Ben Nevis
This weekend the weather forecast was good, and my other having been driven half demented by not having been to the hills for a while, we went to Ben Nevis.
We ascended the Ben by Number 5 Gully to Carn Dearg. My legs were not quite ready for 450m of front pointing, and I was quite aware of it being a very long way down to be balancing on nine little metal points.
Having topped out with daylight to spare we went to the summit to enjoy the view and a cup of tea.
We then descended into the setting sun via the tourist path.
We cooked dinner in the van at the Visitor Centre car park and made free with the facilites (which are quite well heated). My apologies to the gentlemen who wished to use the toilets while we were washing up. One at least had the sense to go in a cubicle.
We headed to Ballachulish on Saturday night and parked the van at the carpark for Sgorr Dhonuill, Sgorr Dhearg and Glen a Chaolais. We followed the signs and did Sgorr Dhonuill first, but in hindsight it might better to go the other way round in winter and ascend the frozen, scrambly scree bits. The views to Ben Nevis and Glen Coe were fabulous.
TO: THE PEOPLE OF THE CITY AND COUNTY PALATINE OF LANCASTER
GREETINGS!
Know ye that this day, November 27th in the year of
our Lord Two Thousand and Nine, the 58th year of
the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,
Duke of Lancaster, is Lancashire Day.
Know ye also, and rejoice, that by virtue of Her
Majesty's County Palatine of Lancaster, the citizens
of the Hundreds of Lonsdale, North and South of
the Sands, Amounderness, Leyland, Blackburn,
Salford and West Derby are forever entitled to style
themselves Lancastrians.
Throughout the County Palatine, from the Furness
Fells to the River Mersey, from the Irish Sea to the
Pennines, this day shall ever mark the peoples' pleasure
in that excellent distinction - true Lancastrians, proud
of the Red Rose and loyal to our Sovereign Duke.
GOD BLESS LANCASHIRE AND
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN,
DUKE OF LANCASTER.
(Just slightly afraid that in my ultra-organisedness (it won't last) I may have written Merseyside on my Dad's Christmas card...)
Garden, autumn
Taken today.
Deeside, autumn
Approaching Lyne of Skene, looking towards Deeside.
Donside, late summer
Photos taken a while ago when I was out for a cycle. Looking towards Bennachie from the back of Kirkhill.
RTPI President on Aberdeen planners
From Aberdeen City Council
websiteThe president of the UK Royal Town Planners Institute has praised Aberdeen City Council's planning department for the positive impact it has had on the city's developments.
Martin Willey was impressed by the quality and level of development, not least that reflected by the number of cranes in operation, which he witnessed when he visited Aberdeen this week.
Mr. Willey said: "Planning can and does make a real difference not only to the fabric of a city, but to the lives of those who live and work in it as well. I was impressed by the amount of high quality, well designed development I saw during my visit to Aberdeen, where it is clear that business is booming, even in these difficult times.
"From what I have seen and heard, Aberdeen's planners have a great track record of talking with people to engage them in the planning process and really listening to the public's views on how the city should be shaped for the future.
"Recent projects such as the newly-opened Aberdeen Sports Village demonstrate that kind of detailed engagement in action – and I'm glad that visit to the city has provided me with many examples to add to my collection of best practice from around the world. Well done Aberdeen!"
Among the Aberdeen developments Mr. Willey learned of during his time in the city are:
* Marischal College, which is bringing an iconic but long-neglected city building back into use, dealing with conservation issues associated with the redevelopment work;
* the award-winning Malmaison Hotel, which received recognition for its architectural design - finalised with input from Aberdeen planners;
* the Union Square shopping and leisure development, which has made a contribution towards the conservation-led improvement of the Green, as part of its planning conditions.
I would just like to say (in a hollow and sarcastic fashion) Ha.
With regard to the comment re Marischal College, Ha, double Ha and bollocks. I still don't understand how the City Council can be both Applicant and determining Authority for the planning applications. And I don't see how a facade job can be considered to be "dealing with the conservation issues". It is not 1995. Facadism should be long passé.
Pittsburgh Summit Spouses
Belgian Waffle asks us to consider how far we have to go in gender equality in relation to this photo (For names see
here).
Immediately, we notice that Angela Merkel's husband is not there. Joachim Sauer is a Professor researching in quantum chemistry at Humboldt University in Berlin and does not often attend public functions. Not even her inauguration this year.
Also not in attendance is Nestor Kirchner, husband of Cristina Kirchner, President of Argentina. Cristina was elected as Nestor's successor. So, should he support her as much as she supported him in her role as First Lady, or should he stay in the background?
A third First Gentleman could have attended, if India had sent their President rather than their Prime Minister.
These women are, for the most part, well educated and had fairly high power jobs. However, the information I can find seems to suggest that most have given up their own work to support their husband and his political party, along with some charitable or governmental work. Only two seem to be labelled as mothers - Svetlana Medvedeva (Russia) and Nompumelelo Ntuli (South Africa), though many have children. I can only find clear information to show three First Ladies working in their own right: Thailand - Dr of and lecturer in Mathematics, France - singer/songwriter, Australia - MD of a Welfare to Work Emploment Agency. I suppose, though, if you choose to take on the role of a First Lady there isn't time to work as well.
But, the question remains. Why is it that these well educated, successful women are the First Ladies, not the Heads of State? Why does gender still matter?
Many of their husbands began their political careers at least 20 years ago. The times maybe changing, but it might take just as long for current politically ambitious women to work their way up. In 20 years will things be different?
OMM Training
My sister in law convinced me that doing the short score at the OMM was a Good Idea. Having gone out for a five hour run with her at the weekend I'm now considerably less convinced.
While my other half was doing the
Two Breweries race (between
Traquair and
Broughton in the borders) we went for a run over Broad Law. We were staying at the
Tweedsmuir Outdoor Centre, so ran straight from there. Our route took us through the woods to the trig point on Garelet Hill (680m), then descended straight off the side of it (400m ish descent in 1k) down to cross the river on the road. We then tried to run up the road - and failed, it's quite steep - alongside the waterfalls and followed the cairns up to Cairn Law and then Broad Law (840m). We then came off Broad Law past the large circular
mast array and back to the forest tracks via the S side of Great Knock. We came out onto the road at Hearthstane and then picked up the track on the old
railway line to get back to Tweedsmuir.
Sister in law descending Great Knock
After finishing our run we went to Broughton to see the others finish theirs. Not many Cosmic runners this year, but one took the prize for 1st F50. Some of which we have in our fridge - she doesn't drink beer.
Harvest
Our potato harvest. Hopefully we got them up before the
Blight set in too badly. We had a couple of mushy ones, but will have to wait and see if they survive in storage. We have three varieties this year, white, pink and stripy. Not sure if the stripy ones are a cross of the other two.
Our tomatoes definitely have Blight. They look just like the image on the RHS
page. We shall have to cart them off somewhere and burn them.
There are also three of our five parsnips in the pic too. They've grown well, but not a great germination rate...
