It's what you can't see...

...that matters.

A few restorative hours in the Pentland Hills on a gloriously sun-drenched and near silent day.

I saw: a few people, and we mostly greeted each other in passing; numbers of skittish sheep - it is almost tupping season; a crow noisily quartering a scoop on the southern flank of Bell's Hill - did i actually see it repeatedly fold its wings and flip momentarily upside down?; a kestrel, also quartering, but silently.

I heard: the people, briefly; the crow, a triple 'craw' as it flipped; the mud, wet peat, gravel and grass underfoot; the wind; the rattle of falling beech leaves;if I tried, the very faint and distant sound of Edinburgh