Sunshine and walking!

It's been a while. Again. I know. I think about writing this blog a lot, then get side-tracked and another day goes by! 

We had yet another Saturday evening drive out to another chippy last month. This time to Sedbergh. And what a fabulous chippy! We have decided that they jumped to our number one chippy so far - delicious fish and chips. And we parked up close to the river so once we'd finished eating we went for a lovely stroll with Oscar as the weather was so nice. 

 

The path was full of wild garlic and bluebells.... 

 

 

And then we came across these ......

 

.....so we didn't walk any further! 

 

We managed to get away for a couple of nights st Bank holiday weekend at the beginning of May. Despite Freddie trying to get in the suitcase we set off Saturday morning, leaving DD in charge of the cats, and Oscar in the kennels. 

 

We'd booked in to a small hotel at Kippford, a lovely little place with a good view from our room ...

 

As we got there early afternoon, and as the weather was ok, we went out for a walk, heading for Mark Hill and on to Rockliffe. 

 

 

 

The views were lovely, and we even managed to find a little shop to get an ice cream! We saw loads of bluebells...,

 

And lovely views along the coast ...

 

 

Sunday was a bit breezy but sunny, so we headed to Gatehouse of Fleet and Cally Woods. I don't know why we haven't been there before. It was lovely. And again, thousands of bluebells! I've never seen so many!!

 

 

They were everywhere! Until we got to beach of course. Which was equally lovely (and breezy). 

 

 

And then the long walk back to the van, past many more bluebells. 

 

 

What a fabulous day! With a gorgeous evening walk and sunset too ....

 

 

 

Monday was time to head home, but we had time to travel along the coast road on the way to Dumfries, and a stop at Mabie forest first. 

 

 

And then home. And for me a week off work while DD went back to work. So, while I've been off work I've been shopping with my mum for vegetable plants - tomatoes, cucumber, courgette and herbs - bought paint to do our kitchen, caught up on housework, and finally got round to painting the kitchen walls. Eventually. I've taken Oscar out on some lovely walks, and tried to keep up with my running, with the first out my 10K races with DD being this Sunday. 

 

DD has started a new job which she seems very happy with. After starting an accounting course at college last year she was starting to despair of ever finding a job in accounting. But she has. And loves it. 

And yes, I do intend to update a bit more often (did I say that last time too? )! 

Hello

Hello! 

Yes, I'm still here. Still trying to fill each day with as much as I can!  

After a busy week with work, and the lovely afternoon tea with DD, DH and I decided to go out for tea on the Saturday night. We hadn't really been out in the van since our holiday, so we thought we'd have a run out and find some food somewhere. An hour later and we were in Shap Chippy! What a fabulous place - really busy (always a good sign), and really good fish and chips. We parked up in the van while we ate them and had a lovely view over the hills as the light was fading. It might have been a bit of a last minute random decision, but we both enjoyed the drive out - something different to do.   

 

The weeks are just flying by. I had a woodturning club night on 3 April which was good - time to get hands on again after missing the last practice night. Time to practise making a mushroom! There were three of us taking it in turns, and this is what we made ....

 

I'm really pleased with it and enjoyed it so much again. One day I might have to invest in my own lathe and make loads of mushrooms! 

Walking Oscar is getting more enjoyable now that the lighter nights are here. A drive out to the canal in an afternoon is far more preferable to a walk on the side of the main road....

......with signs of spring everywhere now ....

 

 

We saw more signs of spring last weekend when we opted to take the van for another run out to try another chippy. This time in Kirkby Stephen. We parked up at Stenkrith Bridge and then went for a lovely walk by the river ....

 

 

It was beautiful, and such a lovely sunny evening.....

   

And back at home there are lots more signs of spring, with plants finally growing and flowers appearing....

  

And we've had our first night away in the van this year (if you don't count the night at Durness when we had electric!). No electric this time. Just us, a quiet spot, and another chippy tea (this time from Hawes!). It got a bit chilly overnight, but we'd gone prepared with extra layers to keep us warm. And although yesterday started off a bit grey and drizzly, we ended up having a lovely walk across the moors.....

 

   

 

 

And we didn't meet a soul in all the time we were walking!! 

The drive home took a long time, but we took the scenic route via Buckden and Kettlewell, taking in some wonderful scenery...  

   

Worth going home the long way round! 

So, I'm still here. Trying to keep on top of things. Line dancing Tuesday and Wednesday (party night at both this week!), crafting when I can, running when I can (two 10K races next month), and generally keeping busy! 

Life

Life has somehow become a bit of a whirlwind over the last couple of weeks. More so than usual. I don't know why. It just has. Sometimes adding little things in to a day can mean that it goes by in a blur. And then the next day is the same. And so it goes on until you find you've gone through nearly a whole month and have no idea where it's gone! That's how March has been.

After getting home from holiday and collecting the cats it was back to normal with returning to work and the general home routine. No woodturning club on the Monday, so a chance to try and play catch up with house chores. No line dancing on Tuesday as it was cancelled, but I went to the Wednesday line dancing night. Then Thursday home later from work. Then Friday came, and the start of numerous trips to the vets......

I'd noticed that Titch, my youngest cat (and when I say young, he's 12, but still the youngest out of the 3),  looked quite unsteady on his legs, and didn't seem himself at all. So, off to the vets we went. He was holding his head on one side, and would fall over at times. After an initial assessment it was thought best to keep him in at the vets overnight and get him on fluids and antibiotics. This was the night that DD had asked if she could stay over at ours and then go for a run on the Saturday. It was quite strange only having two cats in the house, and a little bit strange having DD back in the house too! (but lovely at the same time).

The vets rang Saturday morning to discuss how Titch had been and to ask a few questions about him, including what food he'd been on. I'd remembered that I'd been feeding them a particular make of cat food which had just recently been recalled due to possible health issues with some cats, so the vets started a course of treatment in the hope that if that's what the problem was it could be caught early. More blood tests and injections later and I brought Titch home on the Monday afternoon, not much better, but at least he was home. And so began the daily trips to the vets last week for injections to try and treat whatever he had, while waiting for the blood test result to come through. Finally, last Friday, the result came back, and it wasn't what we were all thinking - it wasn't connected to the food at all. So, no more daily injections. However, during the week it was clear that Titch was improving very slowly, so the advice was to keep him on the antibiotics and see how he gets on. It was a pretty hectic week last week with the daily trips to the vets. With DH working away (as normal) it was a case of charge home from work, collect Titch, get to the vets, wait to be seen, get home, sort Oscar out, feed the cats, etc, etc, until it was time to flop in to bed! I did, however, manage to find time to get Oscar out for a walk by the canal a couple of times.......it's still very muddy there though, so not a good place to go if you haven't got your wellies on!

After a fairly quiet craft fair last Saturday, Sunday was Mothers Day, and a visit planned to both our mums, with us meeting up with DD at my mums. No. That wasn't DD's plan at all. Unbeknown to me she had been planning a surprise for me with DH. While I thought she was at her own house suffering after being out on Saturday night, she turned up at our house complete with flowers and a book for me!!! (although she did look very rough and said she didn't feel well......).

 

I had no idea she was going to turn up, so it was lovely to see her. And it was lovely to spend the day with her, while visiting DH's mums and my mums homes, before finally getting back to our home where I cooked us a meal of roast chicken and roast potatoes.

It's been slightly calmer this week. Thankfully. Sort of back to normality, although DH went away for work on Monday instead of Tuesday. But, I managed to go line dancing Tuesday and Wednesday, and take Titch to the vets today (who has improved considerably since last week). I've also spent some time with DD today as she didn't start work until this afternoon, so we managed to go out for afternoon tea near to where she lives - a lovely little place she found with fabulous food. 

Today wasn't planned at all. I had a day off work and suggested to DD that we go for a run before she started work. However, the weather wasn't very nice, and she'd been looking at somewhere to go for lunch, and then it ended up being afternoon tea once we looked at the menu..........

 

Thankfully Titch appears to be much better, still a bit unsteady at times, but almost back to the 'old' Titch, including wanting lots of cuddles. He's been coming in to bed with us for cuddles at night for a while now for over a week - well and truly spoilt!

 

.. but he goes back to his girls for the rest of the night......

So that's how the last few weeks have been. Pretty much jam packed with no time to spare at all. I keep looking at my spoons that need finishing, and the wool I've got to make various things...... I think I need to try and plan for some quiet crafting time soon ......

Scottish Highlands - first of 2017

The first of our trips up to the Highlands is over. After a glorious week, and 1,188 miles of travelling we arrived home yesterday. It has been a fabulous week of driving, walking, mooching and general chilling for a week.

We left home on 3rd March, aiming for Bankfoot, north of Perth, and the Bankfoot Inn that I'd booked as an overnighter (much too chilly to stay in the van with no heating!).  What a lovely place it turned out to be. Very friendly people there, and delicious food - so delicious that we both had dessert which we don't normally do! The room was lovely, and Oscar settled down well too. 

 

So, after a very tasty breakfast we set off north again. First stop Ralia, a must for us as they serve amazing bacon buttes (if you get there in time), and if you're too late for them, the sandwiches are also amazing. After the cooked breakfast from the hotel, we didn't need food yet, so just a quick drink stop and then on to Inverness to do the fresh food shopping that I hadn't done before we left home, and a top up of petrol for the van.

The final hour of so of the journey took us over what would have been fabulous views, had the weather not been as bad. It had been raining since we left Bankfoot, then sleet (a bit scary in places).....

 

..... then more rain and drizzle, and showed no signs of stopping as we left the A9 heading towards Lairg.

We eventually arrived at the cottage around 3.30pm, and what a delightful place! It was called The Wee Hoose, a few miles outside Lairg, and off a single track road. Two bedrooms and bathroom upstairs, and cosy lounge and very well stocked kitchen downstairs. And the views from the cottage? Amazing! well, once the rain lifted and we could see!! I managed to light the log burner at night, and it was lovely just to chill, finally.

 

 

No rest from travelling for us on Sunday though. After checking the weather forecast, and discussing the options, we decided to head for Durness with the possibility of staying overnight on the campsite if there was electric for the heater in the van. The view from the cottage in the morning was lovely.....

 

The road we took to Durness was from Lairg, along the side of Loch Shin, Loch Merkland and Loch More. Being in no rush, we ambled along, stopping to look at the views, and taking it all in. It's a fabulous road to drive, all single track with passing places.

 

We were thrilled to see some wild stags along the way.........

 

and the snow on the mountains just looked amazing .........

 

 

......before finally reaching Durness, and the campsite. The note on the reception said that electric was available, so we made the decision to wander down to Balnakiel beach, call in at Cocoa Mountain and then back to the campsite for the night. We had about 15 minutes on Balnakiel beach with Oscar before having lunch. It's our favourite beach so far ........

 

 

.....with more amazing views ........

 

......... so after we'd had some lunch in the van we got out and headed back to the beach, to see it full of cows!!!

 

This happened in summer too, so we decided not to go back on the beach with Oscar! However, a trip to Cocoa Mountain for a hot chocolate is a must while you're in the area. They never disappoint. And, of course, a supply of chocolate to take back home for DD, along with a cookie each for us. 

 

Once back on the campsite we took Oscar down to Sango Bay beach, another wonderful beach. Surprisingly not many people on it while we were there! There were two other vans on the campsite, and a couple of cars arrived later on, but other than that it was deserted. Out of season, and lovely and peaceful. It was, however, very chilly in the van despite the heater being on, so it was a good job we both had our thermals with us!!

 

 

 

 

Despite the cold, it was lovely to wake up in Durness and have the glorious views from the campsite.....

 

...and have a quick walk on the beach before heading down our favourite road - the A894 from Durness to Kylesku. We had quite a few stops along the way,

 

 

 

 

and a quick detour to buy logs for the fire, and a wander along a side road where we saw more wild stags. 

 

We stopped just before the Kylesku bridge to get out and have a walk with Oscar. We didn't walk far, but the views on that short walk were incredible - looking down on the to bridge and out to sea, across to Quinag and Loch Glencoul. And the weather, although it was a bit cold we had blue sky!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuesday was forecast to be ok weatherwise, so we chose to drive to Ullapool, with the intention of climbing Ullapool Hill. We set off with blue sky and fabulous views....

 

 

 

....but by the time we arrived in Ullapool it was a bit overcast. We had lunch in the Seaforth, and a lovely walk round before setting off with Oscar to go up the hill.



It was cold at the top, but we found a little spot and had some hot chocolate looking out over Loch Broom.

 

 

 

 

 

The drive back to the cottage was good, with lots of deer sightings again!

And then Wednesday happened. Lots of rain on and off, and a trip to Tain or Golspie planned. Hamish, the van, however, had other ideas. We left the cottage and it became clear that something wasn't right. The battery light didn't go out. Thankfully there was a garage at Ardgay so we pulled in to see if there was anything they could do. They worked out it was the alternator, but they weren't able to fix it for us. They did, however, contact a garage in Tain who said they would be able to get the part we needed and hopefully fix the van on Friday, but not to drive the van if possible. So we went back to the cottage and spent the rest of the day inside watching the rain come and go......

Thankfully the rain stopped late afternoon which meant that we were still able to get out walking with Oscar. Perhaps not the walk that we'd originally planned, but it was along the single track road from the cottage, a quiet, pleasant walk, ending up with us getting back to the cottage in moonlight.

 

 

Knowing that we weren't supposed to be driving the van in case we broke down, we planned to do a nice walk from the cottage on Thursday as the weather was supposed to be ok. However, the garage ran early Thursday morning to let us know that they'd managed to get the part they needed and could we take the van in for lunchtime that day? So, we headed to Tain, and the garage. We pulled in and I sat in the van while DH went in to let them know we were there. We were told to leave the van running and they would move it to the workshop while we went off for a couple of hours. Hamish, however,  had other ideas again. We got out, complete with rucksacks, and wandered away from the garage. We could see one of the lads go the van and try and get in but couldn't. When we went back to see what had happened, the van was locked. It seems that when we shut the door, the locks all went on, with the engine running, and nobody inside!! The lads at the garage were really good, and eventually managed to get in and move the van to start working on it, while we headed off on a walk that DH had found. We walked out of Tain and up on to Tain Hill, a lovely, if cold and wet, walk.

 

 

 

 

 

It was good to get Hamish back after a few hours - fully fixed and ready to go again! So we went back to the cottage via a different road to see different views. Lovely.

 

Friday, as our last day, started off wet (yet again). The only thing we had planned was another walk, but as it was so wet in the morning we decided to drive to Lochinver, and to Lochinver Larder to buy some of their very, very tasty pies - out treat while we're in the area. By the time we were heading back to the cottage the weather had changed and the rain had gone, so we parked up at Shin Falls and had a lovely walk round the area. Being there out of the main tourist season meant that there was nobody else around - lovely and quiet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then yesterday we packed everything up and set off home. The weather was lovely as we were loading the van, giving us chance to have breakfast outside and take in the views one last time before leaving.

 

 

It has been a fantastic week. After booking the cottage I'd had my doubts whether we'd actually get there if the weather had been worse, if it had snowed. But, we made it, and travelled our favourite roads, had amazing views, saw lots of wildlife, had some fabulous walks, and overall, relaxed for the week.

Roll on our next Scottish adventure later in the year.........