First things...............

I've been meaning to post for the past few days but my computer has been mis-behaving and wouldn't load my photos from the sd card - until this morning............

Last Sunday was our first day back at home after the 'progress' up through England into Scotland, visiting relatives, going to a lovely birthday party, then the Outdoor Pursuits Show in Edinburgh, and finally, after a trip to Tesco's in Blairgowrie, arriving home on Saturday evening.

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny April day, so I couldn't resist the temptation to go for a quick walk. There's nothing to beat the route up to the pyramid on Balmoral Estate - so I set off after lunch having failed to persuade Him Indoors to come with me (well, there was football on the tele!)

I walked into Glen Gelder to investigate the fence I had spotted during the winter (but couldn't get up to in the deep snow. (click here). Actually it appears to be an enclosure and I noted on my GPS that there was only one gate I could see. The fence runs more or less parallel to the Gelder Burn alongside the landrover track. However, as I discovered on a subsequent walk on Tuesday, it doesn't go very far into the Glen and should cause no problems if you're walking over to the bothy.

{Looking along the fence towards Lochnagar}

{Looking back towards the forest - the gate at NO 25410 92845}

I turned back and climbed the hill up to the pyramid. Queen Victoria had this built in memory of Prince Albert. I had a neighbour here once who told me confidentially that the present Queen rides round this monument on Mid-summer's Eve, naked, to retain her powers.

{Prince Albert's Cairn}

No sign of anyone around as I walked on down the other side of the hill towards another monument - this time Princess Beatrice's cairn.

{Princess Beatrice's Cairn}

Obviously Spring is here. I saw large masses of frog spawn in the ditches and the daffodils in the garden are blooming.

{Frog spawn in a ditch}

This is a great little walk to blow away cobwebs and stretch the legs.

{Daffodils in my garden}

*There should be photos to go with the text as I said at the top - unfortunately now they won't upload to the blog - I'll try later (when the Gremlins are sleeping....shsh)

Success!!!