Hills of the north ...

...and immediately a hymn tune starts up in my head. Ah well: it is Sunday. This is the view from the track high above Strone point looking north towards Loch Long, with Gairletter point sticking out in the mid-ground. The sun is setting behind me, and the Loch Lomond hills still have the pink light on them, but to the north dusk is already settling on the snow.

The high point of a good two-hour hike this afternoon, one that ended skating hazardously over black ice as the forest track turned into the road behind Blairmore. By then it was after 5pm, and it was becoming hard to see what was under our feet.