The Magpie's Hoard

A Wintry Walk

Yesterday afternoon I took a walk around the hilly western outskirts of Sheffield. I caught a bus to Lodge Moor and wandered along the lanes to Fulwood Head, then dropped down into the Porter Valley.

There was an inch or two of snow at Fulwood Head: not a lot, I know, but enough to keep me happily snapping away with my camera. Having foolishly forgotten to pack my polarising filter, I switched to monochrome and used the E500's in-built red filter to darken the brilliant blue skies.

As I walked past Forge Dam at dusk, the tree tops were full of rooks. Their raucous clamouring indicated that, despite the snow and ice, the nesting season is due to begin soon.

First Snow

Sheffield's first snow of the winter of 2006/07, viewed from Bole Hill Recreation Ground at Crookes.

It's pretty pathetic compared to this. I think we're unlikely to see one of these outside Sheffield's branch of T K (or J) Maxx.

Destination Assynt

Suilven viewed from the west
See the location of Suilven on an aerial photo.

Yesterday evening Liz and I took the bold step of booking the accommodation for a holiday in Assynt this May.

We spent a couple of weeks in Assynt in September 1998. The scenery is absolutely stunning: isolated mountains of Torridonian sandstone are scattered across a rolling landscape of ancient Lewisian Gneiss. One of my favourite landscape photos is a winter panorama of this region by Colin Prior. He makes it look like a cold, wet version of the Monument Valley.

So, we've decided to return to Assynt... and this time we're determined to get to the top of Suilven. Now I have just four months to get myself fit enough!

The beach at Achmelvich
See roughly where this picture was taken.