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.

Happy Lancashire Day!

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 website

The 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.

Lego

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...

Painted Lady

We have many of these this year. We also have Red admirals and Peacocks, but I haven't found any willing to be chased with a camera yet.

Holiday

Staying in Skerries seemed like a good plan when we booked it. However, the morning we arrived we found out that the rail bridge had collapsed at Malahide a week earlier and hence there was no train to Dublin. We took the bus from the airport via Swords, so hadn't been stuck in the city like the American guests who arrived late and very flustered. The disruption meant we spent quite a lot of time (and euros) at the mercy of Dublin buses. Thankfully they were running extra express services through the Port Tunnel - as the local bus took some time to get to Skerries. There was supposedly a replacement bus service running south from Skerries (though we saw no evidence), but no replacement service running north for some reason.

Anyway, Skerries is nice. A sort of seaside town cross commuter belt place. The area is dotted with numerous Martello Towers looking over the Irish Sea beaches, to make sure that the Irish didn't indulge in co-religious aiding and abetting and help Napoleon across.

We stayed at the Redbank Guesthouse, which has a very swish website, and lovely food. The attached restaurant is quite expensive, so we only ate there once, but the food we had was delicious and proper portions. The owner, Terry McCoy, seems to be quite well known as a seafood chef in Ireland.

On the Sunday we went down to Malahide to go sailing with Terry. As the train wasn't running this cost us a fortune in taxi fairs, but was a good day out. We sailed around Lambay, pulling into a small cove to look at the gannet colony. A large bull seal kept treading water close off the stern watching us, but wasn't interested in cream crackers. There were races in progress from Rush as we motored back, including one for Mermaids - a local type of boat. Back in the marina we had lunch made by Terry.



In Malahide we also had a walk around the castle grounds and a coffee and cake in the teashop, but it was rather pricy to go in. We stopped in at an art show, and I was inspired and disheartened at the same time.



To guide us around Dublin we downloaded some walking tours from the VisitDublin website. These were written and read by local artist and historian Pat Liddy. We found them interesting and the ones on Georgian Dublin and the Northside took us to places we probably wouldn't have seen otherwise. We used the one on the Guinness family to take us from the City Centre to the Guinness Storehouse. I've been to the Storehouse before, with Uni in 2001. This time though I could be interested in the Guinness, rather than the treatment of the building. Apparently I still can't drink a whole pint of Guinness.

As we walked past City Hall on one of our tours we saw the first Velibs being installed. The scheme was launched this week.



On our last day we went to the National Museums and the National Gallery (They are free and have cloakrooms for luggage). My other half doesn't normally display an interest in art, but he did seem to be interested in the National Gallery, if only to disagree with me on the depiction of light in the sky in various paintings and to keep asking me why I don't paint more. He also seemed to like the portrait gallery. I find that interesting for the back stories as well as the paintings.

I did notice when we went into the Benson and Forsyth extension to the Gallery. I felt it was very similar to their extension to the Museum of Scotland, at least internally.

I once commented on Belgianwaffle that Tesco in Scotland promote Scottish produce. She had written that in Ireland they seemed to be cutting back on Irish products. I now wonder whether they did that because Ireland has Dunnes. We bought our lunch there one day, and they seem to have Irish produce pretty well covered. There isn't a particularly Scottish shop like that in Scotland. Except perhaps Peckhams, but they don't operate in the same market.

Holiday

I am finally getting to go away some where! We are off to Ireland for the weekend, to stay in Skerries on the coast just north of Dublin. It looks rather pretty and the guesthouse looks nice on its website.

Just slightly worried by the prospect of flying with Ryanair. And by the the leaks in our house which appeared last night. I'm not sure if we need a new roof, gutters, windows or all three... How much of the world's resources would I use up if I left the dehumidifier on?

Viral Video

Apparently United break guitars...
From the Guardian's Viral Video page

This weekend

On Saturday I went to do the Meall an t-Suidhe hill race in Fort William (prizes in the comments box for phonetic pronounciation of the hill it goes up). It's a short race - 5k - and a steep one - evil steep. It was also very hot. Needless to say, I did rather badly as I boiled on the hill and had to stop and sit down. I was saved by a nice lady from Lochaber who was carrying a wet pactowel with her and wrang some stream water down my neck.

I now have very sore quads and knees, but I have completed one of the Scottish Champs races for this season and it's good practice for next weekend.

The last two days have been spent in removing the green from my kitchen (The units were all green on Sunday morning). Two days and four coats of paint later, it looks like this. I am pleased.

Barra

A couple of weeks ago my other half did his Day Skipper course with a company based on Barra. I went out to join him for weekend and can highly recommend it. Barra and Vatersay are lovely, all white sand and blue sea.



I was meant to fly over on the saturday morning, but the conference I was meant to be at on the Friday was cancelled so instead I had a lovely train ride from Glasgow to Oban, then a sunshiney ferry trip up the Sound of Mull and across the Sea of the Hebrides. It was nearly a disaster as I discovered there's no O2 reception on Barra. Luckily he happened to walking past the ferry terminal as I arrived, so I properly surprised him.

We camped on the beach at Castlebay, as all the B&Bs were full, but you can camp almost anywhere as long as you ask - there's no official site and there are toilets in the Community Hall.

On Friday night we had tea at Kisimul Cafe (presumably named for the castle in the bay), which is a cafe by day and an Indian/Italian/sea food restaurant by night. I recommend the scallop pakoras.

On saturday we walked over the hills in the middle, past the Madonna on Sheabhal (Heaval) to the north of the island, then out to the Otter Cafe which doubles as the waiting room for the Eriskay ferry at Aird Mhor. About 6-7km in all. Had a nice toastie and cup of tea then caught the little bus back to Castlebay, changed to the other little bus and went down to the Vatersay Community Hall. This is on a narrow stretch of the island with big white beaches either side.

We walked around Vatersay on the marked trail, which takes you round the south part of the island in about 4km. The views to the outlying island are quite spectacular.



Two wrecks are commemorated on Vatersay, the Annie Jane (saling from Liverpool to Montreal) and the Catalina (flying out of RAF Oban).

Having hitched back to Castlebay, we went for a beer then dinner at the Castlebay Hotel. The food is much more traditional but just as delicious as the cafe.

Sunday was spent travelling home, as the ferry was at 9.20. This is where Barra is different to other Hebridean islands - it used to be the 'Catholic' one. Therefore there are sunday ferries and the Co-op in Castlebay is open in the afternoon.

Vegetable Patch

This is our veg patch.

From front to back of the photo we have:

Bed 1: Sweet peas and nasturtiums (not strictly veg, but nasturtium leaves are salad), 3 parsnips, broad beans, tomatoes, onions and parsley.

Bed 2: Asparagus (2 shoots, but you can only start eating it in the third growing season, so not until 2011), spinach, 1 carrot, tomatoes and onions.

Bed 3: Red onions, garlic, tomatoes, 1 random carrot (I think it's a carrot, but we didn't sow carrots in this bed), garlic and onions.

Bed 4: Potatoes.

The neighbourhood cats killed off the carrots and parsnips by using our nicely sown beds as litter trays.

The tomatoes are there as I had an error of germination. Last year none survived, this year I planted more and they all did. So, we're experimenting to find out if tomatoes grow outside in Aberdeen. They are in a warm spot, the wall faces west and holds the heat quite well and gets the sun most of the day. We've six in the cold frame as normal.

The orange and white thing? That's a Grampian Orienteers control marker kite, which was left behind after the Summer Series event I organised on Perwinnes Moss (part of the Scotstown Moor Local Nature Reserve and SSSI just over the field south of our house).

Sewing

Today, I made a skirt.

I used google to find a pattern and adapted it slightly. The pattern came from a Craftster member (see reply 3). I followed her instructions for working out the waist size and bottom hem width, but didn't put the middle panel upside down and added darts to accommodate my hips (thanks mum).

I think it's come out alright, if a little shorter than I meant - but it's summer so I'll convince myself that's okay...

A distinct lack of sea legs...

We went to Bute at the weekend to launch his dad's boat. That accomplished on Saturday evening, he insisted on taking me sailing on Sunday morning. While I wasn't feeling too bad on board, it took me until Monday lunchtime to stop going up and down...

Saturday run

Today the club run was at Millstone from the Donview Car Park. There was lovely sunshine again. I've picked the good weather weekends to go out.

The photo is the view of Mither Tap from the top of Millstone. The Bennachie range ridge stretches out of the left hand side of the picture to Craigshannoch and Oxen Craig. The whole range includes nine tops and has numerous trails for running, biking or even walking your granny.

Plants

I have been busy planting things in the garden.

So far I have planted

Ixia - tall white flowers from bulbs started in pots
Oxalis - red flowers with quatrefoilish leaves from bulbs started in pots
Anemone - mixed colours, but they haven't come up in the pots unlike the previous two, so I've shoved them in the ground for next year.
Agapanthus Donau - lilac I think. A root in a bag kind, but they've grown well in the pots

Lupin - white, from seed from a bought one.

Clematis Jackmanii - purple, famous, my dad has one.
Clematis Texensis Duchess of Albany - a posh name for pink clematis
Pulsatilla vulgaris rubra - a dark red alpine. I saw them on gardeners' world and thought they were pretty.
Sedum acre aureum - I presume the 'aureum' part of the name refers to the yellow tips and flowers
Lithodora diffusa - Blue alpine. I may have made an error with this one, BBC gardening says it's tender. I fear it may be doomed.
Hieracium maculatum leopard - a sort of hawkweed with yellow flowers and maroon and green speckled leaves
Pieris - what my neighbour calls a flame bush. A shrub with green leaves with red new growth.

I've also got a chocolate cosmos in a pot doing nothing yet, and some sweet pea and nasturtium seedlings in the propagator.

Veg wise, I have spinach, tomato and chilli seedlings to be dealt with. I planted out the broad beans at the weekend and the over wintered cabbage has well and truly bolted.

Garden

Inspired by Uphilldowndale (who takes wonderful photos), I have been playing with my camera and bothering the flowers...




These tulips came out of the same bag of bulbs. The first one is the only one that has come up the colour I was sold. The 'white' ones are also looking suspiciously red. I've no idea why there are three yellow ones. I can't even remember if I planted them...


This wallflower is proving defiantly biennial...

We've had a profusion of white flowers - Amalanchier, saxifrage, hyacinth.





And a good showing of my favourite blue grape hyacinths.


Though I may have to try taking a photo of these on a sunnier day, as the blue isn't showing up quite as blue as it actually is, despite my taking about ten different photos playing with the aperture etc. I'm clearly in need of more practice.

What we did on Bute

A regular feature of visits to Port Bannatyne is a game of petanque. There is a proper petanque piste, a club league and a committee to oversee them.

The park overlooks the new marina, which is beginning to take shape - the posts for the moorings are in now and I think they're aiming to open for the Easter holidays.

The village seems to be picking up a bit. Several of the tenement blocks are being refurbished, and a new 'multi-user' path is being made on the old tramway to Ettrick Bay. It might attract some of the tourists out of their coaches between there and Rothesay.

Saturday run

For once, I went on the Cosmic Saturday Run (Given the soreness of my left ankle and shin that may have been an error.). We went to Clachnaben for the race preview. I've never done the full route, and still haven't. It is quite a long way and the heather is quite tall. However, some men were seen burning patches around the grouse butts on Mount shade, so it might be better for the race itself.

I wasn't keeping up with the others so missed the traverse on the first hill and ended up wading through thigh deep heather to get back to the ridge. I returned through the lost valley between Mount Shade and Clachnaben, along the main path to the Glen Dye quarry car park and back to Greendams along the road. That was further than I thought...


A unusual view of Clachnaben, from the lost valley at the bottom of Mount Shade.

Glamaig

Me, some Cosmics and the bloke off the telly...

Ferry, Cross the...

Kyles of Bute, actually. Away to the In Laws for the weekend, involves a ride on the wee ferry at Colintraive.

Clever Bluetits

Our peanut feeder is a sort of rectangular one (short sides and top in wood and long sides and bottom in mesh) with a flap over a hole at one end to put the peanuts in through.

The Blue tits have worked out how to open this flap (it swing on a single nail) and lean in to get the nuts.

I like xkcd

A visitor

Not quite fairies at the bottom of the garden, but she'll do.

(Do excuse the state of my phone's zoom)

Is that it?

(Mrs Neighbour must want to go out - Mr Neighbour is shovelling their path)

This week I are mostly drawing

this..

Snow?

Roads

I was musing on the state of the roads in Aberdeen last night and I've come up with a theory.

I think the City Council can't afford Aberdeen and have decided to let the holes in the roads continue to open up until the city's swallowed whole and they don't have to worry about it anymore.

Either that or they're too chicken to ask First.