Muir of Dinnet

We had a lovely, happy evening in the bar at our hotel last night. The food is very good, like really excellent home cooking, and we laughed and chatted until we realised that the clocks were going forward so we would be losing an hour of sleep, at which point we all scuttled off to bed.

This morning we were all up sharp for another gloriously sunny day in Deeside. After the eight of us had breakfast we said our goodbyes and scattered for our various walks. Today I went to the Muir of Dinnet National Nature Reserve, just up the road from where my walk ended yesterday. I parked at the Burn o' Vat visitor centre and set off on a combination of the Little Ord and Loch Kinard Trails, guided by the informative and free leaflet. It came to about 11 km. Loch Kinard and its neighbour Loch Davan are "kettle lochs" formed by two huge lumps of ice stranded here when the glaciers melted at the end of the last Ice Age. The walk was delightful and varied; winding paths through the woods, open grassy paths across gentle hillsides, and of course down by the loch itself with the water sparkling in the sunshine. I saw a small plane towing a glider higher and higher into the sky, and I watched as they separated and the glider moved gently off on its own. I heard a woodpecker in a tree and I stood quietly for a while until I spotted it pecking away. Then it popped into a little hole in the tree trunk. Down by Loch Kinard a gaggle of geese flew low and noisily over the water. Overlooking the Loch, there is a beautiful Celtic cross, carved on a slab of granite. It's 1200 years old - I sat on the bench nearby and pondered on this for a while, but my thoughts kept sliding away to the sunshine and the delicious chocolate bar that I was eating. As I continued circumnavigating the loch, two little brown lizards ran across my path, and I saw some wee frogs too. However due to all my stops to look at things it took longer to walk round the loch than I thought, and I ended up over-heated from hurrying and a full half an hour late for meeting James by the time I arrived back at the car park. James was happy enough though, relaxing in the sunshine after climbing Morven, a nearby Corbett. 

As we set off homewards we passed Abergeldie Castle beside the River Dee, which very nearly fell into the river during the floods of December 2015. I remember the news reports; it was absolutely teetering on the edge of the bank, in fact the floodwaters had eaten away the bank so that the castle was left partly overhanging the river. We could see that now the bank of the river has been all shored up, and the road on the other side repaired. We stopped at the Glenshee Visitor Centre for a welcome coffee; we saw the Volvo in the car park because Ally and Cat were walking nearby, and just as we were leaving we saw them striding down the hill after their five hour walk, comprising three Munros. I have to say that it has been a splendid weekend. 

The Deeside Way

My goodness Royal Deeside was beautiful today! I decided to walk along the Deeside Way which has stunning views of ploughed fields, tree covered hills, and the snow topped Cairngorms in the distance. The air was filled with birdsong and there were warm, floral scents, as the spring sun started to heat up the bones of the earth. I played pooh sticks (by myself) at the wee bridge over the Tullich Burn, then continued on my merry way until the path joined the River Dee, at Cambus o' May.

What a magnificent river the Dee is. As it moved steadily, burbling over small weirs, the sun shone through its clear waters to light up the stones and sand on the riverbed. I chilled out and took in the scenery while I ate a packet of mini cheddars. I even took my boots off and paddled in the icy water. It was bliss. 

The path continued beside the river and through forests of Scots pine; I could hear gentle cracking sounds which I think was the pine cones opening in the heat. I bade a cheerful hello to other walkers and cyclists. One man who passed me on a bike asked if he had heard me singing as I walked along and I had to admit that he was correct! I eventually arrived at the tiny hamlet of Dinnet where I left the Deeside Way and jumped on a bus back to Ballater. I walked along to the village green where I met Susan who was sitting on a bench enjoying the sunshine (she and Debbie were not long back from their hill walk) Ballater was jumping with happy tourists, sitting outside the numerous coffee shops. Lots of people were sunbathing on the village green - it was more like July than March! In fact it was more like July than July usually is around here! Susan and I had a coffee and a bannock before heading back to the hotel, where I found James having his shower. He, Ally and Cat had driven to Linn of Dee and climbed the Corbett Sgor Mor where they had a great walk and saw fantastic views of the northern Cairngorms. 

Ballater weekend

I was on a training course today. The sun was shining as I drove there, listening to music and singing along. My Mum used to say that "a change is as good as a rest" and it was very refreshing to be out of school, on what proved to be a very interesting course where I also ran into a few pleasant people I knew from other schools and caught up with news. The scones at tea break were a welcome bonus! The course finished on time which meant that I was at home earlier than usual and had plenty of time to finish my packing for our hill-walking club weekend away to Ballater. 

We set off as soon as James arrived home. Ally and Cat were borrowing my car and set off just after us; the longest drive that Ally has done so far but he got on fine. The three hour drive to Ballater seemed surprisingly long even though there were no delays, and we were both tired when we arrived at our hotel, the Deeside Inn. We had a tasty dinner with the rest of the group and a convivial evening. So here I am tucked up in bed with the weather for the weekend ahead looking good! 

Westminster attack

Terrible events in London today. A terrorist drove along the pavement of Westminster Bridge, mowing down pedestrians; two have died and many are badly injured. Then after crashing his car into the fence outside Parliament he ran round into the grounds and stabbed a policeman to death, before he was shot dead himself. How stupid and pointless. That poor policeman went to work this morning, just doing his job, and was murdered so cruelly. And terrifying for the people on the bridge - I have walked over Westminster Bridge on many occasions with the family, it hardly bears thinking about. 

I watched the news on and off with Ally during the evening, while doing some batch cooking (beef stroganoff and lamb tagine with Asian pears). Among all the sadness some things shone through. The emergency services responded very quickly and efficiently. An MP (Tobias Ellwood) could be seen trying to save the stabbed policeman by giving him CPR until the ambulance got there. And members of the public could be seen helping the injured. Among the bad there is still good. 

Transient Snow

I woke up to see thick snow swirling past the window, great big flakes; it looked beautiful. There had been snow warnings yesterday but I didn't take any notice because we are so near the end of March. It lay quite thickly and all the school buses were delayed, but it was very wet snow and by the end of the day it was all gone and the sky was blue; I have never seen snow disappear so fast.
I was very busy at school with various end of term deadlines and was pleased to get a lot done. Ally is through in Edinburgh for Cat's Engineering Ball so it was just James and me for dinner, and we watched a documentary tribute to the singer Vera Lynn - it was her 100th birthday yesterday. She looks very good for 100 and is still very alert and sharp; she has had a remarkable life. 

Validation day again

I totally forgot to blog about my validation walk last Wednesday. As readers may know, I have been qualified as a Basic Expedition Leader since 2006, and am required by my council to be validated each year to check that my navigation skills and fitness are up to date. For various reasons I missed the recent validation days and arranged with Max that I could do mine on a Leaders' Walk that he had arranged for a group last week. However instead of doing it himself, he arranged that the validation would be done by another outdoors leader. I was rather dismayed because this particular leader has a rather serious style that makes me feel nervous and reduces me to a babbling fool. I hoped that he might observe me while we all walked together, but oh no - "Susan, you're coming with me!" he said relentlessly. Separated from the group like an impala being singled out by a lion in the Serengeti, I had nowhere to hide. I felt under pressure as I navigated along, answering questions about the route and using map and compass to pinpoint exactly where we were at all times. I managed fairly well although I was a bit rusty on how to take a "back bearing" and promised that I would practise this. The leader asked me to identify a tree and I correctly said that it was a rowan tree. He then asked me what the fruit was called. "Berries?" I hazarded. "No, pastilles," he replied, deadpan. "They are rowan tree fruit - pastilles!*" I was completely thrown by this unexpected display of humour! I'm glad to say that I passed my validation and actually found it to be quite enjoyable. *Rowntree Fruit Pastilles! Ha ha! 

Helpful

It has been a leisurely and pleasant Sunday. James and I went into town in the morning to choose a new duvet cover because our pale blue set (or according to James, pale green set - we cannot agree) has finally started to disintegrate after many years. We chose a rather attractive duck egg blue set, with broad stripes of the same colour but a slightly different texture, a bit like the stripes on a mowed lawn. We also looked at couches and light fittings for the new front room. 

We then met Heather and Ewan for a very pleasant lunch at Prezzo's, they were telling us about their recent ski holiday in St Johann which sounded great. 

When we got home Ally was putting up shelves in my "Susan room" and had done a few other useful things around the house. I knew exactly where this was coming from; Ally and I had an initially trivial falling out a couple of days ago, but neither of us would back down and we have been a bit grumpy with each other since. As James explained to me years ago, Ally hates to revisit things that have gone wrong; instead he prefers to make things right by helping you out with something new. Once James pointed this out to me it helped me to understand how Ally deals with things. And indeed he was very helpful, and we had a nice chat and are now back on good terms I'm glad to say. I love him so much.