EL SOL. (20/01/14)

The Sun. It sounds posher in Spanish. I have found the sun at long last. I’m In Grantown-on-Spey. The drive from Braemar to here is forty miles but such are the gradients and twists and turns it takes two hours and a quarter of a tank of diesel. Had the weather been anything but torrential rain then I’d have stopped several times for photographs and made a day of the trip.

There are quite a few pictures today.

This is one I missed from just north of Braemar looking west up the Dee valley. Acres of next to nothing.

This morning we wandered into Grantown, I had to get a Jiffy bag and a stamp from the Post Office. I had 700MB of snaps to send away and it would have taken hours to upload them and attracted the wrath of the young lady at the campsite. It’s possibly cheaper to use the mail as the stamp is only £1.00p and the Jiffy bag £0.28p. The memory stick is several pounds but with a bit of luck I’ll get it or a similar one back.

Clouds……These aren’t a patch on the ones GRAHAM TOOK THE OTHER DAY. They are a vast improvement on the horizon to horizon billowy grey ones full of precipitation that have been the norm for me.

It is only a ten to fifteen minute walk into town and I got to use my ice grippers. I was trotting along like a spring chicken. So good are they that I could have goose stepped into town and done a Cossack dance in the square. I didn’t as it would have embarrassed the dogs.

A bit of Grantown-on-Spey. The big building on the right is the Grant Arms Hotel. Sir James Grant built this place as a designed settlement in 1765. I suspect the hotel is a good hundred years later. It was like many Scottish towns planned properly as a New Town…..Much like Milton Keynes..Ha Ha. Sorry Keith, at least the Lakes panned out okay. Sir Grant built this on a plateau so the river Spey can’t get at it so he didn’t need to incorporate lakes. That’s a pity in a way as lakes are good.

This is a fine building and shot with the sun behind the turret clock tower. It’s called Contre Jour in French. It’s called should have been HDR in English. I did enquire from a lass what it was but all I got was.

“Dunno.”

She looked at me as if I were inviting her to tread in a large dog turd. Very short sighted are the fit young totty of today. She could have scored had she played her cards right and I was having a good day. I’d have happily taken a ‘Dunno’ as a ‘Yes, Please’. There again she would stand a better chance with the Lottery. Too many imponderables in this scenario. 

I’ll call it the Town Hall.

The War Memorial. I suspect it goes way back. To the Boer War and the Crimean War, the First World War, the Second World War, onto the Korean War and the Falklands War. I will have another look at it lunch timeish tomorrow. I think it had a top on but doubt I’ll find out where it went. There are only so many ‘Dunnows’ one can take in a week. The English were little buggers for using Scottish and Colonial soldiers to fight for them.

It is a quaint place. I think this is the first time I’ve seen a bay window in an attic.

Or a Far Eastern influenced lodge on a hall.

    I came across The Church Of Scotland. The window is wonderful and all done by Caroline Stuart……in her spare time. What a woman. A great window by an accomplished widow.

I’m here till Thursday then off into the wilds for a few days. I’ll see if I can find something for tomorrow.

Have fun.