Spring is here!
It’s amazing how the weather can change in just a few days. Earlier this week, there was a strong easterly wind bringing low cloud in from the North Sea and it was cold. All the plants and flowers were on hold. Then, all of a sudden, the weather changes to warm and sunny, and everything starts springing into life again. In the last week we have spotted new lambs, new calves, tadpoles and heard our first cuckoo and skylarks. We have also seen the first leaves of the insect eating butterwort on the hill as well as alpine lady's-mantle and wood anemone. The weather is expected to turn a bit colder in a few days’ time so we should be enjoying this spell of early summer whilst we can!
I think spring is my favourite time of the year because it’s a sign of longer days to come and everything looks fresh and vibrant – as some of the photos show. Spring, particularly in April, is also a great time to go hillwalking and camping. We had a quick trip to the west coast this week to do a couple of Corbett’s – the lower slopes are much easier to walk up as the grass and bracken has not yet started to grow and it’s still too early for the midges……
Spring is also a good time for a bit of a spring clean and to plan ahead. We’ve been doing some work on our website ( www.perthshiretreks.sco t ) and put a stronger focus on the two main things that we offer as a walk leading company. The first thing we do is to provide bespoke walking adventures – we have lots of great ideas for walks that we could do with you and if you’ve got some ideas of your own and things that you’d like to do we can discuss these with you and come up with ways of providing them (see www.perthshiretreks.scot/walkingadventures ).
The second thing we do is to provide some fantastic walks on scheduled dates through the late spring and summer ( www.perthshiretreks.scot/events ). The walks include “stones of the ascent” (a lovely walk from Pitlochry to Grandtully and back) on 26 May and “a walk through time” (a very interesting walk around Pitlochry with an ascent of Craigower) on 27 May. Other walks include Schiehallion, Beinn a’ Ghlo and across the scenic moors on the south side of the River Garry. There’s something for everyone so please call us for more information. We’re hoping to make it easy to book places on these walks by putting them on Eventbrite in the next couple of weeks.
