Country diary: I could stay at this loch all day | Merryn Glover

Badenoch, Cairngorms: Here, the first ling heather is coming through, and the osprey nest is full of domestic bustleHere at 57 degrees latitude, I'm woken early by the light, well before the 5am sunrise. More than a month past the solstice, our nights are still short, and darkness brief. It makes me both wired and tired.Surrendering to the day's pull, I head out on my favourite walk beside the River Spey, where it swells into a loch. The marshy land is rich with green rushes, willows and a thicket of bog myrtle, fragrant when crushed in the hand. I pass under an avenue of great oaks where the rooks rise and resettle, and on across an open field, rippling with summer grasses and wildflowers; one sweep of grass bears a froth of seedheads, now glittering mauve in the morning dew and laced with the tiniest of spiderwebs. The colour theme is echoed by the purple harebells and the heathers: the last of the magenta bell heather, and the early amethyst blooms of ling. Continue reading...