Not Dead Yet

It was a nice mild evening, with lovely soft light. A time for details. I made use of the new footpath linking where I live to Gypsy Glen and climbed the old drove road that heads south from Peebles over the hill. As dusk approached, I watched hares running in the fields near the path, but they were far too quick for me to photograph, so I just enjoyed their antics.

The copse of old Scots Pines was once surrounded by a dry stane dyke but it had largely collapsed and in fact was little more than a curve of stones across the corner of the field. Two of the trees were in their final stages of life, with new growth on only some limbs.

These distorted dying branches told the tree's story of decades of exposure on the hillside, withstanding wind, rain and snow blowing from the south west. They were not long from finally giving up the struggle.