Puffy old Gal.

It was a busy day on the croft yesterday......well, there was a late start after a breakfast of poached granny's eggs on homemade bread, a short drive to look at some chalets, followed by morning coffee in Fired Art, so I suppose it wasn't quite as busy as it could have been. But once I harvested the first crop of washing from the polytunnel, things started to improve. It took a lot of watering to get earth that has been dry for 6 years at least, to turn a dark brown. I have sown nasturtium seeds, which are refusing to show themselves after a week; basil, parsley, chives and beans, which have a week to 2 weeks to show their shoots or I will be making the tunnel a full time laundry room. I have carrots, parsnips and beetroot waiting to go in and who knows what after that. It's got to be produce that has half a hope of being eaten by someone/something other than the slugs.

While high flying planes were grounded last week, a wee Cessna got airborne and we recieved photo's of the croft from about 1000ft. A friend of a friend who stayed with us recently took them.

Inspired by the London Marathon on TV, I nipped up and did a half Ben. It's amazing how it already seems less onerous. The next big challenge will be to go the whole way and then to add the mile road run. Plenty of time. On the three occasions I've been going up the Ben now, I have had buddy runners - announced and unannounced. There was the young German who hooked up with me and chatted. Then on the day I went up with Spook, there was a man who picked up his pace when I went past him and overtook me when I stopped to take Spook's photo. He didn't say hello or acknowledge me, but kept up the pace, only to be overtaken by the nimble Spook 5 mins later. Today, I was gaining on a man who was climbing fast without being a runner. I got to the big shortcut to halfway just after he had past it and was drinking water at the burn when he arrived after me, red faced but clearly pretty fit (in a not a Ben Runner kind of way.) We didnt' chat, but when he stopped to drink, I headed off and turned down the very steep grassy bank, assuming he would be going to the top. Once I was quite a bit down the main track again, I realised he was quite close behind. He must have taken the grassy bank too, which is very unusual for non runners. I picked up the pace and made the last shortcut before he was in sight and flew down the hill, much faster than my normal training run. I got to the bottom a fair bit ahead of him, pleased with the silent challenge. I wonder if the sight of a middle aged woman puffing her way up the path makes reasonably fit men think they could do better. Little do they know that I have been on the back page of the Ben results for all of the 7 years I have done it (very annoying the year I would have been on an inside page, but they shrunk the print and I was still on the back.)

Finns all over the place.

I had a day off and invited Spook to join me on The Ben. He started a mile down the road from me and I was to see how far I got before he caught me. This was as far as I got. He went half way and I stopped well short of it so that we could finish at the same time. I got a long way down before he got near me so I picked up the pace and raced off like a mountain goat, with a magnificent sprint finish. I didn't realise I had only got so far ahead because he had gone over his ankle just as he began his descent.....dammit!

We spring cleaned the living room last night so now all I have to do is clean the windows and try to make the rest of the house match this level of order. By the time I get the next room done, this one will have fallen into disrepair.

After school, I took the children up to meet wee Finn. Big Finn was fascinated with him and patiently waited for him to wake up. He was a very peaceful wee baby (unlike his bigger namesake, who cried for 15 months) so we had to leave without seeing the colour of his eyes. We took a wee tour of the area and declared it a very lovely place to be born and brought up. Just like wee Finn's mum was.

Revelling in Lochaber.

4 days later, and the polytunnel remains how we left it on the 15th. But I did have a great day in Aviemore with a friend, which included a trip on the funicular. A minute or so after I took the photo from the railway, the carriage juddered to a halt, bouncing precariously on it's wires. I clung to my friend without an ounce of shame, as she whispered in my ear, "don't you dare loose it!" I tried to make it look like I was saving her. The lower carriage had gone over a faulty sensor and the whole system assumed we were in trouble and stopped. I didn't start crying or anything, as it wasn't quite as bad as being in a plane. We weren't stopped for long. There is plenty snow up there to last a few weekends yet. Much more than we have in Fort William.

Finn missed his return match against Inverness as he wasn't well, and Meg had her 1st day of work at the bike shop. She was in top form and enjoyed a game of 'Crack the Egg' with her dad. One person curls up in a ball and the other has to bounce them out of it. It didn't take Spook long to crack her egg, but when she cracked his, he did a somersalt, such was the strength of her bounce.

I spent much of Sunday wheelchair dancing. I was the standing part of the duet as we interpreted a piece of music by Beethoven. It was very funny to watch burly men strut their stuff. It is for www.bodycurrents.co.uk who are putting on an extravaganza at the canal on Sunday 25th called Neptunes Revelry. It will be loads of fun as a boat makes it's way down the 'staircase' with a band on board, a girl in a bubble dancing on the water, the different groups of dancers jiving and salsa-ing down the canal paths. I was only a stand in, so I will be watching, not dancing.....shame. We had an hour off for lunch and watched some of the Lochaber Marathon from the No Fuss watering station. A man who had lost both legs below the knee and both hands from a climbing accident (frost bite) was running on specially designed prosthetics. He stopped at the station and deftly removed a prosthetic to smooth things out and reattached without requiring any help whatsoever. Amazing use of his 4 limbs. Sadly, he didn't complete the marathon as he was 'breaking' in a new prosthetic and it was giving him serious jip. He was very inspiring and humbling. I have seen a photo of him when he climbed the Ben soon after his accident, and I think he has successfully completed other marathons.

You'd think I could manage to get a few seeds into the ground. But I was a bit tired from the dancing.

The road to Inverroy and back.

In recognition of my poor performance on the bike the other night, I cycled to Inverroy (12 miles up the road) for a coffee with Granny and Papa Munro. I met a newt on the way, a new lamb, some Commando's running to Achnacarry, past the monument to the original Commando's, and some great scenery. The flower, bizzarely, was not in the polytunnel, but by the side of the cycle path. Can't think how it got there.

And the polytunnel has begun it's transformation into a vegetable filled haven. I thought I would post a picture of the 'before' and if it doesn't work out, there's one not far away that I can take a photo of. Spook and I had a romantic evening scraping horse poo off the field and digging it into the dry, powdery earth in the tunnel. Long may the midges stay away.

Half Ben.

I tackled my 1st half Ben yesterday before work. It was very warm and as I did my wee, pretendy running style up the start of the track, a young German lad upped his pace beside me. He had a big rucksack on his back and youth on his side. He said his friends had done The Ben in 7 hours and he was hoping to do better. I suggested he follow me up the short cuts to half way and he would easily beat them. He louped up the 1st short cut and then began to flag a bit as the gradient kicked in. We chatted the usual stuff about the race times and he was a bit flabbergasted. The mens record is 1hr 25mins, which includes 2 miles of road running. He had packed enough gear for all weathers and eventualities and couldn't believe how little I had on or with me. He declared me to be the strongest woman he had ever met and shooed me on ahead. I laughed as I have only just begun training, and there are a whole heap of Lochaber woman - 30's, 40's and 50's, way stronger than me. I suggested he keep an eye on me as I would stay in sight and he would see my final shortcut.

I loved the warmth of the day and the views. It kept me from focussing on the discomfort of the climb. When my young companion eventually caught up (I waited for him at the halfway point to say goodbye), he was grateful for the challenge but looking forward to having a holiday on the 2nd half.

I met Graham Brookes coming up as I was going down. Funny that, as I met him on my walk up to the Ski Fields too. I am certainly not out every day, but I figure he probably is. He retired 2 weeks ago and is looking younger each time I see him.

The fire on the hillside was just one of many as folk try to get the burning done before the cut-off time of 15th April. There were fire engines galore last night, trying to get a fire under control on Locheilside, which was coming very close to houses. Finn came home from rugby training at dusk and said that the hillside on the other side of the loch was lit up.

Meg did a 4 mile run on her own before tea and was much quicker than my 'fit' time. Spook and I did the first of the Tuesday Time Trials. I preformed poorly - heavy Ben legs and bad attitude, and Spook was much slower than usual. They go on until late August, so there is plenty of time for improvement.

Peace and Violence.

The exclamations on the journey southwards were all about who's feet were where and why they shouldn't be. It was not quite as restful as I had anticipated. But we did discover how easy it is to travel to Glasgow and to take another train back out of it again, and land safely at Auntie Rona's house. We had a lovely visit, plus an afternoon at the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery which they had declared would not be of interest to them. Turned out it was of interest to them after all. The return journey north was pretty stunning and although I chatted with a kilted and disgruntled Celtic fan all the way home (due to the very small Highland town trouncing his team and causing amazing celebrations in Dingwall - the home of Ross County), I could still see the beauty of the scenery unfolding as we travelled. Scotland at it's best.

Today has been another gorgeous day, with real warmth in the sun. Meg has spent the day out and about, mostly on the croft with a friend and has turned brown already.

Finn's rugby game was much, much tougher than he anticipated, after his previous games. It was Inverness, not Edinburgh as expected and they were big and fast. All the boys on the pitch worked their butts off in unaccustomed heat and it was a battlefield, with Finn getting a kick in the head 5 minutes before the end. He was concussed, but not so bad that he didn't remember that the score was stacked very heavily against them. I think Lochaber scored 2 try's and Inverness a fair few more than that. It took a shower, a cold glass of juice, and a piece of millionaire shortbread to put him back together again. The return match is next Saturday, so if good sense hasn't been knocked into him, he will need to tuck his head in and get back into the scrum.

Happy Hols.

The holidays are going well, with lot's of variety. Late nights, long lies, home cooking, skiing, hanging out with friends and cousins, and tomorrow we will take the West Highland Line to Glasgow and then on to Dunblane to catch up with some more cousins. We could take the car, which would be a 2 hour journey, but I thought the train would be more of an adventure, even though it will take us about 5.5hrs. 4hrs to Glasgow and then possibly an hour to catch train and travel to destination. This should still be easier than taking the train to Liverpool with Meg when she was 4 and making her debut on the Liverpudlian Soap "Brookside". It took 4 trains and 9hrs, there was still smoking carriages in those days and all our toilet trips involved making our way through them. I finally got some peace and quiet to read my book while Meg hid under the table and drew on her face with my eye-liner. A small price to pay. I am expecting intelligent conversation, and much exclamations over the amazing landscape this time.

Finn has progressed to 'making' tomato soup for his dinner when he has to fend for himself, since the disaster with the noodles when he followed all the instructions except the one about putting the water in.

Crowds rush to Nevis Range for the last days skiing.

Spook and Uncle D went for what was surely the last day's skiing/snowboarding. Finn went up too and joined some friends, never to be seen again until back at the house. Meg couldn't be bothered, but took the gondola up with some dry shoes for me as I ran/walked up, in time to join them for a coffee at the end of the day. When Meg saw the conditions and bumped into a friend, she was sorry not to have made the effort. Nevis Range reported 3500 people up that day (Easter Sunday), but it certainly didn't look like it!!

The rain came through the night and continued for 2 days to wash all this away in a one-er.

A lady on the TV news promised the rain would stop on Wednesday and that the rest of April would be lovely.

I believe her.

Flash back to Marrakesh.

The food budget took a further pounding after I worked out the ratio of olives to red wine. An extra bottle was purchased after my brother (Uncle D) turned up with more olives. We all acknowledged that his wee tub from Marks and Spencers was a bargain compared to the Mediterranean market where they clearly count on our Britishness to not make a fuss. There was no doubt that we had been robbed. The last time I tried to fight back was in Marrakesh. I wanted to buy one rastafarian bunnet with hair attached, for 1 dirham. I gave the stallholder 10 dirham for which he had no change. He asked his nephews to man the stall while he went to get change. He walked into the crowd, holding my tenner high and never came back again. By the time we had waited 15 minutes, the nephews were no longer nephews and claimed they had never seen the man in their lives. I declared that if they didn't know him, they wouldn't mind if I took 10 dirham worth of rastafarian hats. I selected 10 and ran off with them, to the amusement of a large crowd who had gathered to watch the scene.
The equivalent in Fort William would have been to grab his large bowl of olives and head off up the High Street, but I'm older now and it's more embarrasing on ones own back door - they know that.
We had a great night out, drinking red wine, eating olives, sun dried tomatoes and most appropriately - Morrocan Lamb Tagine........delicious.

Does anyone want an olive? I mean really, ANYONE???

The Mediterranean Market came to town today. We are going out for dinner tonight, so when I went through the market whilst at work, I couldn't resist a tub of Queen Olives and sundried tomatoes. Teamed with a glass of red, they taste of The Mediterranean itself. Spook phoned me to say not to buy olives when shopping after work, as he had been to the Mediterranean Market and bought me a tub as he knows I love them so much. He was with Aileen, who is also going out for dinner with us tonight. She has witnessed me munching my way through olives before, so she thought she would buy some just so we didn't run out. My box cost £11.50 as he had piled them in a big tub before I could resist. Spook's were £8 and Aileens were similar - our food budget has got a big dent in it for this week. I was thinking of dipping the olives in chocolate and hiding them in the garden in lieu of easter eggs. After all, the fun is in the hunt, isn't it?

Our Cycle at Nevis Range.

Where'd They Go?

The children and I had a great day out on Monday. We cycled up to Nevis RAnge, had coffee and then did a cross country route through the forest that involved a lot of climbing and some vaguely technical riding. The children are much stronger than before we went to NZ and we cycled almost as equals - except that they did the downhills far more competently than me. We thoroughly enjoyed 14 miles, except for the boggy bit where Finn got his front wheel stuck in the mud and the seat of his bike came up and bit him on the bum. There was a bit of death throes in the bog but he recovered eventually. I was so glad we had gone that day as a storm moved in that night and blew for 2 days. The snow came back, the wind chill was nasty and roads and rail around us closed. This was bad luck for Spook who had 3 days of cycling with a bike journalist and photographer, around some of the No Fuss event routes. He has travelled the length of the country and I have yet to hear how it went, other than that the Distillery visit was the most memorable part of the first day - no relevance to cycling other than that they are sponsors of No Fuss and do a terrific tour with many samples of the golden liquid which gets the feeling back into chilled limbs.

I have worked most of the week and had a caravan to clean after work today to get ready for some fishermen. Over dinner the children decided they would sleep in the hut. I tried to point out that they wouldn't last the night but allowed myself to be persuaded to help light the stove, get electricity out to it and oversee the sweeping out. The dogs (who were dropped off for their easter hols today) were going to stay out there and keep them cosy. I had only just got to the caravan with all the bedding, 5 mins after they completed their nesting, and looked up to see them running back into the house with all the soft furnishings again. When I got back up, I found the dogs looking a little lost and forlorn, and the children tucked up in Megs room with the mod cons of a DVD player. At least it saves Spook and I being woken up at midnight.......