Jan & Feb - gone in a blur!

Well, I haven't been blogging much the past 2-3 months, as you may have noticed. The rest of January went by very quickly- I was ill for about 2 weeks although working for most of that time. Work has been very busy and not very enjoyable but I had some good news the week before my hols - not only did I get through an internal competition allowing me to put in a full proposal for a 3 year research fellowship at Stirling uni but I also got past the 1st stage of selection to get a grant from one of the research councils to do my own research for 3 years. I'd do one or the other, not both, but applying for more than one is hedging my bets as you don't find out till summer if you've been successful. Of course, I now have to write 2 proposals on top of doing my day job! We have been out and about quite a bit in February. Some of the highlights for me are below.

We went to see the red kites at Argaty farm, Doune. It was pretty foggy so we couldn't see them in detail but we could see their silhouettes and hear their calls http://www.argatyredkites.co.uk/home1.html

Dukes Pass Road between Aberfoyle and Callander Dad by snowdrops at Culzean Castle & Country Park, Ayrshire Snowdrops at Culzean Luss, Loch Lomond from the pier
Luss, Loch Lomond

Luss, Loch Lomond - picnic in the winter sun Michael at Inveruglas looking towards Loch Lomond & Ben Lomond covered in snow

The snow covered mountains at Crianlarich

Loch Katrine - robin singing & me getting used to the zoom!

Scottish Christmas & Hogmanay

Christmas parties and post-Xmas walks
Michael spent the week before Christmas in Somerset with his brother and family - I don't know what they did to him but he came back missing England! I was working, cat-sitting Charlie and had a pre-Xmas meal with friends where we all anonymously bought a present for about £2-3 for a randomly picked person at the party- the 'Secret Santa' gift. It's amazing how inventive some people were at finding a gift for that price- I ended up buying chocolate! Sergi did a impromptu Santa appearance dressed in Halloween left-overs!

The first few days of our 2 weeks off I slept. A lot. I was either exhausted from work or from the virus we all caught but with differing effects and severity - Micahel got in much worse than I did and my dad and sister had it for months.

Secret Santa - Sergi in make-shift costume. Pre-Xmas dinner with friends.

Christmas Eve was very mild and I was fine going out in my new short dress, sandals and tights. We had arranged to meet some friends but they were running late so we tried a 'new' pub in a gorgeous old bank building while waiting. It turned out to be just as neddy (rough) as the 'old' pub! There were lots of blokes with very short hair already pretty drunk and Xmas tunes were playing loudly, but it was the atmosphere more than anything that felt 'off'. We didn't linger -one drink and out!

The pub next door, also 'new' (renamed or new owner?) was less neddy and cheaper but very loud. We got a seat on the 'snogging couch' as Michael dubbed it (too low to be of use for anything else!) and waited on the others arriving. In the end it was just 4 of us as Michael could no longer stand the loud music and went home early. I ended up listening to the woes of one drunken individual in a quieter pub across the road - Merry Christmas!

Xmas Eve in a very noisy pub- me, Sonia & Toni

We drove over to mum and dad's on Xmas day in time for Xmas dinner around 3pm so that we wouldn't leave Charlie for too long on his own as this would be only the 2nd time we'd ever left him alone over night (I had had a sneaky trial run while Michael was on hols). Both Sarah & Kate were there with their families and also Dan and Ruben's dad was there too (well we make sacrifices for the children...). I think I had drunk more than I'd realised the night before and felt somewhat hungover...

Summit of Craighorn, a we hill near the village of Alva, 29 Dec 08 - cold but beautifully sunny

When mum and dad moved from Hull up to Scotland over 40 years ago people still worked on Christmas day and post was delivered on the 25th too- it didn't used to be a holiday although dad used to take it as annual leave. Of course, now most things shut on Xmas day and sometimes on Boxing Day. Apparently in 1583 the Presbyterian Church suppressed the observation of Christmas in Scotland because there are no biblical references to Christmas celebrations. The Church of Scotland continued to discourage the celebration of Christmas into the 20th century. Hogmanay (December 31) was traditionally a much bigger holiday and celebration which is why it's still such a big deal in Scotland today. We have the 1st and 2nd January as bank holidays not just the first as in England. I remember feeling New Year in England was a real anti-climax compared to up here where at midnight all the people around you- strangers too - give you a kiss and wish you happy new year and there's a real party.

Michael at summit of Craighorn

By 29th December we felt revived enough after illness etc to go on a short hill walk which turned out to be longer than expected- we were following the route in a new book of local walks we got for Xmas but had to cut it short as it would've beee dark before we finished it at the rate we were going! It does get dark very early in winter up here- around 4pm.

Hogmanay in a local pub called Nicky Tam's- supposedly a haunted pub

Short video of The Bells (midnight) in the pub with the piper playing Flower of Scotland

In contrast to Xmas Eve Hogmanay was minus 5 - dry but cold for getting your party gear on. Stirling Castle puts on an outdoor party on the esplanade - this year they had Deacon Blue playing, who I quite like but Michael doesn't. anyway at £25 a head we decided we'd rather spend the fifty quid on something we really wanted! We could hear the music from the streets anyway and had it not been so cold we could've watched the fireworks from our garden! Instead we went to a couple of local pubs and had a few drinks - nice & warm!

A short hill walk on New Year's day 2009 up Myreton hill near the village of Menstrie - we had the hill pretty much to ourselves unlike Dumyat hill opposite which was heaving with dogs, babies, grannies, mobile phones...!

On New Year's day we went for the traditional walk - we had gorgeous sunshine and cold crisp weather so we went up a small local hill from where we could see every man and his dog up Dunyat Hill opposite! A friend made the mistake of going up there that day and posted her photos on Facebook, one of which I've nicked to show you! Last new year 's day it was foggy all day with torrential rain- when Michael had the vomiting virus so I walked around Stirling and Bridge of Allan alone just to get some air.

Dumyat Hill 1/1/09 - Glad we didn't go there. Check out the guy on his mobile phone! (Taken by Angela H)

Trampoline Queens

There are loads of cheap sports classes on at the Stirling university sports centre if you're a member- including free trampolining classes. There were only 3 people signed up for the class initially so I drummed up some support from the nursing & midwifery department making 6 of us so that the course wouldn't be cancelled. (I'd initially signed up for free squash lessons but was the ONLY one interested so they cancelled it!). Usually there were only a maximum of 4 of us who turned up to any one class menaing we each got a good 10-15 minutes each on the trampoline. It's a lot harder work than it looks!

We learnt some of the basic moves and struggled with the more complicated ones which the coach made look easy. If I want to continue in January I'm going to have to sign up as a full fee -paying member of the community and make sure I work in Stirling on Friday!

These photos made me laugh a lot- I hope you enjoy them too!

What style! Doing some warm up jumps - whee!

Me mid straddle jump.

Ann doing the straddle jump - nice one!

Bernie jumping in her own distinctive style!

Levitation! Me practising a back drop on a nice padded mat.

Looks like static - Ann landing.

Bernie's magnificent back drop - looking like some weird head balance!

Diane practising a front drop -ouch! It's really hard to keep your body rigid and avoid smacking your face off the trampoline or breaking your thumbs!

Pike jump (bring your legs out straight in front and touch your toes while in the air) to a half turn.

Winter Snow & New Commute

Winter is here & new job at Edinburgh Uni - Nov/Dec 08

November was a very busy month at work, so not much blogging from me! I always knew that come November 08 my contract would switch from Stirling Uni to Edinburgh Uni for the final year of the project I work on but it came around faster than expected! I have mixed feelings about the move since I’ll no longer have easy access to the great sports facilities at Stirling uni - if I want to remain a member it costs a lot more as a member of the public - and also have a 1 hour train commute to work instead of a nice short bike ride! On the plus side, Edinburgh is a more prestigious uni - so good for the CV! - and the department has more variety of people in it being a social and political science department rather than a nursing department.

Late November snow- first this winter. footpath by River Forth opposite our house.

Snow on Dumyat Hill

When I started I had a desk but no PC or phone so had to borrow an office for a week or so – as we were behind with the previous stage of the project I had to get my head down and get on with the project report straight away – we already had an extension on the deadline. We had barely started analysing the data so it wasn’t exactly a stress-free start to the job!

Dark winter morning at Stirling station - off to Edinburgh to my new job

Winter funfair in Princes Street gardens, Edinburgh

Advocate's Close- the fastest way up the hill from Waverley Station to the Royal Mile!

I’m based in a refurbished building near the Meadows, a large park, and share a nice sunny office with views across the hills and nearby buildings including the old Royal infirmary – my room mates are an Australian and a Russian research fellow who both seem very friendly and willing to share their coffee (always a nice bonus)!

The uni is right on the city near cafes and shops - totally unlike Stirling uni which is a beautiful green campus but a bit isolated from shops etc. I like the buzz of the city and did a wee bit of exploring one lunchtime and spotted a few independent cafés I’m going to try. I suppose the down side is that I’ll be tempted to spend money in the shops – lots of funky clothing and shoe shops!

My new office building- the Chrystal Macmillan Building near the Meadows, Edinburgh

George Square, Edinburgh where my new office is - this is the more scenic view of the square garden and old townhouses

It was also my birthday and Michael and I tried a Thai restaurant in Stirling – the ‘Wilawan’ - that someone recommended – it was very busy and the food was pretty good. 10 days later is Kate’s birthday so I babysat for her and stayed over at her house so she could go out for her birthday. She and the boys had flu/ a virus which Michael and I then caught – it lasted for 4 weeks mutating from a sore throat to voice loss and a full on cold - yuk! My dad still hasn’t recovered from it, neither has Sarah and it has taken me almost 2 weeks off over the hols to feel human again!

My new office - just refurbished along with the rest of the building and shared with Jen from Australia and Ekatarina from Russia

Great views from one of my office windows looking over the old infirmary and a new block of fancy flats with a Starbucks, deli and Sainsbury's underneath - handy!

Autumn in Scotland

Mine woods bike ride, early Nov 08
We had a lovely autumn with amazing colours on the trees as you can see in the photo below taken in the woods between Bridge of Allan and Dunblane.

Mind woods bike ride - lovely colours on beech trees.


Me by the Allan Water river in Mine Woods

Perth and beyond
We had a drive up through Perth and Blairgowrie one weekend exploring since Michael had a job interview up that way and we wanted to check out where the office was. We found the oddly named village of Stanley where the intevriew would be- a small somewhat depressing village north of Perth then went on up through the lovely back roads towards Dunkeld where we sat in the car and had our lunch since it was wet. On the way we saw 2 red squirrels feeding on beech nuts- one ran in front on the car but we were going slowly so stopped to watch it. They are quite a lot smaller than grey squirrels and apparently that is one of the reasons they are making a come back in places- pine martens prey on squirrels but the fatter, heavier greys can't escape to the ends of thin branches where pine martens cannot follow in the way that the lighter reds can. We also saw a large flock of red-legged partridge feeding in a field which then took fright and flew over our car.

We had a brief drive around Blairgowrie (close to Glen Shee ski area and known for its raspberries) which used to be known for having the highest rate of crime per head in Scotland (largely because of vandalism and anti-social behaviour by a particular group of residents) - it wasn't the most attractive or uplifting place so we moved on. On our way back south on the A93 we passed the enormous beech hedge - the tallest in the world. It's called the The Meikleour Beech Hedge, and is 600 m long and 30 m high - it was in spectacular bronze autumn colour.

Hallowe'en Party

A friend, Roser, from near Barcelona offered to host another party in her flat in Bridge of Allan 2-3 miles from Stirling. I spent ages carving a pumpkin to take with me- I'd wanted a turnip which is more traditional than the US pumpkin but couldn't find a big enough one anywhere- only to find that Roser had about 5 or 6 already!

Sonia in lovely stripy socks and Sergi (Danger Mouse)

Having just been on a trip home to spain, Roser had brought back lots of lovely food with her including some traditional Catalan cakes, vatious cured meats (which I didn't eat of course) and delicious Manchego cheese which I love!

Roser (devil), Tom (Austin Powers), Sonia (witch) in kitchen

There must've been about 25 people there at its busiest and almost everyone came in costume- those that didn't were taken to the bedroom for a make-over involving lots of face paint! We started in a very civilised manner which eventually deteriorated into party games both inside and outside in the communal back garden around 3am - a sort of egg and spoon race. I can imagine the neighbours weren't too impressed with us clomping up and down the stairwell and shrieking out in the garden.

Axe man and Super Mario

Disco dancing - yes it's me!

Loo roll mummies - seasonal party game!

Aviemore Again

Guislich Farm, Aviemore, 7-9 October 2008

We arrived at the cottage in heavy rain after a 2.5 hour drive. As we had climbed up a steep section of the A9 in torrential rain we were amazed to see a man on a bike cycling ahead of us- not just any bike but a PENNY FARTHING! The next day we spotted his bike outside a café in Aviemore so he made it despite the crappy weather. I Googled him and I think this is him, doing a charity ride from Lands End to John O'Groats for Macmillan Cancer Support: http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/2008/09/22/binley-man-starts-mammoth-ride-on-penny-farthing-92746-21871075/
I hadn’t realised that those bikes have no brakes!

The last time I was here was in June when the weather was glorious. As we bumped up the wet, muddy, pot-holed track, we heard the underside of the car scraping on the road and we startled a buzzard. We ended up parking a few hundred yards from the cottage since the tyres were skidding in the mud. All Michael’s hard work washing the car was wasted! The rain stopped for long enough for us to get all our food, bags and bedding out of the car and to bring in some firewood from the shed.

The cottage on Guislich Farm, Rothiemurchus estate peeking out from behind the trees

In the summer, the cottage’s water tank remains full and there’s no need to drain the system as you need to do in winter in case of frost/ ice bursting the pipes. I was annoyed we’d just missed the summer season by a week as we needed to work out how to turn the water on, and fill the tank which took us 30 minutes of following convoluted instructions and references to non-existent red taps! Draining it when we left took even longer!

Our first day was spent settling in, lighting the stove, preparing chilli for dinner and a wee trip into nearby Aviemore when luckily the rain had stopped and we could wander round. The horrible metallic scraping under the car was worse on the way back down the track so we had a detour via the mechanic’s where he found a redundant bent piece of metal and removed it – we were relieved it wasn’t something serious.

The muddy bumpy pot-holed road up to the cottage

The living/ dining room warmed up so much we were too warm, contrary to my worries we’d be cold and I didn’t sleep well cos I was so hot! We woke on Wednesday to glorious sunshine and to noisy pheasants in the garden – they sound a bit like turkeys.

We decided to make the most of the good weather and go up the mountain to the top of Cairn Gorm which I had done in June. The Cairngorms have a unique environment, which is described as ‘alpine semi-tundra moorland’, meaning there are many rare plants, birds and animals. The highest, coldest and snowiest plateaux in the British Isles are here along with five of the six highest mountains in Scotland including Cairn Gorm (the blue cairn).The area also has a primeval forest, one of the last in Britain, called the Caledonian Forest.

The wind near the top was really strong and bitterly cold. On the way up Michael spotted a pair of ptarmigan on the rocks right next to us (have a look here: http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/p/ptarmigan/index.asp) – I hadn’t seen them so he spoke to tell me at which point they took fright and flew off, too quick for me to take a photo but I got a good view. They were in their ‘in between’ plumage which is part white and part brown so they blend in with the rocks and pockets of snow- very clever.

Michael on the way up to the summit of Cairn Gorm shortly before we saw 2 ptarmigan

The alpine landscape at the summit
Michael pointing to the ridge we had just climbed

We took a leisurely 4 hours to do the walk and took the easy route down via path which has been built right to the summit- the have really changed the mountain with the funicular and mountain top restaurant which were controversial with locals.

We popped into the village afterwards for a coffee at a place recommended by a walker we’d met on the way down Cairn Gorm- the Mountain Café – I know they use organic produce but, frankly, £5.50 for a bowl of porridge and £5 for a cafetiere of coffee is taking the mic!

In the Caledonian pine forest

On Thursday rain was forecast but luckily it was dry for most of the day but windy enough to close down the funicular. We’d planned a low-level walk on some forest tracks starting at the Rothiemurchus Visitor Centre and ended up walking for 10 miles through lovely ancient pine and birch forest. The trees were beautiful, the pines have almost blue needles with a very red bark, and the birches looked a lot like Australian eucalyptus trees. Where the trees thinned out there were loads of spiny juniper bushes covered in ripe berries so we had to taste them and were amazed they taste just like gin – you could make your own if you lived locally!

Juniper berries- there were bushes everywhere in the forest. They do taste just like gin!

We also popped over to Loch Garten, which apparently is the best place in the UK to view ospreys, but we had just missed them as they’d migrated the week before – though I am still convinced I saw one over a smaller loch on our way there.

It was lovely to escape from TVs, computers and Gameboys etc for a few days and we spent our evenings cooking, eating chatting and playing games of cards, yahtzee and Tantrix (a new game a bit like a more complicated version of dominoes courtesy of my friend Cat).