A red kite circling over the snowy Loch Glascarnoch hills was the first thing I saw as we pulled in to the car park this morning.
It was a beautiful day and we were looking forward to our usual walk - but as we passed through the first gate and set off along the track, we looked back to see a workman's truck pull in to the lay-by. A man got out and started to put cones out along the edge of the lay-by, so we went back as we didn't know what was happening. By the time we got there, he'd coned the road for single-line traffic and put temporary lights up. They will probably need the lay-bys for road-repair machinery, but today, we hadn't really needed to return to the car - in fact, several other cars had pulled in despite the cones. Oh well. I suggested a short walk at Altan Wood instead; we went up as far as the stream (didn't fancy crossing it today) and flushed four black grouse, which flew high above the moorland before dropping out of sight behind a stand of conifers. It's nice to know they're still around.
We then came home to a cold bungalow. Our central heating and hot water packed up on Friday evening. "It would happen on a Friday!" fumed poor Greger, who's fought several battles with two combi boilers since we moved here, the old one and the new.
