It has been a very busy and eventful week, and I've had my head down all week doing different bits and bobs, but I was reminded very clearly by a piece in our local newspaper, The Assynt News, that we live in a remarkable part of the world and we really should not take it for granted.   The writer is talking about having to get down to Inverness in the early morning and on the road they saw "47 deer, four rabbits, a fox and zero vehicles".   It struck me that I've been so busy over the last few months that I haven't regularly been taking note of everything around me.

Yesterday we went for a shopping expedition to Tain, on the east coast, and I tried hard to be more observant of the abundant nature here, and my diligence was rewarded.  We saw two different types of deer (red and roe), 4 buzzards, a heron and (drumroll.........) an otter.  And that was just the animals.   Stopping to let the dogs stretch their legs we were enthralled by the display that the grasses put on after a frosty night:



Even the view over the Dornoch Firth from the supermarket car park in Tain takes some beating:



After a number of very windy and wet weeks, Sunday dawned beautifully sunny and clear, so taking full advantage we set off on a lengthy walk with the dogs.  We climbed quickly, and before long we were looking down on the lovely Water Loch, where our household water comes from:



And although some of the hills were very steep, and it is some time since we took on quite such a long walk, the dogs took it in their stride:



And fortunately there was so much to photograph that the opportunity to stop and catch your breath came often!:

[caption id="attachment_4892" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="A rare event - Me caught on camera"][/caption]

And even though the predominant shades are currently brown and green, there are still flashes of other shades around including the purple you can see in the tops of the trees on the island in the middle of this lochan:



We now have two dog-tired humans, and two dogs stretched out in front of the fire to warm their weary muscles and bones.  Sensible dogs!