Monday 24 May: We’re on our way to our ‘Northern Office’, and though there will be some domestic duties to attend to, there will also be opportunities for outings – some on my own, when I can be a little more adventurous…

The weather at home has not been great recently, and as we drive through Dalwhinnie, taking the road to Spean Bridge, the car tells us it’s just 5°C outside. The steady drizzly rain, which has caused much spray on the A9, appears to be falling as wet snow on the mountaintops, which are just-about visible through the cloud and mist enveloping them. We’ll pause for a few minutes and a very short leg stretch (it’s still drizzling) where the river Pattack flows peaty-brown through a little gorge beside the road.

A little over three hours later, we’ve arrived. The rain has stopped – Skye is dry! – and the sun is gradually going down behind the Western Isles. The light catches a shower in the Minch. I stand (too much sitting today!) and gaze at the scene, glass in hand, and the long drive begins to unwind. Tomorrow will be a better day.

18 April 2019, and we’re still on Skye. We had a most enjoyable walk during the afternoon – see “To Rubha na h-Aiseig“. Now we’re watching the sun go down. I would say “behind Harris”, which is perfectly true, but it’s been too hazy to see the outer isles today.

On this evening, a year ago, we arrived on Skye. Ten years earlier, on 14 April 2009, we left, for a leisurely drive home – taking the ferry from Armadale to Mallaig, then driving down as far as Inveraray for an overnight stay. Look what’s tied up at the pier – it’s the Vital Spark! Para Handy’s in town!

13 April 2009: still on Skye, taking a trip down to the Braes area south of Portree, for a walk onto the Àird peninsula. As we approach Portree on our return journey, there’s an interesting-looking vessel in the harbour, worth a closer look. It’s “Hebridean Princess”, a small cruise ship which started life as MacBrayne’s “Columba”, operating out of Oban.

13 April 2020: Stretching our legs, we pass fields where seed was being drilled just a couple of weeks ago. Today, those same fields are greening rapidly.

More “on this day”… Today, on a warm and sunny afternoon, we’ve had a pleasant short leg-stretch, walking from home. On 11 April 2017, I enjoyed a walk with a friend, beside the canal at Audlem. Eight years earlier (11/4/09), we’d arrived on Skye, and visited Rubha nam Brathairean, an attractive little rocky spur on the east coast of Trotternish. It was quiet then, but in recent years the minibus tours have found it, and we were greatly outnumbered last time we visited. I suspect it’s as quiet today as it was in 2009 – if not quieter.