We got really hacked off with the weather at home, measured in months now rather than days or weeks. Not every day, of course. It’s the 25th of January today, and our last proper nice day was the 9th, the one before that the 25th of December. And yes, I am counting. It’s all been very local too, so when Carol suggested extending our trip to the supermarket (90 miles each way) by another 25 miles to stay in a cottage for a few days, it was quite appealing!

A cottage in the woods too, that would be a real novelty these days!
Trees. We both love trees. Not a good quality where we live…..
So we got a cosy little place just north of Loch Ness, and it were proper nice.
Loch Ness was not on our radar. But Glen Affric certainly was.
Neither of us had been to Glen Affric before, and being such an iconic location, complete with granny pines, mountains and waterfalls, the idea floated our boat (the one without a glass bottom).
One thing that did go wrong was that the miserable weather followed us, so we’re wandering around in anoraks and either wearing waterproof trousers or ready to put them on.
But Glen Affric is totally amazing.
Scenery, trees, big old pines and even some wildlife. Like birds in the trees.

Not something we usually see, except in our garden scoffing down sunflower seeds and peanuts. It’s not just that there aren’t many trees either, you can walk for miles and see very little. Recently we walked up to Suileag bothy from Glencanisp car park, and got fabulous views of two golden eagles, and they are the main event, and would make many people very envious. Understandably. But what else did we see? Two pipits, one blackbird and one hooded crow….. and that’s it. Including through the trees. And I think that’s worse than poor. But that’s what it’s like. Some disagree with my views on this, but I want to see evidence. Evidence that contradicts the scientific community that assert that we’ve lost at approximately three quarters of our wildlife in about fifty years too.
So it’s a treat to walk through lovely woodland and see the “usual” mixed flocks of small birds, and hear their voices again.
We’ve had several walks, varying in length up to about 11 miles. Some trees around us have been old plantations of Douglas Fir, like near the spectacular Plodda Falls, and they look great, albeit not indigenous.

Either side of Loch Affric there’s quite a lot of open-canopy Scots Pine: great big spreading branches on the “Granny Pines”; loads of new and teenage pines, plus rowan, birch and juniper.
Regeneration everywhere!
Lush new growth and no sign at all of the dreaded browse damage so characteristic of Assynt with its burgeoning red deer population.
Last time I saw this kind of landscape was at Beinn Eighe in Torridon.
And we walked through this for about 5 miles, I guess.
It was just great.
And then the illusion just collapsed in front of us.
We crossed a cattle grid through a deer fence, and within a couple of steps noticed browsing on everything at the side of the track. It was absolute.
Carrying on, our destination was arbitrarily the two bothies just past the end of the loch, one owned coincidentally by the charity “Trees for Life”.
Photography (me) and sketching (Carol) options weren’t good, the weather closed in again, so we ate our lunch and retraced our steps. We’d already walked along the north-side path, so decided to stay south this time.
Approaching the cattle grid and deer fence we stopped and looked a while. The view was lovely, but also rather sad.
From here, it was very obvious indeed that all the lush trees and woodland on north and south sides were bounded by straight lines. Fences.

Three options with this scene; couldn’t decide.

Tell-tale sign that this tree is outside the fence.

We thought we’d been in a landscape that was about as natural as possible, but Carol said “look, it’s a zoo for trees”. And it is.
Outside the fence, the same desolation that we see all too often, and extending as far as the eye could see. Inside: trees and birds.
So we went back into the tree-zoo and walked about 5 miles back to the car park, trying to come to terms with this reality.
We visited the nearby viewpoint where there is a memorial to a bloke called H M Steven, a forester with a vision about 60 years ago to start to protect the trees that we’d been admiring, and back at base we listened to an interesting and thought provoking podcast from Trees for Life.
And we reflected on the scenery of the Highlands.
Yes the mountains and lochs are fabulous.
But there’s too much missing.

And to finish, another illusion….

Upside down and taken in the daytime near to Dog Falls:

Re-wilding Conundrum Version 2:

Painting by Numbers

Fill in all the spaces

Paint up to the lines, go over them if you like

Leave no space

Check the maps to make sure its done

No space

No space free

No free space

Occupation total

Control absolute

Ownership complete

Voices

Birds, mammals, fish, plants; all silent?

No opinion then

No one listening anyway

Voices getting quieter

Memories

Fossils

Photographs

Taxidermy!

Yesterday’s survey

One more forgotten

And another….

Skin

Banana skin

Slippy banana skin

The “power of conscious thought” they call it

Deluded lemmings worshipping a credit card totally miss the point

Who, or what, will remember us, the unconscious lemmings?