Lucky find

I am blogging from the balcony of the lovely Loch Insh Watersports centre. I am enjoying a well deserved coffee after a goodly walk. It is hot and sunny and there are lots of paddle boarders and canoeists on the loch below me. It really is idyllic. James, Alison and Hugh are on their way to join me after a much longer walk - they are walking about 25 km on a section of the "East Highland Way", following a meandering route from Newtonmore via Kingussie to Loch Insh. It's a very pretty walk with trees, waterfalls, moorland and lots of birds such as red grouse and lapwings. We also saw horses with their beautiful little foals and sheep with their lambs, and lots of wild flowers. Speyside is in all of its summer glory. The reason that I diverged from the rest of the group after the first 10 km or so, is that my legs felt like lead today and (although nobody said so) I felt that I was slowing the pace considerably. So I had a wee rest at Insh Marshes car park after asking the others to walk on, and then walked along the road which was a more direct route. It was still a long way though, and I became quite footsore by walking on the tarmac, so I hitched a lift for the last 5 km. It's a very long time since I have done that! I still walked about 18 km though which is plenty for me.

So when I got to the Watersports centre I was quite happy to sit outside on the grass and relax while waiting for the others, because I had brought no money with me to buy a drink. Or so I thought. Just on the off chance I searched my rucksack thoroughly, yielding the grand total of 15 pence from the lining. I also looked in my jacket pockets but I already knew that there was nothing there. And then I looked on the inside of the jacket and saw a little pocket beside the zip that I hadn't even remembered was there. I opened it - and there was a TEN POUND NOTE which I must have stashed there many months if not several years ago! It must have survived quite a few washings in its secret hiding place. Oh joy! What luck! I was delighted and immediately proceeded to the bar where I ordered my coffee and a piece of chocolate tiffin cake.