The waterfall

A lovely - if hot - walk this afternoon took us contouring round the hillside above Loch Tarsan, which is dammed at one end but looks wild and lonely nonetheless. Despite the padlocked gate at the entrance to the forest track, there are two picnic places (table and benches) along its length. The first of them is beside this waterfall, which after so much dry weather was the only burn with much water in it. Away from the waterfall, the afternoon was silent, with only a few distant bird calls to break a silence that must have prevailed more widely before the internal combustion engine broke it.

One jarring note was provided by a phone mast plastered with warning signs about radio waves. I could swear I felt a strangely electrical sensation in my chest and shoulders as we stood looking at it - something we realised we were being encouraged not to do...