Tuesday 31 July 2012

31.07.2012

Yesterday hot and steamy in the woods with monsoon thundery deluges alternating with hot sun.
Today quite different: fresher, dry and sunny. After work ran the d-w-l-legs around but then, with more deluges forecast for tomorrow thought I`d better sneak out to climb Millstone Hill without them. Their legs are very little.

Millstone always feels like the Path Less Travelled: a bit out of the way,narrower, untidier and altogether less managed, or so it seems. Don`t know whether it`s deliberate or lack of funds but long may it stay "neglected".`
Fewer bloomin` signposts as well.










All these walks have landmark trees and stopping places and this one on Millstone is particularly striking








And then on the top it`s fresh and clear, with that different view of Mither Tap and paths leading invitingly in all directions.

Weird walking without dogs though.

Sunday 29 July 2012

Sunday 29.07.2012

National sport of shower dodging today. This morning into beautiful woods by the mighty river Don, accompanied by dog-with-little-legs: just over a year since I was last here (see 15.07.2011).

When we started it was hot sunshine, by the time we were in the woods it was torrentials with puddles almost big enough to drown the dogs.

The rest of the day has seen black clouds, monsoon rains,thunder and sunshine, sometimes simultaneously. Proper July weather really.

Wednesday 25 July 2012

Wednesday 25.07.2012

Tip-top July morning: managed a half-hour before work up and round the top of the woods with the dogs lost in the vegetation and the pollen flying in all directions.




Huge sympathy for those who suffer the dreaded hay fever.

Friday 20 July 2012

20.07.2012

Finally, an hour or so on Bennachie after a gap of nearly seven weeks: almost surprised to see it still there as it`s been shrouded in cloud for much of that time.
However, today normal service was resumed: all boskiness and lush undergrowth and dappled light in the woods,







fresh air and stunning views at the top.










And your thought for the day, garnered from Twitter:
- a Somalian taxi driver said to me.. "don't curse the rain.. in my country every drop is like a diamond falling from the sky"

Thursday 19 July 2012

Thursday 19.07.2012

Ab-Fab out there earlier this evening.
Chilly breeze promising more rain but the dramatic white and grey cloudscapes were higher, the sky altogether bigger somehow - made you want to throw your shoulders back, stride out and gulp it in.
Down on the road and back through the grass by way of variation: there was enough warmth in the occasional sunburst plus the sight of martins and swallows zooming backwards and forwards overhead and the ripple of green corn across the hills that would have you believing it`s the middle of July.

Btw, so engrossed in The Gone-Away World that have almost forgotten to recommend The Thirteenth Horseman by Barry Hutchinson.

Categorised as Young Adult (but kept this Not-So-Young one laughing)it`s an excellent romp with a touch of the Terry Pratchetts (can there be higher praise for a writer of fantasy?)much chaos and confusion and even a soupçon of soppy stuff.

Friday 13 July 2012

Friday 13.07.2012


Clouds held off today as well but hovered close by, allowing the sun a quick peep through every now and again but not letting it get above itself.

Purple grasses brighten the gloom


but even though it wasn`t quite as wet as yesterday we still bailed halfway round and came back on the road.

More biking today too, riding up and down to tend to the neighbour`s poultry while they`re away. Whizzing back down the hill in the gloaming quite magical: damp summer scents, ghostly white gulls wheeling over freshly cut grass in the surrounding fields - even the odd puddle to splash through. Simple pleasures.



Wednesday 11 July 2012

Wednesday 11.07.2012

Holy moly - a dry couple of hours this afternoon with the clouds rolled back far enough - but only just far enough


to give a sugestion of a summer`s day, albeit with vegetation as high as the proverbial elephant`s eye, so we were soaked by the time we got back anyway, rain or no rain.

Much discussion about trying to change the weather - "seeding" the clouds? Suggest the boffins read this book of mine first. Unforeseen consequences and all that.

Sunday 8 July 2012

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".

Monday 2 July 2012

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)