Outdoor Discoveries

What originally was a news section for the rest of the website soon became a place for me to write about human-powered wanderings in the countryside. Photography inspires me to get out there, mostly on foot these days, though cycling got me started. Musings on the wider context of outdoor activity complete the picture, so I hope that there is something of interest in all that you find here. Thank you for coming!

A last blast of winter?

3rd March 2009

Whatever my views on the meteorological months of winter might be (if I had my way, I would bring everything forward by two weeks but I digress), it has to be said that we have been having one of the colder ones with milder spells like those that we got last month and the one before becoming more like exceptions in the memory. Dumps of snow are forecast for Scotland but getting snow in early March isn’t so strange and it has happened a few times in recent years. In fact, last year saw us getting a white Easter at the end of the month.

Speaking of Scotland, I actually managed to spend a bit of time up there over the weekend. In fact, Sunday saw me out among the hills around Tarbet, Arrochar and Glen Croe; my walk took me from Tarbet to Rest and Be Thankful. While I was lucky to get some spring sunshine early in the day and got to hear birdsong filling the air, there were prolonged rain showers wandering the hills too. In the afternoon, they started to come in one after another, so much so that leaving for greater shelter seemed the most sensible option when I did so.

I’ll tell more about that escapade later, but the transition from snow to mildness to soaking rain to snow again is a striking one, especially when you start getting to think about what unstable snow packs can do. Snow seems to have left the Cheshire hills that I can see from my house and the forecast shows no sign of it returning to them this time around. In many ways, it has been an amazing winter and one that I’ll continue to remember, at least if those late springs and early summer days deliver the weather goods appropriate to showing off their wares.

Snowdrops

Update 2009-03-05: A dusting of snow has been granted to us but it’s inconsequential in the lowlands. Peering into the hills though reveals a greater covering.

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