Ben Dolphin 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿❄️⛰🌲

Macro photo of a brown stink bug in face view on a leaf, guarding a tightly-clustered bunch of eggs that are shaped and colored exactly like a full tray of dark beer with foam on top.

Finally, the bug is back with a round of the Guinness.

It's almost 10C out there just now, so the cover is getting more patchy, but quite a lot up high still, above about 900m. The Cairngorms look the part but didn't get as much snow as the White Mounth etc.

Lovely day with our volunteers, clearing the drainage features in Clais Fhearnaig 🙂 #rangerdailydiary

First newt of the year for me 🙂

Footage of the cormorant. It ultimately walks so close that you can hear the 'slap' of its feet on the tarmac 🙂 Clearly on a mission, it's probably in Ballater by now 😆

So nice to be back on a Calmac ferry last week 🙂 Been a while! However, listening to folk on Arran it's terrible what they've had to put up with these past years. So much uncertainty even now, for what is a vital transport link for them.

Braemar and Glen Clunie this afternoon 🙂

Monadh Mor, beyond Glen Geusachan.

Coire nan Clach on Beinn a' Bhuird, and looking towards The Sneck.

Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuidhe, on Ben Avon. Must still be good ski touring up there....

Mount Keen looking better than it has done for years....

Cairn Toul, and Garbh Coire peering around its side. This part of the Cairngorms hasn't had nearly as much snow as the Grampians, hence it looking quite lean in comparison.

Across to Coire Etchachan....

Lochnagar still holding well.

Lofty vantage point today to observe bigger hills, and how there's still good, fairly consistent snow up high. Glas Maol showing off its ski slopes...

Lovely jaunt up and down Carn na Drochaide this afternoon. How I've missed blue skies!!

What a beautiful day! Still -2C, up from a low of -7.4C.

Still some snow here and there, at fairly low levels in Kinross-shire just now.

Still no water in this lochan, even after the wetness of the last few months. I'd never seen it empty till the last couple of years and shows no sign of filling any time soon. Gives an indication just how dry Fife was last year.

Double walk this morning, in Kinross-shire and then Fife. First up Lendrick Hill and then a quick jaunt up Falkland Hill. Lovely weather, very windy but with a bronzing sun and the skylarks singing 🙂 High of 9.7C in the Lomonds made it the warmest day of the year so far.

What you have discovered, if it has a name.......is some 'green' 😆

Why are we such surly, pretentious wankers when we’re kidz? 😆

It was 9C this afternoon. Sunny, warm. Felt weird. Hasn’t been as warm as that since 17th December.

Some more steady drifting from yesterday. There's buffeting on the audio but when you're actually standing there, all you hear is the constant, soft hissing of spindrift. Lovely patterns too 🙂

Yeah it's been a while since we saw trig points disappearing anywhere 🙂 Was it windy in the afternoon?

Definitely felt restorative yesterday, bright light = good for serotonin release 👍 Vitamin D won't synthesise in our skin till April/May though, so don't worry, we haven't been missing anything 😉

Yep that was my guess too. Thanks. Had the first twinge back in January when I was snowshoeing, and ever since then I've just been 'aware' that the hip was there. Not pain, just a sense. Today was agony though. Off to the physio 🙄

All in all, it was a 28km round trip to Lochnagar from Keiloch. Easily up there with some of the best conditions I've had - the snow made for quick travel. My right hip wasn't (and isn't) happy though. I seem to have acquired a new ailment off the back of this that's likely to curtail things 😭

Sizeable avalanche on Càrn an t-Sagairt Mòr.

Sparkling start to the day too 🙂 Really nice to ascend gradually through Ballochbuie, with the snow getting steadily deeper with height. Felt proper alpine for a change.

The wind did however pick-up all of a sudden, in the space of about 20 seconds, and then it was much colder for the rest of the afternoon with a lot of spindrift blowing about.