A first walk in my local hills after the move to Scotland

The new place is going to be fantastic. It's a good size – big enough for us both to have separate home offices, which is a huge improvement over the single relatively small study we shared before. I'm looking forward to creating a reading corner and spreading out my stuff. More bookshelf space, too. And a gear room!

The house is unfurnished, and as the removal van isn't coming with our things until next week, the interior is currently a little spartan. We've set up a beachhead in the living room in front of the wood-burning stove, because we arrived to find the oil tank almost empty (luckily we've managed to get it filled now, so the heating is on).

My walk this afternoon took me up into the hills directly south of the house. I wanted to visit Denoon Law, an interesting-looking summit capped by an ancient hill fort, and I wanted to see if I could find a direct route to it over the hills from Eassie. A likely-looking track headed upwards, and I did manage to get all the way to Denoon Law this way,  but I had to cross several barbed-wire fences and locked gates. It remains to be seen if there is a better route over these uplands.

Denoon Law itself has a striking character, and although only 210m in height it feels very prominent, with sweeping views in all directions. A red kite hovered over me as I climbed up to a gap in the earth rampart. Legend speaks of fairies here but I didn't see any today.

I can't wait to begin exploring the Sidlaws more thoroughly.