Sunday 08.07.2012

Rain,rain,fog,fog,fog..... oh and rain.
Bike ride up to the neighbour`s this morning through the shrouds of mizzle and drizzle and mist. (And dare I say I quite like it in some ways).
Anyway, always forget how enjoyable being on a bike is: when retirement finally beckons and, as currently envisaged, the move is made to a nice cosy flat in Edinburgh, I shall purchase a proper sit-up-and-beg bike, with a basket, don a purple hat and make like Miss Hubbard from Postman Pat, possibly even joining a choir.

And in other news:
the book in question from previous post is Nick Harkaway`s The Gone-Away World. Half way through but don`t want it to finish. Brilliantly iconoclastic and extremely funny.

So now: a certain tennis match to watch.
"C`mon Andy".

Sunday 01.07.2012

So that was June then, the summer slip sliding away in the rain.

Have kept walking but it`s often easier on tarmac in these conditions.

So this last weekend there was much tramping round Scotland`s cities: first Edinburgh, already bustling with tourists, girding up for the full frontal festival season.
Before, during and between the walking there were tales of the kindness of strangers,large platefuls of bangers and mash,examination of some of those inscriptions on the Parliament building**, Turkish coffee and baclava, an impressive cathedral(St. Giles) and a brief glimpse of the castle itself - closed to visitors by 5p.m.which seemed a shame.

Another day and more walking, a stroll round the National Gallery, salsa dancing in the street and a trip to the Circus.

Today it was Glasgow, more specifically Govan, with much evidence of past industrial glories and Victorian philanthropy and apparently due for regeneration.......

Oh....and the current book is fantabidozy...carted it round with me, despite it being a hefty tome, to grab another chapter at each watering hole.....more info to follow.......




**Possibly my favourite:
"When we had a king, and a chancellor, and parliament-men o' our ain, we could aye peeble them wi' stanes when they werena gude bairns - But naebody's nails can reach the length o' Lunnon."
Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832) Mrs Howden in "Heart of Midlothian"

Though this is rather splendid too:
"But Edinburgh is a mad god's dream
Fitful and dark,
Unseizable in Leith
And wildered by the Forth,
But irresistibly at last
Cleaving to sombre heights
Of passionate imagining
Till stonily,
From soaring battlements,
Earth eyes Eternity."
Hugh MacDiarmid (1892-1978)

Tuesday 19.06.2012

Home at the double to try and get out and walk but chucking it down when I got back so tea first but by half eightish there was a pause and we cantered off - missing the second half of the football but hey, sometimes you have to make sacrifices.

Fantastic cloudscapes: bright white one way, heavy, black and threatening the other. Steel-blue cloud-caves you could have crawled into, layer upon layer of roiling, broiling greyness......

And after the tree-ness of trees last week, this evening it was the grass-ness of grass: lush, green, wet and waist high in places, the dogs were cleaner when we got back than when we set off and I got soaked but not cold and suddenly it really felt like June.

Friday 15.06.2012

Could have hugged a tree today.

Could have but didn`t need to: the sheer tree-ness of the trees was enough to banish the grey and tame the cold wind.




And later it rained but when, after months,nay years,of only having part of one, having a complete roof (more or less, bar three tiles that have to be fitted under the ridge and for which scaffolding is required) the rain becomes instantly less significant.
And the Christmas tree lights will be less likely to short out.

Monday 11.06.2012

Last week a long and hectic one that included books, chocolate cake and cheerleaders.

However, thankfully, one of several jobs now completely finished until September so yesterday, coincidentally but nevertheless symbolically, set off for walk just as I would have been setting off in the car








and returned just as I would have been starting my shift.

So summer starts here? Well you wouldn`t think so by the persistent greyness. In fact it was more a bonfire sort of an afternoon but none the worse for that









...and this morning it was still hot....like Max`s supper.


Oh and btw, last week also included a small contribution to the Jubilee........

Sunday 13.06.2012

Beautiful drive home from last Sunday shift until September: still light with a (practically) full moon to boot.

And presumably they see the same moon in Alaska so this is to say Bon Voyage to J & C - follow their adventure at Deadhorse to Ushuaia (link on the right.)

Friday 01.06.2012

Couple of hours work and then the weather was so good - blue sky, fluffy clouds, warm sun but with a pleasantly cool breeze, so ..........

.....rushed home, did six loads of washing, cleaned from top to bottom, cut the grass and came back in and made a magnificent jubilee cake....no, wait...that was me in a parallel universe.

In this one we spent the afternoon on Bennachie - who`d have guessed - beautiful boskiness down below

then fresh and clear on the tops:

We made Mither Tap

then across to Oxen Craig

and back via Craigshannoch

and could really have kept going further but sort of ran out of mountain. Anyway, there was all that washing and cleaning and cooking waiting............

(Did get one load of washing done and chucked a couple of the fishman`s excellent smoked haddock and garlic fishcakes in the oven so domestic duties not totally neglected.)