take home-made sandwiches with flasks of tea and coffee, as we did in our younger impecunious days. It was another beautiful day, so we travelled (by car) up towards Aberfoyle. On the way we noticed lots of cars at Dumgoyne - whether to sample the whisky or climb the hill I don't know. It's possible that "working from home" is being freely interpreted. We stopped for our picnic lunch at the David Marshal Lodge in Aberfoyle , then it was over the Duke's pass to Loch Katrine. There was lots of similarly minded others, but we were widely spaced out on the long road up the side of the Loch. Near the bottom of the loch is Ellen's Isle



with a board to explain why it was so named



We continued for a hour walking up the loch, and viewed the snow on the tops at the western end, before turning back



A very pleasant day out - and our waist lines may improve with the new diet.

Fascinating about Ellen, Schubert etc.

Next time see if you can find this angle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria_(Schubert) (third image down).

PinkDalek wrote:Fascinating about Ellen, Schubert etc.
Next time see if you can find this angle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria_(Schubert) (third image down).

Thanks for the link - for some reason in my browser it misses out the final closing bracket - and gets lost.
So here it is for any others that are experiencing the same problem
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ave_Maria_(Schubert)
I think there's a bit of artistic licence in the picture - but a possible excuse is that the water level was artificially raised by around 1.8 metres to aid with gravitational flow in an aqueduct to Milngavie in the northern suburbs of Glasgow. Glaswegians are drouthy customers - and Loch Katrine can supply around 50 million gallons a day.

Depressing times, but at least I have this view from my window to lift my spirits (when it's not raining or snowing)



I'm fairly certain that the distant hill on the left is Ben Arthur (The Cobbler) and the hill on the right is Beinn Narnain (to the west of Loch Lomond)

--kiloran

kiloran wrote:I'm fairly certain that the distant hill on the left is Ben Arthur (The Cobbler)

From a slightly different angle here


but the flat downwards sloping top would seem to confirm it.

Scott.

Snorvey wrote:This is high rise living on the Moray coast...

Judging by the horizon, all the water should be running downhill towards the coast

--kiloran