#glen affric

[coolthingsguyslike]

[freddieardley]

Glen Affric dawn in ultra-wide

photographed by Freddie Ardley

[extrait-livre]

''Quelle est donc cette longue traversée du désert ? Quelle est donc cette interminable marche en terre de souffrance ? Est-ce ça qu'on s'appelle la vie ?"

Karine Giebel - Glen Affric

[quo-usque-tandem]

Glen Affric, Scotland

[fotos-art]

Red deer in the Caledonian Forest, Glen Affric, Scottish Highlands

© Terry Whittaker

Alamy

Meet the mighty red deer! With its majestic presence and robust antlers, this animal is a true wonder of nature. Photographed in the ancient woodlands of Glen Affric, one of Scotland’s most picturesque valleys, the red deer is Britain’s largest land mammal. Found in various regions of Europe, Asia and North Africa, it has historically been a central figure in cave art and medieval hunting traditions. Its imposing and noble figure symbolises the wild and free spirit of nature.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

13 July 2023

Golden retrievers at Guisachan, near Tomich (2018)

—

Dudley Coutts Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, also known as the Laird of Guisachan and Glenaffric (29 December 1820 – 4 March 1894), was a Scottish businessman and a Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1853 until 1880, when he was elevated to the peerage as Baron Tweedmouth.

He was the breeder of the first golden retriever.

[mings]

Yesterday saw 40 years of marriage. This was actually taken four years ago in Glen Affric, but it sums up how I feel about the wonderful woman better than I can express in words.

[dry-valleys]

There woods grow wild on every hill; There freemen wander at their will; Sure Scotland will be Scotland still While hearts so brave defend her.

James Hogg.

Back for my yearly ecoholiday with Trees for Life in Glen Affric. This was an attempt to reach Mam Sodhail (please see my earlier post from there) that was called off due to weather; we had to take a shorter route but that did take me to a place I’d never been to.

Walking up (1) Allt Coire Ghaidheil, I was heartened by earlier planting; look carefully and you’ll see thriving trees on one side of the fence and the all too common bare hillside on the other; this was an encouragement in the work of planting trees, which could be hard, but the worth of which is right here in this photoshoot.

We then took the summit of (2) Bealach Coire Ghaidheil, whereupon we saw (3,4) Mam Sodhail and (4-5) Carn Eighe, the sight of which deterred us! We drank in the view of (6) Loch Uaine, before we scaled (7) An Socach.

The squad that I went with are seen in (8) and are (back row) Campbell and self, (front row) Andy, Sarah, Tasha & Paul. We weren’t hanging round for long before we went down Stob Coire na Cloiche, which is seen in (9,10) with Mullach Fraoch-choire behind it. (The latter is somewhere I’ve never been, but I hope to be righting this wrong soon).

Going down slowly, we got back to the lower path and crossed Alltbeithe, then I got a bit emosh when I crossed the bridge that is the border of National Trust for Scotland land; this bridge, which isn’t pictured, was the place I walked to and from each morning and will now have to wait another year to see.

I have now come down from my mountain of communal living, tree planting, bathing in cold streams (for some of us- you can see from the mountain snow how ‘refreshing we found’ it) and am back to what is called ‘normality’ by those who can’t imagine anything else.

Still, I know something I almost forgot in the seemingly endless covid pandemic (that kept me away from here for over three years), that one can get out of ‘normal’ life and that I can see the results.