ben rinnes

my dad and i went for a trip up ben rinnes as the sun was setting.  as the car drove along the road the tall trees of the forest sped past.  the trees were covered in snow.

from the top of ben rinnes i could see that the surrounding land was predominantly rural, and composed of dark trees and white fields.   the fields were white because of the snow.   as it got dark clusters of little orange lights began to glow here and there - they were the little villages.  they were few and far between the big swathes of white fields and big swathes of forestry.

the summit cairn was covered in stiff little feathers of snow, seemingly delicate but actually rock frozen solid, all pointing in the direction that the wind was coming from.   i pulled out a flask, and we had some soup.   we slid the cup of soup across the top of the icy cairn to each other and i said: "this is the nicest table top i have ever eaten from"

as we were descending my dad pointed to some dark trees and said: "see, there are some people coming up"
i said: "if those are people coming up, then over there the land is covered with armies of them, legions of them, in serried ranks"

the moon came out and my dad said: "the same way that people go to the beach to sun themselves, we have come up here to moon ourselves"
i liked that description.
we were there to spend time with the moon, to feel the moon's energy, in the same way that a person who sunbathes wants to feel the sun's energy.

it became darker and we couldn't see where the drifts were.  once my dad stumbled on a drift and i found it funny.   i wondered why sometimes it is funny to see someone stumbling.

i couldn't think of any particular reason.