Expecting a longer walk today and heavy rain forecast by 13:00, I set off at 8:45. It felt very satisfying to walk out from the cottage and look across to Urquhart Castle. Apparently, built over old Pict settlement, the castle in its heyday oversaw an extensive fertile wheat growing area around Loch Ness as well as the hunting grounds around Loch Cluanie. The swallows nesting around Temple House where we were staying, were flying parallel with the path. There were plenty of fledglings chirping in the bushes as I walked by and a dog rose in bloom caught my eye. I looked back one last time at the loch as I knew the path would be veering away and up into the hills shortly. It plunged into the deep forest and little grew in the understorey, bar moss and wood sorrel. But there seemed to be lots of small birds high up into the trees - I could make out the call of chaffinch and Siskin and probably a range of different tits but they were too hard to distinguish against the sky even if I was lu...