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James first island by microlight. Lovely flight to Gigha for an evening walk to the pub for dinner and camping on the airstrip. Then home, circling Saltoun Hall on route, and waving to neighbour, Gregor.
Discovering the North West of Scotland by Campervan - in all weathers. Learning about castles and beaches and lighthouses and plant-life and World War 2 and geology and too many other things to recall. Another wonderful Big Tree adventure.
First taste of real rock climbing for James and me - great fun and tough challenge on Kyloe Crags in Northumberland, with expert supervision and instruction from Kim's Border Search and Rescue buddies, James, Damon and George. And a wonderful climbing exhibition from Damon's 10-year-old twins, Toby and Oscar.
Impromptu trip to the Lakes for a wee birthday hillwalk, camping in the rain in Langdale then heading up into the mists of Bow Fell and a lovely round under the cloud, high over the Langdale Pikes. The photos a little deceptive as the camera quickly came out, only with each very brief glimpse of the sun.
Arrived on Arran to cycle a lap of the island on the tandem only to discover a 5 mile section of the road is currently closed. So instead we did a north loop followed by a south loop. This took in all 3 big cat 3 Arran climbs - the String, the Lochranza climb and the Ross - as well as countless cat 4s. A huge effort, but wonderful fun - and further and MUCH more climbing than the originally planned lap.
Another brilliant East of Scotland Microlights club flying trip to the West of Scotland. Overnight on Gigha then on over the Paps of Jura to Colonsay for a bbq lunch on the beach. Sunshine and tailwinds all the way - someone up there loves us!!
Bank Holiday treasure hunt in our fab, big gardens - followed by a walk to the shop to get ingredients for a picnic in the back garden. The beginnings of summer at last perhaps?
A fabulous, memorable weekend on the big mountains of Kintail. Climbed the Five Sisters on Saturday - collected at the other end by our perfect hosts, the Cluanie Inn. A very damp day, but lots of views and smiles nevertheless. Then a wee "warm down" on Sunday up Sgurr an Fhuarail - plodding up through rain and sun and wind into the wildest of blizzards at the top - then back, via lunch in the storm shelter, to the Inn for a well earned coffee and cake.
Easter break to the west coast in a rented campervan. Brilliant fun searching out Harry Potter movie scenes - successfully bagged all four we were targeting. Delivered a stretcher for servicing to Hamish MacInnes (in person) and carried out Easter Egg hunts for James in various beautiful locations.
Lovely winter walk on the Meall nan Tarmachan and the perfect little Tarmachan Ridge. Practiced some "winter skills" on the snow slopes to bypass the "bad step" that I kept telling Kim didn't exist. Until it did!!!
Wonderful ski holiday at La Tania, The Three Valleys/Courchevel in the French Alps. Excellent company, ridiculously good food and more ski runs than you could shake a pole at. Thank you Julie and Douglas, for inviting us to join you.
Dodging the snow storms and following the sun to Saltoun Hall.
Memories of childhood - Riverside Museum, Glasgow.
James' 8th birthday party - Tubing at Hillend with Jack, Jack, Gregor, Angus, Angus, Rory, Campbell, Liam and Josie.
New website photoshoot for Ann's pal's Zinc and Siberian Larch clad holiday house on the shores of West Loch Tarbert. And James makes a new pal and learns how to fish for crabs, very successfully, with a piece of string, an old nail and some scraps of bacon. (New website to follow).
Hillwalking on Beinn Eunaich and Beinn a' Chochuill to celebrate Gordon's 60th birthday. But of course Gordon had to run across the Ben Cruachan Munros too! Amazing stuff for 60! As he passed us, in a blur, I managed to grab one photo featuring the birthday boy before he vanished again into the middle distance.
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