Strathspey Autumn Colours ... and the first dusting of snow on the mountains

Strathspey

The colours of autumn are developing fast now. The birches are more yellow than green, the aspen leaves pale and almost translucent, the bracken a rusty faded orange. The woods shimmer and shine in low afternoon sun creating an Impressionist-like wash of colour. In the meadows the grasses are yellowing fast. 

High above a skein of geese called, one of the wild sounds of autumn. They were heading south to lochs and stubble fields. A lonely buzzard mewed overhead, a roe deer darted from meadow to woods as I approached. The air was cold even in the sunshine and a breeze swept the land. Away in the distance the high mountains came and went in waves of cloud. The first dusting of snow was visible on Cairn Gorm, the start of winter up there. 

A dusting of snow on Cairn Gorm

There is no doubt now the season has changed. Summer is gone. Winter approaches. And for a month or so there will be a final burst of brightness and glorious colour before nature sinks into winter greyness that will only be enlivened by frost and snow.