Stopping by woods on a snowy ... afternoon

Ok, I'm pushing the poetic similarity just a bit here, but it was gorgeous this afternoon to have a walk (a) before it was getting dark and (b) in a place we don't visit very often. This is the woodland in Glenbranter, where we had driven to collect a Christmas tree before they all disappear. Usually we leave it for another week and then are pushed to find one we like, so we took the chance of a slight thaw after this morning's treacherous conditions to drive the length of Loch Eck and pick one up. Yes, we could buy one from a shop in town, but I still love the idea of buying the tree among the big trees instead of already wrapped up.

Despite the thaw in Dunoon, the glen was still pretty snowy and two degrees colder at 2ºC. We managed to walk without sliding for 45 minutes by using cleared bits of forest road and the woodland tracks, which were largely snow-free. The air smelled of the frost-broken soil and the river rushed through its snowy banks.