Finally! A break in the weather. It is beginning to feel vaguely Spring-like at last. Primroses! Things in bloom on my doorstep again! Bruce and I have been making the most of the weather on our daily walks. You can see the water levels of Loch Lomond are rather high – a result of the…
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Highland Fling!
Today I just want to say a massive CONGRATULATIONS to Tom and his pal Ivor, who yesterday completed The Highland Fling: a 53-mile “ultra” race along the first half of the West Highland Way. The race starts in Milngavie, and passes through Drymen and Balmaha, before traversing the East shore of Loch Lomond, moving up…
Read MoreJim’s running (and knitting) for Refuge
Who is this man? Well, some of you may know him as Veuf Tricot, author of the scabrous and witty column in UK magazine Simply Knitting. But I know him as Jim, husband of my good friend and colleague Jen. As well as being a teacher, writer, and all-round good egg, Jim is currently in…
Read MoreLauder morning
We got up early, and drove down to the Borders. It was a beautiful crisp morning. When we arrived in Lauder, the sun was already turning the frost into a magical, dewy haze. Today, the Autumn colours seemed even more deeply saturated. I want to knit everything in these tapestry blues and golds. While Bruce…
Read MoreIslay half marathon
We have been away, enjoying a long weekend on Islay. The Islay half marathon is one of Tom’s favourite races (mine too, for that matter) — not only does it take place in a wonderful location, but the local support is tremendous — every year the folk of Bowmore put on a marvelous post-race spread…
Read MoreStuc a’Chroin
We’ve spent the weekend in the Highlands, where Tom has been running a race – the Stuc a’Chroin 5000 While he was away up the hill, Bruce and I went for a walk. . . We were lucky with the weather (later we saw hail and snow!) Bruce was very suspicious of this wee suspension…
Read MoreInveraray Jail Break
After our Schiehallion walk, we travelled on to Inveraray yesterday, so that Tom could take part in the Jail Break (which is a hill race, in case you were concerned). Have you ever been to Inveraray? It is a sort of eighteenth-century equivalent of Milton Keynes or Livingston – a Georgian new town whose “improvements”…
Read Moresee them shufflin along. . .
There is not much I can say, except that this lopsided shuffle SEEMS LIKE SOME SORTA BLOODY MIRACLE. It feels especially good for me to pootle past the lamp-post that you can see in the final moments of this clip, as I saw it from a very different perspective just under a year ago –…
Read Morewinners
(Paps of Jura from Bowmore harbour) The Paps of Jura dominate the horizon all over the inner Hebrides and look spectacular from any direction. They are fabulous but quite challenging hills – steep, rocky and boulder-covered, rising out of Jura’s rough, boggy landscape. I climbed them on a misty day in 2005, but there’s absolutely…
Read Moregolden
Chesley asked after Jesus the other day . . . let me assure you that the wee man is doing just fine and is full of the joys of Spring. I think he missed me when I was away . . or perhaps just felt the loss of his Primary Snack Provider. I am enjoying…
Read Moremead mountain x2
A White Christmas! And time, once again, to ascend mead mountain. Does doing this more than once make it a ritual or tradition? Whatever it is, the excitement of uncovering a bottle of home-brewed mead, buried at the top of a mountain, really never goes away. This bottle had a full twelve months to mature…
Read Morecongrats
It’s Dollheid prize time! Congratulations to ten randomly-selected commenters: Celia, Luisa, Arndis, Lillicroche, Yulian, Maaike, Lizzi, Pat (J) and two Marias (one German, one Canadian) to whom I’ve just emailed a copy of the pattern. And thanks for all your comments, everyone, which I enjoyed reading: I was thrilled to discover that dollheid translates into…
Read MoreJura fell race
I’ll complete the Jura series by telling you a little about one reason we were there. For much of our time on the island, as the photograph above suggests, the weather was just fantastic. Tom was pleased about this, since he had to run up and down this hill: . . .and six others in…
Read Moreas you were
It feels as if things are returning to ‘normal’. The physios are very pleased with Tom’s progress. He must now punish the healed-up hand with constant exercise to regain maximum mobility, and is also allowed to do everyday things again. Today we both went for a run in the hills. Time to fire up my…
Read Morefunctional
Earlier today I crouched, covered in snow in an 80mph wind at the top of Arthur’s Seat, and felt a near-spiritual sense of thankfulness for my Walshes. These shoes are deservedly a design classic (well, among the hill running community at any rate) because of their incredible combination of form and function. They are really…
Read Morebrown things
For several months now, I’ve been going into the bathroom and discovering sights like this: And strange things like this have been appearing in the kitchen: These objects are signs that our flat has now fully realised its second function as a brewery. At first this transformation caused me some concern. For example, when Tom…
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KDD & Co 