It is so hot today, that the thought of walking up a hill was tiring let alone actually doing it. So the wife walked down to the village & I took the car down to The Mill, did a few chores & met the misses. We walked down Ford Road & you never guess what is at the end of the road? …. A FORD, no not the car, a river crossing. Not used much these days but the track down to the river is still there as can be seen in shot one. Now you cross the River Garry via a foot bridge, from where shot 2 was taken, looking Northwards.
The river is very low at the moment as we have had a long, hot, dry spell, so on the walk South parallel to the river we did not expect any Salmon to be spotted. But we did see the Dipper below.
The next two shots are looking North up the river to the junction pool, which is where the Rivers Tilt & Garry meet. This pool has a nostalgic soft spot for me, it is where I caught my first ever Salmon, all of 2 1/2 lbs but it got me very excited indeed (the next day I went further up the Garry & caught a splendid 13 1/3 lb Salmon, not caught one in 40 odd years of trying then two in two days). the second one from the same spot is looking South.
Further along on the walk we came across this huge bracket fungus, everyone was a s big as a dinner plate & beautiful in the dappled light.
The houses at the end of Ford Road are beautiful Atholl Estate cottages of which the next shot is typical. I should say a good ten feet above the river, but since we have been here they have flooded a couple of times, the threat is always there with a spate river like the Garry & now the village has contingency plans in place to offer shelter in the village hall for the residents.
No visit to this end of the village would be complete without stopping off at Jock’s garden, it is an absolute site of beauty, with him devoting so much time making it look wonderful. I think there are more plants in one arrangement than in the whole of our garden & he grows the vast majority from seed in his two greenhouses.
Then we had the luxury of just getting in the car & driving up those everyday getting longer hills.
