Torrential in Torrance

We woke to a pleasant morning with more than a hint of blue sky. Heather and Ewan were running the annual "Lenzie Jog" in the morning and had invited us for a walk with them afterwards for lunch at one of their local hostelries, The Stables. So we set off in good spirits, looking forward to our first walk of the new year. Given the reasonable weather we wore our trainers because we would be walking on pavements and towpaths, and we took waterproof jackets because the weather forecast predicted showers.
What the weather forecast did not predict was the onset of extremely heavy rain just after we had decided to walk a longer route via Torrance in order to make a nice eight mile circular walk! We pressed on, but oh boy was it wet! My trainers were soon soaked both with rain and mud, and my jeans were absolutely saturated with water! Strangely, both of my knees developed a little patch of white foam! I presume this must be washing powder which has not been completely rinsed out by the washing machine! The same phenomenon happened on one of Ewan's knees. Despite the weather we had a nice, companionable walk and laughed about the weather. When we found the path completely blocked by a huge puddle (more like a small lake actually!), James enterprisingly spotted a way round it behind the hedge. We passed through Torrance and made our way back to the canal and along to The Stables where we had a hearty lunch and enjoyed the warmth. Then we set off for to walk the last couple of miles back to Heather and Ewan's house. Although I had warmed up in the pub my legs and feet were still very wet, and to my despair I soon realised that I had left my bag behind, but James and Ewan heroically ran back to get it. The rain had more or less stopped by now, and by the time we got back to the house for a welcome coffee my jeans were nearly dry. Heather very kindly lent me a pair of socks to wear so I felt very cosy as I tucked into Christmas cake beside the fire. I don't care that it was rainy, I really enjoyed our walk and I want to go on plenty more walks in 2014 which I am hoping will be my year of fitness.