But today I wasn’t working, the weather was coolish and bright, and there was a bit of wind, so I decided to leave off painting the utility room and walk to Corran Lochan on my own (as R was testing). I have to say it was one of the best walks ever, the weather was perfect and there wasn’t a midge to be seen.

When I got out to the Lochan, there were wild flowers everywhere mixed in with the purple of the heather, and thousands of blue and red damselflies darting about the path. Then in one rather swampy place there were some of the biggest dragonflies I had ever seen.

I enjoy walking with R, but there is a certain charm on being on your own, choosing your own pace and stopping whenever you like. In fact on the way back, being a little footsore, I stopped at a little burn, took my shoes off and sat quietly on a rock for a while with my feet in the water.

Got home and tonight there are still no midgies, and while I was out feeding the badgers, I disturbed a huge red deer in the orchard. And ate the first home grown strawberries.

We had thought the weather would be good today, so last night I baked a loaf of bread for sandwiches, and we got up at 7am today so as to be on our way as soon as it got light. We were going to walk to Corran Lochan at the end of the Loch Goil peninsular – we’ve done this one a few times before, but never at the height of winter because it is a long walk (around five hours) and last year we never set off early enough.

So we set off early in the morning with the stars still out but a few glimmers of light coming over the mountains.

We disturbed some sleepy Highland cows at Pole Farm.

There was a nice view back to Lochgoilhead at this point.

The path is very steep in places, and I even took my coat off, although it was well below zero. The path was very slippy at times, but soon we were up on the high path and heading for ‘Argyle’s bowling green’. On the way we encountered a sheep which was the only living creature (apart from birds) we saw all day.

The views on the high path to the mountains across the loch were just spectacular.

We got to Corran around 10:30am and ate our ‘lunch’ – not sitting on the picnic bench as it was white with frost. I took a short video of the lochan, but my hands were so cold I could hardly manipulate the camera and we quickly started walking back.

There were good views on the way back as well, though by this point the mountains were less white as the winter sun was managing to burn off the frost.

We came back down to the main path just after noon and saw our first human beings of the day – by this stage the dog walkers and visitors were starting to come out in force. I took a few more photos as we went through Lochgoilhead and along the Donich to home.

According to my Microsoft Band, the walk was 10.16 miles and took us 4 hours and 37 minutes to do. What a great day….