Morning mist rising, Loch an Eilein
This is September at her best. An early start, awaking to thick mist with the chance of sun breaking through, and the world covered in dewy spiderwebs – trees, bracken, grasses, fenceposts – everywhere. I took a gulp of breakfast and then pedalled fast to the loch, to be in position before the sun broke through.
Solid beams of light in forest mist.
Within a few minutes the surrounding forest was breathing out its last mist with a stunning clarity of blue above, and over the next hour the surface of the water gently steamed.
I walked around the shore, just breathing in the atmosphere and enjoying the reflections – as the mist cleared the reflections grew stronger and the colours more vibrant.
This is a favourite place, and although it can be very popular it seems able to absorb people into the forest without losing its special atmosphere.
We enjoyed a wee while of beautiful sun, but by mid-morning it had clouded over from the muntains, and the rest of the day was grey… You have to seize the moment!
“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. “
John Muir – ‘Our National Parks’ (1901)