Easter Snow & Cakes

Easter weekend

On Thursday I did my 3 hours of yoga and have hurt my shoulder and neck (only just improving a week later) - have been waking in the small hours in agony. Think it was when Lynn yanked my feet in shoulder stand, as Kate said, I was ‘sagging’ so she pulled me straight! Was glad I had decided not to do the walking group Pentlands hill walk on Saturday - I would have struggled to carry my rucksack.

At last- a long weekend off! On Good Friday we went to Dundee – Michael had to hand in his draft diploma assignment to uni and I went along for the shopping! I did find a very lovely pair of hiking boots to replace the aged and knackered ones, although I haven’t christened them yet. They have some interesting street sculptures in the city centre including the dragon, Desperate Dan and a parade of wee penguins!

Dundee Dragon

We had a light flurry of snow and it was very, very cold so we didn’t linger outside for long. We found a wee Italian café by chance and were told on arrival by a customer that it was the best coffee in Dundee, which is exactly what we were looking for (well spotted Michael)! We warmed up in there until the clientele started to make Michael feel like we didn’t belong (I think they had a lunch special for pensioners on) – I hadn’t even noticed!

Sarah & David with Tamagotchi-parents love 'em!

Saturday was a non-event since my shoulder was hurting but we went over to see my folks on Sunday for Easter and had lunch and chocolate eggs. Mum had bought the grandsons the new Tamagotchi keyrings – electronic pets which demand attention, food, love - even holidays! My sisters end up looking after the ‘pets’ – just like real life (I think they secretly enjoy it)!

Catalan Easter cakes & UK contribution of crispy cakes, mini eggs & hot X buns!

Monday we had been invited to an Easter cake eating party at the house of a Catalan friend Roser- well why not! So I went armed with coffee and a bottle of rum for Jamaican coffee and ate 4 different kinds of Easter cake then could barely move…. The Catalan cake is called ‘La mona’, regardless of how it is cooked, and means ‘female monkey’! One of the ‘monas’ was a ring of pastry with a boiled egg in its shell baked into it – apparently a traditional gift from a godfather to his godson with a boiled egg for each year of the godson’s life up to age 12.

Best coffee in Stirling-Michael in Cisco's cafe

I was feeling re-energised on Easter Monday and the sun came out so we wandered into town, had a coffee in our favourite wee café Cisco’s (best coffee in Stirling!) and then wandered through the very wealthy and pretty part of the town called King’s Park where the daffies were out. We even went as far as Cambusbarron, the village where we first lived when we moved here and popped in on our old neighbours to catch up on the gossip.

Easter daffodils in King's Park area of Stirling

Have discovered Facebook this week so have been spending far to much time browsing friends’ photos and writing messages on people’s ‘walls’!

Killin' Time

On Friday afternoon I took an hour off work and went to see a short French film ‘Squash’ by the French director and script writer Lionel Bailliu. The film was good – amusing, thought-provoking, if a bit contrived. It was, as the title suggests, set during a squash game in a single squash court. It’s about the psychological harassment on an employee by has manager. He’s since brought out a full length film based on Squash called ‘Fair Play’ which I haven’t seen.

The director attended and took questions afterwards, mostly in English. I wasn’t particularly impressed when he said that squash was a man’s game which is why the 2 protagonists were male (I play squash every week, as do many women!) and that if he were to do a similar film with 2 female leads then he’d have to choose a more feminine sport! Mm, not being a bit sexist there, are you Lionel?

Killin hill walk
On Saturday I went on an impromptu hill walk with some friends from work (I was supposed to meet up with an old friend in Glasgow for a film and dinner but she couldn’t make it at the last minute - I forgave her though since she had to go to a funeral). There was gorgeous scenery on the drive up (which took rather longer than expected since the driver was a bit nervous and drove mostly at 40 mph so it should have taken 1 hour but took 1.5).

Climbing the stile: me, Sergi, Toni, Ailsa and Nicki

It was a short walk at 2 hours starting at Killin followed by a late pub lunch of fish and chips to replace all the calories. We climbed a small hill called ‘Sron Na Clachan’ (Nose of the Village) just behind the village. We were lucky with the weather – sun, a bit of cold wind at the top – and had beautiful views of snow-covered mountains and a buzzard soaring on the updrafts. Michael was glued to the Formula 1 qualifier at home which is a shame cos he would’ve enjoyed the scenery (if not the bizarre and surreal conversations over lunch)!

Killin is on the edge of Loch Tay and is surrounded by stunning mountain scenery - it's about 35 miles north of here. There was barely anyone about in the village – the streets were empty (but there was rugby on and anyway, it can’t have a big population). You can see a live webcam of Killin at http://www.killin.co.uk/ although it mostly shows the main road through the village (there is usually also an unflattering photo of some locals too - ah, village life)!

View of Loch Tay from the peak of Sron Na Clachan

Michael and I got up early (for us) for a game of badminton on Sunday morning (we were expecting a plumber at 11am who, of course, turned up an hour late after we’d purposely changed our court booking from 10am to 9.30am in order to be back on time) and then remembered quickly why we stopped playing at the uni. We were sharing the hall with 30 or so small boys practising their football skills and wandering across our court whenever they were led by an adult or wanted to go out for a pee/ drink/ snack. It was the adults’ fault since they had told them to come around our side of the curtain and walk past our court rather than walk past the other boys who were doing their training because it would disrupt their training! Never mind our game of badminton! As you can imagine after the 7th or 8th time of someone wandering across our court I lost my temper at their arrogance! I think we’ll go back to just playing squash- at least you get the court to yourself!

How many landlords does it take to change a washer?
The plumber was coming to change a washer- yes a washer!- cos our landlord insisted he’d do it himself in order to save money but then admitted he didn’t know how. He then made us wait 2 days and through 2 missed appointments with a tap leaking litres of water by the hour (and it would’ve been hot water if we hadn’t turned down the thermostat) before it was finally fixed! We couldn’t even turn the water off at the mains cos the tap was too stiff. Such is the life of a tenant…

Almost there! Sergi, me, Toni, Ailsa & Cath - all in red!

I then spent the rest of Sunday, which was a beautifully sunny day, preparing a presentation for work – not my preferred use of a lovely Sunday but it had to be done –at least it’s over with now. I presented today (Tuesday) to people at Stirling and 3 video conferencing sites –I had more audience members via video than I did in the room! It was about antenatal screening and termination. I spoke for almost an hour so it was quite long! I hope I didn't bore them - they were too polite to say if I did!

Rain!

Scottish life
The students have been back for spring semester for 2 weeks now but even so the campus still seems empty; that was one of the first things that struck me when I started my new job - there was barely anyone around! I realised it’s just because London & the south-east are so heavily populated that I wasn’t used to so few people in that amount of space. Just to put it in perspective, Scotland has a population of around 5 million while London alone has 7.5 million meaning that in terms of density London has an average of 4,000 people per square kilometre, while Scotland only has 64! Stirling itself is a very small city with around 44,000 inhabitants (the same number as Inverness apparently).

We both seem to have spent a bit of time in ‘the big city’ (Glasgow and Edinburgh) this week. Michael had a visit to an animation company (called ‘Once were Farmers’, although I don’t think they ever were) in Glasgow where he is hoping to get some work experience as part of his course (but having seen his work they are interested in him doing some freelance work for them -result!). On Friday I had to go to Edinburgh for a seminar which happened to have a free wine reception afterwards (that wasn’t the only reason I wanted to go, of course)– it was nice to get out of Stirling for a change but it was very cold! Some of the girls were going out to a salsa club afterwards but I hadn't planned on going out so left them to it.

This weekend the weather has been so bad that we decided not to do any hill walks or outdoors stuff- every time we went out of the house we got soaked! Saturday we spent in Stirling then today we went into Glasgow to try and get us both some hiking boots and trousers (we got neither!) – the weather changed every 5 minutes but the torrential rain managed to coincide with whenever we left a shop!

Charlie in another of his favourite 'pogs', trying to stop me surfing the net.

The direct train to Glasgow from Stirling is really quick and only takes half an hour, whereas the Edinburgh train never seems to be direct and takes a whole hour. I’m not looking forward to my commute from November this year when my job changes over to be at Edinburgh university.

I was wrong when I said Scotland only had 2 official languages, apparently we now have a 3rd official language- added to English and Gaelic we have Scots – it’s a bit like speaking English with a broad Scottish accent sprinkled with some uniquely Scottish vocab – see this speech translated into Scots using phonetics http://scotslanguage.999design.com/articles/view/471

Here’s a short excerpt (see if you can make sense of it):
‘In the Scots Government, we'v heich hopes for the future o Scotland. Forby thon, we threap that sovereignty in oor kintrie belangs wi its fowk. As a sovereign fowk, the fowk o Scotland - an us oor lane - his the richt tae decide the wey we'r govern't.’

Speaking of languages, I went to see an excellent French film this week at the uni cinema– Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon (in English called ‘The diving bell & the butterfly’) which tells the story of the former editor of French Elle, Jean-Dominique Bauby who after a massive stroke was locked into a paralysed body. He could only blink his eyes and dictated an entire novel using this method. It was really moving but also frightening to think just how vulnerable you are to other people’s wishes when you can’t move or speak.

The French film festival is on just now across in Glasgow & Edinburgh so I’m hoping to see a few more films. We are also having a visit from a French film director Lionel Bailliu next week at the university – I’ve never heard of him but he’s screening one of his films for free so I’m going to go!

I'm part of the uni French Society that meets weekly to talk French and also goes to films, cultural events etc- Michael has dubbed me a nerd because that will make 2 clubs I'm a member of if I also officially join the hillwalking group (which is part of the Ramblers' Association, definitely not cool... - think Janet Street-Porter and red woolly socks)!

‘Twitcher’ France reports
We have a small resident flock of blue and great tits in our garden which keep pecking at the windows and doors – they do it so often that even the cat has given up running to watch them when he hears the tapping. Michael even spotted one tapping the car wing mirror! We thought they were being territorial by challenging their own reflections in the glass but that doesn’t explain why they would tap the unglazed front door! Maybe they’re trying to get in…. (Actually, I recently noticed that the door handle is reflective so it must be that)!
Cheeky blue tit pecking kitchen window from bird feeder.

I bought a Perspex bird feeder to attach to the kitchen window and it has proved a complete failure- the birds haven’t touched the seed in it (which is now wet and soggy cos of the rain)- they just use it as a convenient perch for tapping the window! It took me ages to get an in-focus photo of one of them!

Ben Vorlich & wet feet

Have been doing lots of exercise the past week. A couple of weeks ago I got up early to go to the uni sports centre to sign up at 8am (I never go in that early!) to get a place on the uni yoga classes I wanted – even then there was a queue, but guess what? No students in it! This week I clocked up 3 yoga classes, 2 games of squash, ‘salsacise’ and a swimming lesson (I’ve decided that it’s about time I learnt to do the front crawl so that if I ever get to use my diving qualification and get into trouble I’ll be able to make a quick getaway from any sharks (I am kidding myself))! They also do belly dancing classes which I have yet to try.

Salsacise is less of a dance lesson and more of an aerobics class with a few salsa steps–I am embarrassed at my lack of co-ordination (you have to watch yourself in the mirror which is rather off-putting)! It reminded me of dance classes when I was a wee girl (Miss Janice’s ballet & tap!) when I found it hard to remember all the steps – no change there!

After all that exercise I thought I'd be fit enough for a major hill walk. On Saturday I went up Ben Vorlich, a ‘munro’ (a mountain between 2500ft and 3000ft), with the walking group. I got up early to start the walk from Ardlui (top end of Loch Lomond) by 10am and drove up with Shona & Malcolm who are from Stirling and nearby Alloa, unlike most of the members who are from Glasgow. Michael didn’t fancy it and I don’t think he would’ve enjoyed it.

Four people, including the walk leader, who were coming by train from Glasgow, got stuck behind a landslide on the track but amazingly they were only 1.5 hours late. So 9 of us started the walk anyway with a last minute fill-in walk leader, Dave.

Above: A bit of a sun on the ascent - Janet, Shona, Malcolm and Dougie blowing his nose!

It started to rain as we set off so I had my snowboarding trousers on, which were too well insulated for most of the walk, and as a result I boiled in the bag all the way up the mountain until we reached the snow line when I actually did need them. With 2 layers of clothing underneath they were a bit tight (nothing to do with all that chocolate I eat) so were restricting my movement - this meant I knackered myself out and then my knee started to hurt on the ascent. It wasn’t the most enjoyable walk I’ve done!

It was hard going- steep, boggy, very wet and despite all the stinky polish I put on my boots they were letting in water (I feel a song coming on…). Well they are 17 years old, so I think I got my money’s worth! We had every type of weather you can imagine over the course of the walk- sun, rain, hail, sleet, snow, and strong winds! Just a typical Scottish day!

Once we got higher up the slope the view had disappeared behind mist and clouds – apparently from the summit of Ben Vorlich, which I didn’t reach, there was no view at all cos the weather had deteriorated so much.

Above: Looking up into the mist on our way back down the hill with no name.

We ate lunch sheltering from the wind and snow behind a large rock – I had bought an insulating mat for £2.50 from Tiso to sit on and it really worked – didn’t get a cold, wet bum. But unfortunately my wet feet started to get really cold now we’d stopped, as did my hands.

Four of us turned back at the summit of the first hill (name unknown) slightly short of Ben Vorlich’s summit because it was freezing with very strong winds. The hailstones were sandblasting our faces and the tag on my jacket zipper was flicking me painfully in the face – I could barely stay upright I was getting blown so much. It hasn't put me off but I think I'd prefer to do the munros in milder weather and maybe do some low level walks in winter!
I got back down the hill around 3.30pm after a 5 hour walk and went to the hotel bar for a pot of tea and a rest. The ones who’d gone right to the top didn’t get back till 5pm (meaning my dry clothes and shoes were locked in Malcolm’s car till then…). What amused me was Janet lighting up a cigarette on the way down the mountain – very healthy! The people I had come with then wanted to eat at the pub and didn’t finish till after 7pm (Malcolm is the slowest eater in Scotland) meaning I finally got home around 9pm to finally eat my veggie curry that Michael had kindly made me. It tasted so good!

Above: Hardy sheep and the snow-covered first summit (we had lunch somewhere up there in the snow)!

On the way home Shona drove (Malcolm is a driving instructor and has dual control car)- she hasn’t driven since she passed her test 10 years ago and so it was a bit of a scary ride home in the dark and rain on the winding country roads back to Stirling! (Not as scary as being driven by 80-something year old Soula in France, mind you). We spent a lot of time shouting ‘dip your lights, dip your lights’ and ‘mind the kerb!’ Actually the scariest part was going round the roundabouts in Stirling! She is from Islay and they don’t have roundabouts or traffic lights there, apparently!

Friends, Family & Catalan Food

Sat 23 & Sun 24 Feb
Since we had to visit our dentist in Glasgow (after 3-4 years of no check ups things were getting a bit urgent!) which is on the same road as my parents’ house, afterwards we popped in to see my family and stayed for lunch. As it was a Saturday the nephews had descended on mum and dad for their weekly dose of entertainment including pool, Xbox, computer games and DVDs. I ended up with Ruben on my lap watching Tom and Jerry which I never liked very much even as a child! I caught up with my sisters, admired Ruben and Dan’s new haircuts, Kate’s new car and Matthew’s increasingly longer hair while Michael did his PC advisor best on my dad’s and Sarah’s laptops. We had to leave in time to get back for a party in nearby Bridge of Allan at Roser’s flat.

Above: My nephew Danny aged 6 with new funky haircut in his favourite T-shirt.

Above: My wee sister Kate holding her youngest boy Ruben aged 3 1/2.

Roser is from near Barcelona in Catalonia and after Ailsa’s Burns Night the Catalans had promised to return the favour with a Catalan dinner party. In one of the photos you can see the Catalan chefs including Toni who is the winemaker who provided the amazing red wine at the last party.

Almost all the food was prepared from scratch which was pretty impressive-even the quince jelly! All the guests had been asked to bring wine or other drinks and so most people brought at least a couple of bottles meaning that we had more wine bottles than guests! There was some lovely cava which, of course, is a Catalan drink.

Above: Amazing home-made Catalan food before we demolished it including yellow cards describing the food in Catalan, Spanish & English.

Catalan food and drink menu in Catalan & English:

(to be completed)
Escalivada - ?

Codonyat amb formatge de cabra – quince jelly with goats cheese

Esqueixada de bacalla or Brandada de bacalla – salted cod with beans

Empedrat Olivada –olive tapanade

Espardenyes -?

Truita de patates –tortilla (Spanish omelette)

Truita de carbasso – tortilla with courgettes

Pa amb tomaquet –bread with tomato & olive oil

Embotits: pernil salat, llonganissa, xorico, sobrassada - ham, sausages, chorizo,
---
Coca de poma –apple cake

Torrons –very sweet bars with nuts

Pastissets de Tortosa -sweet pumpkin in pastry
Cremat –rum, coffee beans, lemon peel, cinnamon & ?

Above: Some of the chefs explaining the menu- left to right Roser our host, Sonia, Toni, Montse and Clara.

For a special warm Spanish cocktail called ‘cremat’ we used a whole bottle of rum which was donated by my dad – apparently my nana used to have a drop in her coffee and this was a left-over bottle she hadn’t used- I’m sure she would have approved of us putting it to a good use! We begged some coffee beans off the hotel bar over the road from Roser’s saying it was for a Catalan ‘dessert’ and that went in too!

Above: Toni setting light to the 'Cremat' cocktail which contains an entire bottle of dark rum.

One of the Catalan contingent brought Catalan music and we tried out a traditional dance which was very slow and apparently popular with elderly Spaniards! I then tried to persuade everyone to carry on dancing to Abba and Amy Winehouse with no success :-(

As it turns out, a number of the Catalan people come from the same village near Barcelona and only met here by accident- seems a bit of an odd coincidence that they should all have ended up in Stirling!

Apparently there is a Catalan tartan which you can see here:
http://www.tartanstore.net/tartan/Catalan-1992-Olympics-Modern/64803? For some strange reason it is not very popular with male kilt wearers!

The next party is going to be a Latin American evening hosted by Jennifer from Venezuela and Nicki who lived in Guatemala for a few years - we've been promised there'll be salsa dancing!

Above: The morning after the night before- Charlie yawning on his favourite spot- my pillow!

The next day I went shopping for new specs since mine got trodden on. I spent hours scouring the opticians of Stirling for the second time and eventually found a pair I liked but as there was a special offer on where you could get a second pair free or reduced I then had to find another pair…. (Michael liked me in a pair of ostentatious Dolce & Gabbana framess but I absolutely hated the stupid diamante spangly logo on the arms)! I ended up spending almost £300 on 2 very similar pairs and then going home and realising I’d wasted my money - in all the 8 years I’ve been wearing specs I have never used my spare glasses! Shopping with a hangover is not a good idea! Anyway, after some persuasion and tenacity on our part, the shop agreed to refund me for one pair bringing the cost down significantly. I can’t believe how expensive a nice pair of specs is now!

Yoga & Cruachan

Yoga heaven
When I first started yoga about 10-11 years ago a friend at university introduced me to an Iyengar class in Partick and pretty soon I was going to 3 classes a week (including one on a Sunday morning- that’s dedication for you)! When I first started I couldn’t touch my toes, I could barely arch my back and my ankles were so stiff I found kneeling & sitting back on my feet agony. But despite the pain I enjoyed it so much I persuaded my younger sister, my then boyfriend and my mum and dad to take it up! It’s taken quite a while to improve my flexibility but I am now able to do the wheel (Urdhva Dhanurasana) (involves lying on your back then pushing yourself up on your hands and feet into an arch) which I did for the first time since I was 10 years old a month or so ago – I was ridiculously pleased with myself!

I haven’t been able to practice yoga solidly since I first started it. When I moved to Ipswich it was a yoga desert – there wasn’t an Iyengar teacher within 25 miles and the classes I did try were disappointing (arm wafting / miserable teachers). I did find a good teacher in Stortford but I fell out with her when she cancelled 2 classes then refused to reimburse me for them!

By chance, I was talking to a new colleague at work and she told me about an Iyengar teacher in Stirling and I went to her class for the first time on Thursday night having already done an hour of yoga that day at uni (she is part of the same yoga group as my first teacher from Glasgow). So all together I did almost 3 hours of yoga that day and was knackered! I really felt it in my muscles on Friday –ouch!

The teacher Lyn was a bit eccentric – there were 2 Carols in the class who she calls Little Carol (who was quite short) and Big Carol (who wasn’t particularly big). I had to try and keep a straight face when she started shouting out things like ‘Good, Little!’

It’s been a while since I’ve been to class where the teacher uses the proper Sanskrit names for the postures and some of them I couldn’t remember so I had to watch what everyone else was doing - Mukta Hasta Sarvangasana had me wondering (freehand shoulder stand, in case you don’t know either – looks weird, pretty impressive, but I can’t do it! Kind of looks like someone’s dropped you on your neck and you’ve stayed there). See 2nd row of yoga postures in the piccie!

Hiking boot hell
Thursday night is late night shopping so I came home early and popped into town with Michael to try to buy him some proper hiking boots in preparation for Saturday’s hill walk. He said he’s not going to spend money on something that has had zero design effort put into it- I pointed out that hiking boots are never going to be a thing of beauty! The only vaguely pretty boots were £150! So no new boots and sore feet!

Hill walk up Cruachan, East Loch Lomond –Sat 9 Feb
We arranged to go on a hill walk up Cruachan, a small but steep hill of 536 metres, with ‘GRUFF’ the young person’s walking group based in Glasgow. I got told off by a colleague at work for mispronouncing Cruachan (the emphasis is meant to go on the ‘Cru’ part not the ‘ach’) but who knows how to say even half the place names in Scotland!

Moody light over Loch Lomond at Inversnaid

We left home at 9am expecting to arrive at the meeting point, the Inversnaid hotel, by 10.20am – with Michael McCrae behind the wheel we arrived at 10am half an hour early (the ‘Oh Shit’ handles were well used, Vanessa). What didn’t help was that the rest of the group were all late and so the walk didn’t begin till 11am – not the best start!

West Highland Way by Loch Lomond

The road to Inversnaid appears as a thin line beside Loch Arklet on the map – that’s because it is a single track rough road with passing places (which we needed to use cos 3 coaches full of ‘Lochs and Glens Tours’ oldies passed us leaving the hotel – I’m not sure how they got there on such a narrow road)! The views on the drive made us feel like we were really isolated, far from Stirling and could’ve been back in New Zealand. The route took us past the Lake of Menteith and all these Lochs: Ard, Chon, Katrine, Arklet and finally to Loch Lomond. We passed by a wee place called Stronachlachar- try saying that with a mouthful of haggis!

The hotel overlooked Loch Lomond which I hadn’t realised was so big and stretched such a distance from Ardlui in the north to Balloch in the south. For all you fact junkies, it’s 24 miles long with the largest surface area of any fresh water Loch in the UK! It even has almost 40 islands on the loch one of which, Inchmurrin, has a hotel on it that Sarah worked in when she was a student. (I seem to remember someone telling her one of islands had wallabies living on it brought back by from Oz some eccentric landowner)!

There were about 20 people in the walking group, more than I expected, of varying levels of fitness. We started off on a stretch of the West Highland Way along the lochside. It was really mild and I was starting to regret wearing so many clothes (5 layers!) but I needed them at the summit. The way up used a rough road so was fairly easy but steep and then we were off road in the boggy moss and peat (not a tree in sight) which was harder work and slippy.

Caterpillar of GRUFF walkers going up the hill

There was no rain but no sun to speak of either so although we got an idea of the great views from the top I’m sure they’d be absolutely spectacular on a clear day – you can see practically 360 degrees and see several lochs and other mountains. There was even a small loch near the top which if it'd been a nice day you could have had a swim in!

Michael at the top of Cruachan getting blown in the wind

Me at Cruachan Summit

We coped well with the walk and kept up a good pace although Michael’s ankle is a bit sore and swollen today from where he slipped a couple of times. We walked around 7 miles and it took 4.5 hours taking it easy. I remember being the last one up the hill and the last one down when I went hill walking aged 17 with a bunch of people from school – either I’ve got fitter or my companions have got less fit!

We didn’t see any wildlife on the mountain except for 2 big ravens hunting for rabbits. Funnily enough the only exotic wildlife we did see was by the side of the busy A84 in Stirling where a buzzard was eating its catch! (I think the large birds of prey we have seen near the castle and the park are buzzards). Unless you count 2 long-horned goats grazing outside the hotel as exotic!

Michael didn’t really enjoy the group walk experience cos of all the hanging around in his wet jeans in the cold wind waiting for the slowest people to catch up, but you have to go at the pace of your slowest member. It’s certainly a totally different experience to just the 2 of us going together and pleasing ourselves if we want to stop and take photos etc. I like the fact that someone leads the walk (and reads the map for you!) so you can go to places that you wouldn't necessarily know how to find yourself, so I might go again.

Snow & Mountains

Jan 31st, Inverness. This week I had a day trip to Inverness for work - I took the first train from a wet and cold Stirling rather earlier than I normally like to get up (it was still dark for God's sake)! By the time the train had reached Pitlochry (60 miles north of Stirling) there was a lot of snow falling so I was a bit concerned that I might not get home that night (I did, although a bit later than expected). There was snow all the rest of way until, magically, it disappeared as we descended into Inverness- the locals say the city has a unique micro-climate, maybe it's true (although it was bloody freezing)!

On the way we passed through amazing countryside particularly the Cairngorms National Park where I was lucky enough to see 2 herds of wild deer (not sure if they were red or roe deer) and 3 to 4 pairs of startled black grouse flying up from the heather - apparently there are only 5000 breeding pairs left in the UK making them on the RSPB's 'red list'. They make the funniest clucking sound when they are scared (obviously I couldn't hear them from the train but you can listen to them on the RSPB website http://www.rspb.org.uk/). The wildlife and scenery was definitely the highlight of the trip since the actual workshop was uninspiring and not worth the 6 to 7 hour 300 mile round trip!

Feb 2nd, More hillwalking

Inspired by our walk last weekend in the forest park we decided to try a different route this time and headed for Strathyre Forest near Callander (it's still part of Queen Liz Forest Park which covers quite a large area taking in Loch Lomond too). It wasn't snowing in Stirling but by the time we had reached the hills there was a thick covering off-road which pleased Michael who loves snow (although he'd forgotten his gloves)! Luckily I had packed my style-icon woolly hat and scarf!

View of Ben Ledi with cottage & manky caravans in foreground

The directions on the website said we should turn off at the signpost for the Strathyre Forest Cabins which we found without too much trouble. After parking the car we walked along a road to see 3 ugly static caravans outside a cottage which weren't exactly the 'forest cabins' we had been expecting! We realised a mile down the road that we hadn't actually reached the cabins which were very impressive, large, wooden-built houses, not manky caravans! I quite fancy staying in one!

Me in Peruvian hat at waterfall viewpoint on Stank Glen walk, Ben Ledi

We decided to do the Stank Glen walk which is 3.75 miles and supposedly takes 3 hours (it only took 1.5 hours in the snow so the Forestry Commission are definitely over-generous in their estimates of walking time). It's on the eastern slope of Ben Ledi (Gaelic for Hill of God, apparently) which is part of the Trossach Hills. Stank has nothing to do with stinkiness, by the way, but means 'pool'. Apparently many years ago some people drowned in a pool covered in thin ice when following a funeral route over the mountain to a church.

Yay - I reached the top!

The views were gorgeous even though the snow clouds meant we couldn't see too far into the distance and we decided that we rather like being able to get out to do something outdoorsy so close to home even in winter. (If you live in Scotland and stay indoors in bad weather you will almost never go out)! The path doesn't take you to the summit but it gets near.

Michael looking cold at the highest point of the walk

We were wondering, when does a hill become a mountain? Apparently there's no agreement over how high a hill has to be before it's called a mountain although some sources say over 2000 feet (610 metres) qualifies as a mountain. Anyway, Ben Ledi's usually described as a mountain, so there!

We've caught the walking bug and are planning to join a young person's drinking, I mean walking group (under 40s only) if we can get Michael some decent boots and I can persuade him to get some thermals! Since we have been doing a few short and not too difficult walks we are hoping it won't be too much of a shock to the system to go on a 'proper' full day hillwalk right to a mountain summit .... The group's guidelines said we had to take a survival bag which put me off a bit. (What's a survival bag anyway? Like a body bag...)?