Wow! A vital ingredient for happiness.
Intellectually, I know these places are important habitats, that the trees in the distance are one of the few remnants of the Caledonian Pine Forest, that these terraces and ridges are the marks of past glaciers with ice-marginal lagoons dotted with icebergs, that the broad, distant valley was once filled with a great ice stream. All this is amazing, but there is something that isn't quite so conscious, more primitive that makes this place really special for me: peace and perspective, feeling the wind on my face, smelling the heather... being able to focus city-living eyes beyond the neighbouring tenement and next-door's recycling bin; a half-forgotten memory of being lured up a wee hill as a lass with the promise of a kit-kat at the top; a mountain-goat style clamber as a teenager through here on Cairngorm Mountain Rescue Team sponsored walks. Happy to be "home".
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