🚶‍♀️Sunday morning walk, enjoying the silence ——- Zondagochtendwandeling, genietend van de stilte 🚶‍♀️😶.

#sundaymorning #zondagochtend #hengelo #sundaywalk #zondageandeling #nature #natuur #twente

Leider war heute kein Dampfbetrieb bei der DFS. Das Bild mag ich trotzdem. 😃

#zug #bahn #train #frankischeschweiz #lok #Lokomotive #fotografie #photography #sundaywalk

Oh, one more for the #SundayWalk
I hope this little video snippet shows the clouds of pollen coming off the heather with every step

25. And now we can see The Last Homely House, nestling into the landscape, safe and quite, as she does. Not far to go to get home now. That was a lovely walk, and, as for various reasons it's been a while since we did it, it was filled with memories.

I do hope you've enjoyed coming on today's #SundayWalk with us, and I hope you're not too tired out.

13. #SundayWalk, continuing. Walking past Water Loch, along the ridge which divides it from Lexie's Loch, we get a glimpse of the Loch around which we're inscribing a large oval.

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9. From this point in the #SundayWalk we can look to the right and get a view of the iconic hills of Assynt, though sadly not including the best mountain in Assynt, and the second best on the planet, Quinag. She was hidden in the mist and, perhaps like folk who like her, is way over to the left of this image.

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×

13. #SundayWalk, continuing. Walking past Water Loch, along the ridge which divides it from Lexie's Loch, we get a glimpse of the Loch around which we're inscribing a large oval.

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14. We're now at one of the may "DPs" in the walk - Decision Points. We're heading up that large hill to end up high on its right flank. We have no need to "conquer" hills by ending up on their summits, but this is hill at the head of Lexie's Loch. We could go left and then around, or straight and up the side, or a little left, and around the back. Today's we've chosen that route, though it means being cautious around boggy sections down in that glen.

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15. Good choice. From here we can catch a glimpse of Quinag - do you see her peaking in the distance? That's the line of Clachtoll Peat Road down there.
Hang on, let's zoom in a little....

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16. This is better. There's the Queen among the Assynt Hills, Quinag, and it looks like the the old peat road leads to her. To the right, at the base of that vertical hill, is The Druid's Cave, almost certainly a neolithic structure, and another wonderful place in our area. It's hard to find though.

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17. Finally we are at the high point of the walk, and we can look down on Lexie's Loch. Somewhere down there is The Last Homely House too.
This is the spot where, years ago, Helen's Yorkie, Peggy, came running back to me communicating well enough for me to follow her, and there was a fawn lying on the ground, waiting for its mother's return. Peggy was clever like that.

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18. We're heading home now, but turn to snap the head of the loch. It's quiet here, whereas previously we've heard the echoes of boats and the foghorn at Stoer Head lighthouse. But there's something special about this spot.

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19. There's so much along here, like these weird structures. They're about a metre by a metre, and we know of 3 or 4 other places around the loch where they have been built. We've spoken to archaeologists about them, though, among all the -ologies, archaeology is right up there in their ability not to say "No idea, son." Some are built into a section of living rock, some part of a wall, and some standalone.

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20. A bad pic, but you can see why gardening or farming in Assynt is a challenge. The glaciers went through, and Nature said "Righto lads, you've had your fun. Now's the time to make some soil. Grind up that rock down there." They gave it a go, and then said "You know, this rock is hard. Let's sod off. No-one will know."
Of course, geologists may put that slightly differently.

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21. Now we're close to Lexie's Loch and in front is The Bog of Eternal Stench*. It always pongs in this spot, and when we had the terriers, they'd squelch their way through alarmingly. Fortunately this was also one of the favourite paddle spots, so they'd cross then head straight down to the water.

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* - again, watch Labyrinth.

22. It's water lily time on Lexie's Loch. There's a good shallow spot for water lilies near the foot of the loch, the source of the burn that runs past The Last Homely House

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23. It seems to me there's just enough humanly built stuff to make the foot of the loch interesting. We make sure we call out a greeting before crossing the large stone crossing the outlet - you can't be too sure.

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24. We take a moment to look back up Lexie's Loch. There in the distance is the peak we looked down from a while back. It's been a lovely day to do this walk again.

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25. And now we can see The Last Homely House, nestling into the landscape, safe and quite, as she does. Not far to go to get home now. That was a lovely walk, and, as for various reasons it's been a while since we did it, it was filled with memories.

I do hope you've enjoyed coming on today's #SundayWalk with us, and I hope you're not too tired out.

@withaveeay Enjoyed it very much!

@withaveeay thank you for taking us along, that was very nice.

Is the ruined house behind yours the one from picture #3?

I'm always fascinated by such ruins, thinking what stories all happened when people still lived there. And what it would take to return them to habitable form.

@fedops No, it's a different ruin. We're told that the people in the ruin behind our house moved into our house without permission soon after it was built. I like that.
Sadly the reality is that very very deep pockets would be needed to bring these old stone houses up to scratch. Many were very small too, perhaps inappropriately small for modern life. One I know was occupied until the early 50s, the 2 brothers living in effectively a single small room, which is what the house was.
@withaveeay thanks for the Trip. We are happy to be there in a few weeks. Cheers
Peter