With the Saturday night ahead being my first running race event in a long time, I had a relaxed afternoon half-way to the event location in Aboyne, pootling about in Banchory enjoying it’s autumn colours.

Over The Dee, down a back lane, I wandered the south side until the Feugh joined.

I picked my way back through the remnants of the Riverstone house, a few walls of the 17th century garden remain, but the house itself was entirely cleared a few years back. A japanese maple was still here, protected by fences which had probably saved it from the clearance, but now didn’t it’s standalone glowing colour to be framed in a perfect shot.

I crept carefully down to the Feugh, boiling in spate, the bank slippy with leaves. Assisted this time with the huawei phone’s ‘silky water’ mode which allowed a few shots from a position that would have been risky to balance a tripod. A few folk posed on the bridge, similarly delighted with the scene.

Under the bridge I saw a few small fish jump the falls; and I also, less acrobatically, made upstream to try a few different shot angles.

As the light faded, an old lady with a large bucket of varied mushrooms watched the torrent and I should have stopped to talk about their fine haul, but a friend had arrived and it was time to drive onwards: next stop – the race.