26 Aug. - Spey

 

Image: Stream crossing near Cairn Gorm

Cairngorm wind + sky.
Heather, scree + icy stream.
Tracks through green + brown.
Distant black lakes + soaring crags.
The wind.
The sun.
A small bird guiding my path along the track.
Big, bright, crisp - both warm + cold.
The wind.

Glenfarclas whisky.
Bright still + hard stone stores.
Green, mown lawns + locked red doors.

Telford's Craigellachie Bridge.

Culloden Field.
Marker stones for the battle dead.
'Clan Cameron' + 'The English'.
'They were buried here'.

Notes: A circular Spey valley day-trip from Inverness in a rental car and some good walking, via Aviemore, Tomintoul, Craigellachie, Elgin and Nairn. My partner is of Clan Cameron descent and I, as mentioned in the Introduction, am English born. The marker stones at Culloden brought home the saddening toll and futility of war.