It is better than the common Glasgow dreich day when it never seems to get properly daylight, but doesn’t make for very reliable days in the hills because if you wrap up for the rain, you end up melting when the sun comes out five minutes later.

It is Easter weekend and R and I are on holiday next week so I am hoping for the best.

Then of course Monday was a bit better and yesterday and today were pretty spectacular.

This was the view just after dawn on Monday with a little mist still hanging about.

Yesterday (Tues) we woke to a sprinkling of snow, but by afternoon it was very clear and bright.  Here is the “Rock of the Britons” on the slopes of Beinn Donich in the bright sunshine.

And here is Cnoc Coinnich in the distance.

In the evening there were thousands of stars and a very thin but bright crescent moon.  The owls were hooting away in the trees and as I walked through the kitchen at about 8pm I glimpsed a pine marten shnarfing down some nuts.  Not for the first time I thought about what a wonderful place to live this is.

About two thirds of the way up to the bealach between Cnoc Coinnich and the Brack we hit the snowline and it started to get very icy and slippy (at this point we saw a lovely fox crossing the path not far above us). Then we crossed out of the trees and on to the hillside and all of a sudden we were in very wintery conditions and the wind hit us like a steel blade. At this point with the wind at about 35 mph we decided that rather than climb the mountain we would just cross the pass (which is about 520m at its highest) and then walk home via Artgartan and the Rest and be Thankful.

This is the conditions and me in the conditions.

We climbed higher and the wind grew stronger and colder – even so I was enjoying myself at this point. Suddenly we came over a ridge near the high point of the bealach and the full force of the wind hit us. R who was going first was nearly blown off his feet and the snow and ice drove straight into our faces. As though as one, we simultaneously made the decision to turn back.

We got to the woods and descended by the waterfall path. At 300m the wind was down to a breeze and the sun was shining – it was literally almost impossible to imagine how horrible it was 200m higher up. So just goes to show that even at lowish altitudes the Scottish mountains in winter are definitely worthy of respect.

So very kindly they have replaced our stile for us – unfortunately instead of just putting a replacement stile to the left of the path where it is dry, they have decided to put a swanky new gate in. Unfortunately, they’ve put it to the right of the path, in an area which in anything but the driest of weather is basically a stream. And they’ve removed the original stile so now you either have to hop over a fence or get your feet wet.

There really are some idiots in this world.

R and I just walked along the lochside rather than going up the mountain today as the weather was surpassingly foul. All day, waves of rain and sleet have been battering on the house, driven by gale force winds – so much that last night I couldn’t sleep because it sounded as though the roof was going to come off. Eventually we went for a walk during a ‘nice’ spell after lunch. We nearly made it home without getting wet – and then five minutes from home, the sleet hit us and only being clad from head to toe in waterproofs saved us from getting soaked.

Tonight when I went out to put nuts out for the creatures the wind had dropped and it was cold with some stars overhead. Tomorrow we are supposed to be going to get snow.

Sure enough, it arrived on Monday and with it came the rain. We went from days like this – sunset on Sunday.

To days like today – view of the loch this morning.

Actually R is tempting fate buying something that can’t be used in the rain – we could now be in for a year like our first one here when it rained every day without fail between October and March.

The chowder is my take on the Jamie Oliver recipe, with the difference that I do not like the smoked bacon in it, and I also cook the potatoes separately as I really hate them being under cooked.

Dunoon was pretty amazing – the water had obviously been right up over the promenade as there was seaweed draped over all the fences and bollards, and pebbles strewn on the paths.

Then we had a interesting drive through the floods. My parents have lived in the area for nearly 20 years and I have never seen anything like the flooding around Loch Ken. I honestly didn’t think we were going to make it – but we did, and we had a nice New Year.

Now the trick is going to be getting back tomorrow in one piece.

That in its turn reminds me that we moved in here two years ago this week. Our first full day was beautiful weather, but R had to go to Edinburgh for a pre-arranged meeting, and I was left to tussle with the cats, who seemed to think that if they made it down to Lochgoilhead village they would find their old house there. I had to collect Tora from the village on my own and escort him home past a whole troop of scouts on the track outside our house.

Then the next day R was back and it poured with rain that day, and the next and the next. In fact it hardly stopped raining until March the following year.

So it will be interesting to see what our third winter here turns out like. We haven’t had a really cold snowy one as yet, but the forecast is looking a bit like it, so we shall see.

I’m not sure where BBC etc. actually take their readings from in this area – but my page has the advantage of being right here in Lochgoilhead so it should reflect the current weather. With regard to the future weather – in Argyll, who knows anyway; I could take my best guess based on what I see incoming from the West and nine times out of ten I would be as accurate as the professional forecasts anyway.

On Sunday R and I had yet another go at Beinn Bheula only to give up before really getting on to the mountain proper because the weather had turned into a foul combination of rain, sleet and hail (I wonder if the Eskimos have a word for this particular variant of nasty?).

Yesterday it was quiet cold with a further scattering of snow on the mountains, and then this morning the hills are white again – my estimate would be snow above about 100m (although it must be pretty localized because the traffic cameras on the Rest are showing the road clear).

Interestingly – although the weather is a lot colder than last year – when I compare the photos from then with now, the vegetation does not seem to be that far behind where it was at this time last April