When I'm done feeling sorry about not being at Loch Loch, I start thinking about my new neighbours, the former inhabitants of the shielings at Sron nan Dias. They had such a magnificent house, with two fireplaces, shed attached, an ancient gravestone nearby, that I cannot believe this was just a temporary home. Someone has spent a lot of time up here. And this is just about the only place in the valley where a winter day is not completely dark and depressing.Who lived here? For how long? How often did they wander out towards Straloch? What did they do in their free time? Did they have any free time? I know so little. At night I imagine their noises, as they put another log on the fire (but where did that wood come from?), as they turn around under their wet and heavy blankets, as they quietly talk to each other. As the baby starts screaming. It is all I can hear at night, apart from the wind and the occasional squeak of a grouse.
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