Just a thought

Am I a walking advert for camping holidays in Scotland? Better stop that, or there'll be no room left!

Family camping!

Lovely, new, palatial tent. (Whoops, managed to chop the ends off in the photograph!)

We went on the marine wildlife cruise, again. In fact, the boys and I went twice, the others decided they didn't want to, although they did enjoy it.

We went to Inverewe Gardens at Poolewe, which we all enjoyed.

The children went pony trekking in the rain, which was a bit of a damp for them, but they soon recovered after a hot shower and a hot dinner at the pub.

We only did one walk with the children this year, I think David and I both felt we'd done enough for a while! We had fabulous cliff views before the haar came in, but I still managed to spot a common seal pup on the rocks just before we got back to the cars.

We'd taken the boys fishing rods this year, so they did a bit of fishing off the rocks and they'd both got crabbing lines aswell, so they did a bit of that too. I think the crabbing was more successful, as they actually caught some of those, but put them all back of course.

We popped along the coast to see the lighthouse, which we didn't reach last year and we also went to the Gairloch museum, which the children loved! They got to mill some flour using two different and ancient methods and were allowed to keep the product of their efforts, which delighted them. I got to have a go at spinning on a wheel, which I thoroughly enjoyed but was totally bamboozled by. I have the yarn that I made, but I couldn't do it again without a nice little old lady to hand to keep me straight.

The weather was great, warm and bright. It rained a couple of times, but mainly at night, (apart from the pony trekking day) and it didn't get in the way of us doing anything. We saw half a dozen eagles, four of which may have been White Tailed Eagles, but whilst I could tell they were eagles, they were too distant for an amateur to distinguish with confidence. They were definitely eagles! We only had midge problems the last evening, when some bright spark suggested a walk along the beach to say goodbye after our fish and chip supper. We got a little nibbled on the way through the dunes, but the breeze from the sea was just enough to get rid of them when we got there and spotting another common seal just off the beach made it worth while.

Oh yes, the Evans family holiday to Gairloch was, yet again, a total success. The children are already making plans for our return next year. Guess what? So am I!!

40 miles home from the Cairngorms

We stayed here, at Rothiemurchus campsite, overnight and our walk started after a bus trip a few miles down the road to Glenmore. Here, we had to walk half a mile uphill to the official start, with me moaning all the way, "I'm never going to do this, my pack's making my back sore, if I can't do today, I'll never do tomorrow!" Poor David. Luckily, he ignored me and after re-packing my pack, things settled down. Within half an hour of starting, we'd seen a Golden Eagle!

Please note, flip-flops are not my footwear of choice, neither are they a fashion statement, (they are zebra print, courtesy of David on a lone shopping spree...) but I find them to be invaluble when camping. Shared showers barefoot? I don't think so! At the time of taking this photograph, I had a humdinger of a mid-cycle hormonal headache. I managed to survive till 9pm, but then just had to go to bed. Luckily, it had gone in the morning.

Through the Ryvoan Pass, along Strathnethy to Rynettin, into Abernethy Forest Reserve, to Dell Lodge and onto Nethy Bridge for lunch.

Hill wise, this was the hilliest part of the walk, mostly uphill at that. I was expecting this to be the roughest track as well, but we discovered later, it was relatively easy going.

At Nethy Bridge, we picked up part of the Speyside Way, a popular walk mainly using disused railway. A gentle walk onto Grantown-on-Spey, a typical (Scottish) Victorian spa town.

David was a little blistered and sore at this stage, I felt remarkbly fine considering we'd just walked about 15 miles, but we'd done it at a really steady pace. The fish and chips were incredibly welcome that night!

The next day saw us set off on the Dava Way, a lesser known footpath, again using disused railway. The path started well, but as we got further along it, there were large stretches of huge stone chippings which were really uncomfortable to walk on and there were no ways round it, but we continued on. There were softer patches between which gave respite.

The photograph of me just before we crossed this viaduct was the last we took on this trip. It's at a place called Dunphail, which is in the last 8 mile section of the walk. Just before this was taken, we had been walking up a leafy track through forestry and come across a car parked on the track. I so wish it had been streamed up, it should have been. It was tea time, not even dark!

Anyway, a little further on, the blister on the sole of my foot at the top near my toes, that hadn't given me any grief, suddenly 'burst', (or at least, it felt like it!) It was exruciating and I was devastated to think I'd got so close and failed. Luckily, I am married to 'a man who can', in most situations and he dared to go close enough to my naked foot to strap it up. We could continue!

We made it into the town, just three miles from home, at around 8pm and I was so pleased. Not ecstactic at this point, just sooooo pleased to be close to my hot bath, champagne, curry and bed. It wasn't quite as straight forward as I'd wanted to go the last three miles home, I had proved myself and had no intention of walking any further, but my friend who'd promised a lift was in a restaurant, (!!) and the next bus was just too long a wait, so David treated me to a taxi. Bless!

So, next day, onto Gairloch...

Home again, home again

Jiggerty jig!

This will be a post of two parts, or maybe three posts, as we went away all together, then David and I came back, then we went away, then we came back all together!

So, here goes.

UPDATE

Okay, so this is taking a little longer than expected, I continue to have problems uploading photographs, apparently. I will persevere.

Sadness

Another sad day.

When we moved into our first married home, we had a wonderful neighbour called Jonnie. He was such a wonderful person, friendly, genou=rous, kind, thoughtful. He rescued me from spiders and looked after Rhiannon as a three year old toddler and Megan, (the German Shephard) when I had to take Aedan, just less than two, into hospital, (with Ciara as a four-month-old breast feeding baby). David was on his way home from America and got stuck in fog at Lynham. He was such a star, always there for a chat, a local born and bred, but well travelled and full of wildlife knowledge, I loved him dearly.

Since we moved, I visited him whenever we were in the area, although this was obviously impossible in the last year. I think we last saw him at the end of last May.

We had a telephone call earlier with the sad news that he died today and I am distraught. It's a private service, which I obviously respect, but I'm determined to find out where he's laid to rest so that I can pay my respects. The sad thing is, I had already made plans for our next visit after our holiday.

I have had a dram and lit a virtual candle in his remembrance.

It's a small reminder to me that those closest to me will soon be gone.

xx

Shame

It was a terrible shame, the boys tried their very best and did enjoy themselves, but they didn't win a place to London. I can't say I'm terribly surprised, although I was very hopeful, but I feel the school have let them down badly. (If a bad workman blames his tools, does a bad mother blame the school?)

They have lots of goodies each and a K'Nex set for the school, but as Daniel pointed out, the school didn't do anything, so the boys should share it between them! Obviously, I can't condone that, but I do agree in private.

The school entered them into this competition, but haven't even sent a representative with them to Glasgow The University had to hire David a car so that he could take them, otherwise they wouldn't have gone. On top of that, they have not been allowed to do any preparation together at the school, they haven't been shown how to do the planning that was required, nothing. We've tried to get the boys together, but it hasn't been much help, I'm neither a teacher, nor an engineer.

At the moment, I'm swinging between disappointed, angry and upset.

Lambs to the slaughter, I think it was a terrible shame.

It's nearly time for a big adventure

(Apart from the fact it's only two weeks and five days till we drop the children at Gairloch with my sister and brother-in-law, not that I'm counting...) it's tomorrow that the boys go to Glasgow to take part in the next round of the K'Nex Challenge. I know Aedan's excited, not because he's said so, but because we_haven't_been_able_to_get_him_to_sleep at a decent time of night for at least three days. That wouldn't be so bad, (he'll wear himself out eventually!) but he and Conall (Conall and he, him and Conall? Whatever!) share a room, so Conall's unbearable too!

Anyway, I'll update you tomorrow when they return.

Good luck Aedan and Daniel!

Ruggish!

I am proving to be decidedly ruggish at this. I don't have a brilliant excuse, but I am trying to rest my arm whenever possible to aid recovery, so perhaps I can blame it on that. It's getting much better much more quickly than I was expecting, so I'm really pleased! I'd forgotten what it was like to live with (virtually) no pain, but that was my own silly fault for not going to the quack sooner. Hey ho!

Anyway, it's Father's Day and whilst I think it's an American idea brought over here for commercial reasons, the children like to give Daddy a day off like Mummy has one earlier in the year and Daddy thinks it's only fair. (Mine was cheaper, a pair of slippers and a mug. His is a bottle of amber nectar! Don't need to tell him it was reduced, shhh...)

Must be time for breakfast.

I'm here!

Waving, not drowning.

I'm still here, just having a quiet time I guess. I hadn't actually realised it was quite so long, but I suppose nearly two weeks is a while. I can't even blame it on half term, we don't have those up here, just the Thursday and Friday before my birthday, but that suits me fine. In fact, it's not long until we break up for the summer, four weeks today, to be precise.

So, have been up to anything? Errrr, no.

Not much.

Didn't run last week, which made me a little anxious, (becoming obsessed, me?!) but we had a trial walk with a loaded rucksac, 12 miles and 20 lbs, to be accurate. It went fine, we did it in four hours, which I was quite happy with. It means that, on the actual walk, I can manage the rucksac at a reasonable speed with scope to slow down for a more enjoyable stroll!

I couldn't run on the Wednesday because the rain was doing a good impression of stair rods, so I did some weights and another six mile walk on the Thursday instead.

Monday was written off because I can't say no to a bottle of wine.

I don't mean I was ill, (more worryingly, I wasn't...) just that I don't like to do hard excercise after consuming alcohol as I'm not sure the stress is good for the organs.

Tuesday, now, that proved to be interesting. I had intended to run that day instead, but I had a fabulous telephone call on the Monday lunch time, offering me a cancellation physiotherapy appointment on Tuesday for my shoulder. I took it! What a lovely lady she was to.

I don't have tendonitis, which is good. I have weak Rotator Cuff Muscles, which cause my shoulder joint to be unstable. She rubbed it a bit, ("This will be sore to start, but it'll go numb eventually." Never a truer word said!) then a few minutes of ultrasound, (no pretty pictures of babies to look at, that was strange...) and a couple of exercises with an elastic band everyday. I go back weekly for a while, then maybe monthly for a while after that. It's going to be a long haul apparently, because it has become chronic.

Should have gone to the quack last summer...

Did go to the gym yesterday, now David has renewed my membership. Ran for 25 minutes on the treadmill, which was about two and a quarter miles, but running on the treadmill is so much easier than on the road. It's cushioned and does part of the work for you, but better than nothing.

Apart from that? Nothing much.

I'll be back again soon.

I promise!

Yesterday...

...was my 39th birthday!

We had a lovely day, nice pressies and a trip to the cinema to see Pirates III and loved it.

I'm counting down the days till my next birthday, not saying I'm a tad excited. I love birthdays.

Happy birthday me!

My boy!

My boy's going to be an engineer.

He's just won a commended place in the Regional Final at Aberdeen with his partner, Daniel, in the school K'Nex Challenge, Junior Engineer competition. They were in the top 10 teams out of 160 in North East Scotland.

As my mother would say, "Proud? I should coco!"

Never understood that one myself, but fits the bill. Chuffed to bits!

They've to go to Glasgow for the Final on the 20th June.

I'm not sure who's more excited...

Progress

Oh, I've managed to restrain myself for over 24 hours, but I've got to tell you. I ran 3.66 miles yesterday, without walking. In 40 minutes and 52 seconds. I am just a tad chuffed with myself. Doesn't make my legs sore, but my word, makes my arm hurt! I have found some natural anti-inflammatories, so I'm hoping that will help, along with paracetamol if necessary.

3.66 miles! In 40 minutes and 52 seconds!!

Have to see if I can do it again sometime...

Mixed moments

So, yesterday I was thinking, "Yey, I have no car to breakdown and if the dishwasher or washing machine breakdown, I can live without them for a couple of days 'til David gets home, no worries!"

Then, I woke up this morning. To my total and utter horror, there was an enormous spider, on the ceiling, above my bed.

And it kept moving.

Took me ages to get dressed, put my make-up on and do my hair, I kept having to check over my shoulder to see what it as up to. It couldn't have picked a worse place to jangle my nerves!

All day, I kept popping upstairs to check up on him and by the time the children came home from school, I couldn't stand it any longer. Aedan took the vacuum cleaner upstairs, stood on a chair and sucked it up the extension tube. He even placated me in the same bored tone as David does, "Yes, it's gone. Yes, it's dead."

So, that's dealt with.

This morning, I finally got around to starting my light weight training, (for my backpacking trip). I did about half an hour with 1.5 kg weights and just two sets of 12 repetitions. Oddly enough, this evening I have found that when I put my dressing gown on, when I normally have pain in my upper arm, (the tendonitis) I have none! Neat! Maybe, if I keep up with it, by the time my appointment with the physiotherapist comes through, I won't need it. Now, that would be great.

We'll see.

Another birthday

Our eldest boy was 10 years old yesterday, I can't believe that. Always seems to have more impact when our second child hits a milestone, rather than the eldest, quite daft really! Anyway, I digress. He received mainly fishing 'stuff', so Daddy duely took him off to the beach to fish. Well, try to fish. Aedan remembers everything he's been taught by a friend who's taken him a few times, but the weather let him down. It was a lovely day, but a tad breezy for casting.

No fish for supper! (That didn't come out of the freezer, along with the chips...)

I made him a Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for his birthday cake, at his request. It was lush and saddly, two of the children didn't like it. All the more for the rest of us, I say!

David has just gone for a little trip to the Med today. Hope it rains.

My Aunty Nora wrote me a lovely letter after she recieved my sympathy card. She has passed my contact details onto to two of my four cousins and I'm looking forward to finding out more about them. It's so sad that we've had to wait for this opportunity to get to know one another, but I'm quite curious.

Oh, whoops

Er, I seem to have missed my own birthday.

No, not my birthday, the birthday of my blog. Whoops. Oh well, happy belated birthday, blog!

Other news, I went out for a run this morning. Two minutes past six, to be precise. Before David went to work. Bit keen you might think, but I don't like running in the heat and, whilst today is looking a bit misty and damp, you never can tell, so I bit the bullet and went out when I woke up.

I'm so glad I did! I ran, yes, ran all the way, two and a half miles. In twenty seven minutes! I'm sooooo chuffed and incredibly smug.

I have been gradually building up the distance, so I'm quite pleased. Hopefully, by the time we do our thirty five mile backpacking in two days challenge in nine weeks and five days, I'll be reasonably fit and maybe half a stone lighter. Wey hey!

Oh, and Rhiannon is on her school trip at the moment, five days in Glasgow. I'm not thinking about it. At all. Nope.

Ironing beckons, I'm on a roll for 'getting stuff done', so "I'll be back" (in a thick, Austrian accent,) later.

I always keep a promise

Here are the photographs of my flourishing flowers.

(Sorry, it sounded so good in my head!)

My Peace Lily, then Aedan's bean, then my Orchid that refuses to flower.

I'll feed it into submission!

There are also my Blackberries in the background behind the bean, given to me by some treasured family friends when David and I got married because I'd always loved their blackberries as a child. My plants still grow fantastically well and produce a really good harvest come Autumn.

Quiet

Nothing much to report from the children's first week back at school. Unless you count finding Aedan kneeling on top of Rhiannon, punching her. Ah, well. Siblings. Suitably reprimanded, I hasten to add, but there is a limited amount you can do when they deliberately wind each other up sooooo much! They'll get better. In time. I hope!

I forgot to take Conall to Beavers for his first session on Wednesday, blonde or grey day, I'm not quite sure.

I had to go to the doctor yesterday, I've had a sore arm for months and finally decided I'd had enough. (I hate going to the doctor, I always feel such a fraud, it's never something I'm ill with, just a niggle.) So, anyway, the arm. They don't have to amputate, which is good. Tendonitis was the conclusion, for which you have two treatments, except of course, Awkward Annie here can't. Because I'm asthmatic, I can't use anti-inflammatories, so I've to continue suffering the pain while I wait for an appointment with the physio. Apparently, it's a really long waiting list. Deep joy.

David went back onto shift this week, his course having finished. So, the first night shift for six months. Peace and quiet for me, that's what I say!

Oh, did I mention our run on Monday?

It was apparently a year since JogScotland started in Forres this week, so to celebrate they had two 'races', (no competition they said, but we were all timed!) a 5K and a mile. I did the mile, not wanting to overface myself and Lyn, my new jogging buddy and I brought up the rear beautifully. Eleven minutes and twenty two seconds and I ran all the way! So chuffed.

Like I said, it's been a quiet week.

Funny day

It was Conall's sixth birthday on Saturday and we had a party at the local Farmshop Coffee shop. Might sound a bit odd, but being carless, the fact that it is close by had a lot to do with my choice and it is run by friends, which was good too. Aswell as running riot in an enclosed space with a trampoline and climbing frames, they got to feed cows and chickens too. Yee ha! He loved it.

Mummy forgot the camera. Ooops.

Today is my mum's birthday, I rang so that the children could sing Happy Birthday, (out of tune and flat, but hey, they hadn't practiced. Apart from Saturday...) but it turned into an odd conversation.

Mum and dad had received a phonecall very early in the morning. Dad's (a bit) deaf and was obviously struggling to understand the conversation, although he knew he was talking to a 'Nora', (struggles to recognise me!) so mum took over. She was also a little puzzled, but dealt with the call without letting on she didn't know what was going on. Afterwards she checked the number, but didn't recognise it and couldn't reconcile it with any in her phonebook, so she did a little investigation with the code and the telephone directory. It turned out they weren't talking to Nora they know in Suffolk, which was why being told about 'David' having died didn't make any sense. We don't have one in Suffolk. It was Nora dad's sister-in-law. His brother David died last night.

Dad isn't bothered. He disowned him during a family argument over thirty years ago. He won't go to the funeral.

I'm sad. I've never met my Uncle David, Aunty Nora or my four cousins. (They have names, I'm just not sure I'll get them right.) I'm sad that I never will now and that I had no choice. I don't want the same for my children, except they have an Uncle and Aunt they don't know, that's not my fault, but I'm going to have to find a way to do something about it before it's too late.

It's turning into an odd day.

Mad dogs...

Noel Coward, wasn't it? Hmm, well, in Scotland we have an entirely different breed of them. Yes, we are (actually, they are, I am not...) sitting outside in the midday 'sun'. Except, it's not that hot, so not much danger of heatstroke. We're having the first barbeque of the year, today, the 9th April. Bit earlier than usual. The children were in the paddling pool. For less time than it took to fill it, but would they be told? Sometimes they have to find out for themselves.

It is a nice day, no doubt about it, a fabulous drying day, but ofcourse, I can't actually put any washing on the line, because of said barbeque.

David thinks it's funny, bless him, that I love the great outdoors and yet, I am sitting inside on such a beautiful day. I despise sitting in the garden. I do not enjoy the barbeque bit. Foods okay, nice for a change I guess, but what a faff. Shouldn't bother me really, because he cooks it all, which I suppose is the fun bit maybe. I think the 'breeze' is a tad chilly for sitting and in a few months time, it's going to be too hot! Ah well, soon I'll be climbing big hills in paradise. Roll on July!

(Don't mean to be a kill joy, I'm laughing with them, they're having fun, I just think I'm more comfy in here!)

UPDATE
Photographs of the flourishing flowers to follow.

Green fingers

I mentioned my Camellia, I believe? Which is bursting into bloom all over now. Well, my Peace Lily is at it aswell! This came as part of one of those little pots you buy, along with a tiny Yukka looking thing and a pink spotted thingy too. (As you can see, I am hopeless with plants!)

The Peace Lily was tiny, but flowering at the time. After the flowers went, it continued to grow. And grow and grow, but never flowered again, until now. I have a flower! It's a little small in comparison to the rest of the plant, but I am chuffed.

Aedan planted two Broad Beans in a yoghurt pot at school a few weeks ago. He brought home a dinky pair of seedlings to 'grow on'. Hmm, me thought, not good at this. I have been known to snap a sunflower seedling before even getting out of the playground! The beans' chances were obviously improved by the fact I don't collect Aedan...

So, potted on and sat sitting on the window sill in the kitchen, I thought I'd have a little time to plan, choose the correct position in the garden, you know the sort of thing, but the seedlings had other ideas and got carried away. All of a sudden, they needed a bigger pot, NOW! (Because of the cat situation, they have to go in a pot, so they a less likely to be wee'd on and we can then eat the odd bean we may get.) A large pot was found and filled with compost. My next problem was the fact that David had potted them into a ceramic pot, not a plastic pot. Not easy to remove, but I managed and now they are romping on somewhat in an enormous pot with some bamboo supports.

I seem to be killing far fewer things these days, in the plant world. Just need to get my orchid to flower now. A bit ambitious, do you think?