Saturday stuff

A beautiful weekend in Argyll and a great saturday morning watching Freya and others doing a mini aquathlon. The enthusiasm was highly infectious and it was most definitely won and lost in transition and the tricky business of trainer application onto wet feet. Stars of the future every one of them.
Taxi duties occasionally, just occasionally have a silver lining. Holly and I had a wonderful walk around Loch Collie Bharre, about 45 minutes drive from Claonairigh,almost in the gloaming and totally alone on Saturday night whilst Toby wined and dined nearby. We saw no beavers ( released here a few years ago) nor other people. A perfect backdrop to walk and think. The decision made not to stress so much was taken and lasted almost as long as the walk, ah well.. My spots are far too deep to change now. Back at the car we moved to a suitable waiting place which has to have the following criteria when awaiting uppity teenager
1. Phone/ text reception
2. Discreet enough not to be spied by anyone at all connected with said teen.
3. Discreet enough not to attract attention cuddled up on the rear seat with dog watching a film on the Ipad.
4. Close enough to collect offspring at 30s notice but obviously taking into account point 2.
The night got even better when just as Johnny Depp was batting his Kohl laden eyelids the summoning text arrived and we were homeward bound.

Best sleepy face award....

....goes to the as yet un-named pup belonging to friends. Quick stop to say hello, welcome and " ahhhhhh".

Exam Fever

Battening down the hatches here with exam time descending again. Rosie went off white faced and anxious to her first Standard Grade...English this morning...the things we have to go through. Does anyone realise just how tough this is for the parents? If I have to listen to Garret telling her just one more time to "read the question" I may explode...useful advice though it is. I have filled the anxious moments until I collect her with ironing,preparing tea, baking biscuits for guests arriving this afternoon and my favourite, pottering in the poly tunnel. The seeds are just starting to poke through, sadly showing my haphazard approach to sowing. We have plans, big plans to have a large vegetable plot in half the back field which unfortunately still has pigs running a round in it so well manured but not conducive to seedling and indeed plants of any kind. We could say that this is a very long term plan indeed especially as Mummy pig is looking rather portly, we are hoping that the boars did not leave us several presents before they "went away".

Glencoe but not as I know it.

Skiing in April but not for me. Delivered Freya, Toby and friend Angus to the chair lift and conditions described as for good intermediate and advanced skiers and took off on foot. Glencoe is about an hour from Claonairigh and very worth a visit if only to drive through the lowering mountains and brooding Rannoch Moor. The latter is about 50 square miles of peat moorland scooped and shaped by one of the last ice fields to retreat. You can almost hear the Claymores clashing and the clans howling. Plus there is a good coffee shop at the Mountain resort... Excellent soup.....

Mountain biking......ish

Find more Mtn Biking in Inveraray



As running is mainly denied me at the moment I hijacked Freya's bike (so much better than mine) and went off on a standard circuit from the house but.....got side tracked , probably the first time I have used the phrase completely correctly.... by interesting little tracks off the main one that I have not yet explored, a promising one proved to be unfit for bike access and so I pushed...well, it all counts as exercise although my average minutes per mile look as though I carried the bike all the way round. Traversing several icy streams seemed exciting at the time,the runners brain knows that feet pounding the tracks will soon warm up whatever they are dunked in but just rotating on the pedals does not do the same job so I bought the two blocks of ice home and dunked them in a warm bath. Other exciting things to happen today...coal delivery, we were down to four lumps so this was pretty eventful and...well I can't think of any but always live in hope,it is only 3.30pm.

Post Easter Bun Run

A lovely sunny but chilly Argyll day was perfect for our running group's annual Easter run. I planned three routes to suit all tastes, a fairly flat ( well, it is Argyll so nowhere is completely flat!) three miles or four along the Lochside or a more challenging ie officially hilly 5.5 through the woods with fantastic views to be appreciated through sweat fuzzed eyes. With twenty runners we had a great time and in contrast to the popular view that all youngsters are voluntarily shackled to a playstation from birth onwards we had a pleasing turnout from the younger generation. Soup and cake followed in time honoured fashion because calories consumed after exercise don't count... Just like those taken from someone else's plate. School was back today so home alone, apart from Garret, oh and Toby too as apparently sixth years have a more flexible attitude towards attendance, so in fact not home alone at all.