Thermal

I do this to my kids all the time: They love it!

No, really……

As mentioned briefly in the ‘food’ post, our rather energetic weekend concluded with a 10 mile hike in the forests near Ballater on Royal Deeside.

It’s a spectacularly beautiful area, long popular with tourists and the royals, and it’s easy to see why. That said, on the whole walk we probably only met half a dozen other people on the trail itself, so it’s a long way from crowded. We started off at the Cambus O’May car park, and were soon through the forests an emerging on to the moorland, now turning pink & purple with a carpet of Heather:

It was a lovely walk, gently rising through stands of Pine and Birch, crossing small burns over bridges and stepping stones, and snatching glimpses of the Cairngorm mountains in the far distance. As ever the boys were navigating, and took to racing each other to the signposts.

We made our way down the hill and through more Birch alongside the lochs to the Burn O’Vat itself. The geographers amongst you would have loved the glacial landscape features casually scattered around the place, of which the Vat is the most spectacular. Carved out of the rock at the end of the last ice age, it is classed as a ‘Moulin’, and is effectively a massive bowl ground into granite bedrock by the force of torrents of meltwater:

The torrent is now a gentle stream, but the only way to enter the Vat is to climb up it, over a small waterfall and squeeze between the buttresses of rock, which the boys loved as you can imagine. It’s a truly amazing amphitheatre, and worth the wet boots - you can understand why it was a favoured hideout of outlaws in the past… and the present:

From there we walked back to the Cambus O’May to complete our trek with two very tired but happy little boys. ‘I’m glad to be back on the mountains’ said Patrick. ‘This is the best day ever’ agreed Tom.

Peace at last……

Given that I have never smoked nor taken drugs (and have never been inclined to either), my one real vice is unashamedly food. Thankfully it has yet to result in my transformation into a Zeppelin, and I am in reasonably good shape (round being a shape….) especially given the activities of the last 3 days: a 14 mile bike ride, followed by swimming, badminton and a 10 mile hike, but it could yet be a close run thing.

So what better meme to partake of than that recently posted by The Curmudgeon?

Favorite Gourmet Item:

Hmm, define ‘gourmet’. If it means tiny portions on huge plates forget it. Simple food cooked well is my preference.

Favorite Snack at Home:

Was chocolate, now becoming cheese, the weirder and more obscure the better.

Favorite Fastfood item:

Dominos Pizza, closely followed by Subway. I probably only succumb to the evils of McDonalds about once a year now, and bitterly regret it each time.

Favorite Food When Driving:

What? No, that would be illegal in the UK to eat whilst driving. As a passenger, then it would have to be crisps.

Favorite Food With a Beer (or other libation - please specify):

Pizza and beer is a classic combination, especially where films or sporting events are concerned, but it is now being superseded by a rich dark ale, and the afore-mentioned strong cheese. I’m getting old…..

Favorite Food for Invoking Romantic Intentions:

Italian. Although when thoroughly stuffed at a good Italian restaurant, the chances of any romance are severely diminished.

Least Favorite Food:

Salad. I derive no pleasure from it’s existence whatsoever.

Food that Conjures a Childhood Memory:

Stew & dumplings, also now a firm favourite of my children.

Food that Conjures a Sad Memory:

None really, although onions make me cry

Food that Conjures a Happy Memory:

Anything Austrian…..

This little list was created by TroyBoy, and if you want to have a go, please do.

Well after a ’summer’ that’s had flood, gales, freezing northerly winds, and only just missed out on a plague of frogs, we actually got some hot sunny weather on Friday, and any thoughts of sitting down in front of this computer and writing… anything… went by the wayside. In fact after cycling all the way into Aberdeen, some 12 miles, just to pick the car up to go grocery shopping, everything went by the wayside! Still, it was good to get back on two wheels again, after nearly 2 months away with sciatica & school holiday childcare.

So, on this pleasant Sunday evening, as the sun sets outside, and I can see the farmer tossing his hay (not a euphemism) on the hillside, I thought I’d visit internet-land, do a few paid posts and attempt to get back into the swing of things.  After getting into Flickr a bit recently, and with my ongoing photoblog, I’ve developed an unhealthy interest in buying a digital SLR camera - the one I fancy is a Canon Rebel which goes for $500 on Amazon US, and £400 (about $800) on Amazon UK Expect more paid posts to come, unless somebody feels generous……

Still, with hundreds of people arriving daily looking for Bear Grylls naked, perhaps Adsense will pay me out soon & I’ll be laughing. At the current rate of earnings, I shall earn enough for the camera around 2045…..

How hangs it with you?

Proof, if it were needed, that we’re an odd lot in the UK: The BBC want to know what your favourite motorway is.

You know, those long, barren stretches of tarmac that keep you trapped in traffic jams for 3/4 of your life, when they’re not trying to smear you all over the central reservation via a foreign lorry driver, who’s using a mobile with one hand, whilst pleasuring the unwilling hitch hiker next to him with the other.

But I can’t escape my English-ness I suppose, so here’s my favourite: The M6 through Cumbria.

Shap Summit by Kenny Hemphill

Hard to believe that this is the same motorway that passes through the concrete hell-hole of Brummie land a few hundred miles south. I like this one because it’s the only motorway that passes through a national park, and because it means I’m coming back to Scotland!

Anyone else going to volunteer a favourite?

1. Take 2 slices of fresh white, or brown bread, approximately 1/2-3/4 inch thick.
2. Toast until golden brown. If the toaster pops too early, discard. Too late (and ‘golden black’ is not an option Mother), discard.
3. Quickly take one slice from the toaster, leaving the other slice in to keep warm. Cover evenly with butter. That means the middle too, Mother.
4. Butter does not ‘evaporate’, that bit is still dry - add more butter.
5. Remove other slice and place on buttered piece, so that the heat begins to melt the butter. Cover second slice with butter in accordance with ‘3′ and’4′.
6. Swap slices over, so that residual heat in slice 1, melts butter on slice 2.
7. If any butter is left un-melted, discard and start at ‘1′.

Is that so hard?

Anyone else with food foibles, or is it just me then?

Another school holiday trip out this week, as we took one of the tattered remains of our once proud rail network upcountry to Inverness.

It is a beautiful train ride, some 2 hours through rolling hills and farmland, with the Grampian mountains in the distance, and with abandoned stations, ruined castles and ancient stone circles all on view from the windows. Certainly beats the trip into London…..

As you can see Inverness sits on the River Ness as it flows from Loch Ness to the sea, and is quite picturesque, despite the best efforts of the town planners in the 1960’s. As ever the best architecture is from the distant past, like their castle:

Which was actually built in 1910, and is now the council offices. We had a wander down the riverside, had a picnic on Ness Island, returned a lost child to it’s mother, and the boys rampaged through the trees, disturbing the wildlife.

Back into town past the gorgeous war memorial gardens:

and into the Victorian era market for Steph & my sister Alison, to browse endlessly through numerous antique jewelers….. time for more paid posts I think!

The boys had a great time being constantly fed by Grandma’s bottomless picnic bag, and I think we even got a little sunburnt, which is an achievement this summer. A near empty train ride back, briefly interrupted by us running over something very solid - the driver stopped, looked and then got back in again - and it was back to Aberdeen. Which is way nicer than Inverness

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Being as it’s still the school holidays here (only 11 more days to go…) my blogging is still being interrupted by having to interact with my children. In an effort to make all concerned happier, we hit the No.1 theme park in Northern Scotland (it is in fact the only theme park…): Codonas Amusement Park.

Those of you who have sampled America’s finest, or indeed the likes of Alton Towers in the UK may scoff, but it’s not a bad little place,and I’ve certainly come out of there with enough car-accident related injuries to vouch for some of the rides. They’ve got a good mix of simple kiddie rides, and a few more adventurous coasters etc. and it was the boys first trip to such a place.

Pat was his usual adventurous self, and was willing to try most things, whereas Tom was too scared for even the kiddie-coaster which was less frightening than a ride in a shopping trolley, and I know because I rode it with Pat far too many times….. But we finally tricked (!) Tom onto the runaway train, and it was like he had an epiphany: suddenly he couldn’t get enough of the fastest rides, and he took his poor mother on the Waltzers 4 times in a row - I stood well back, out of lunch-hurling range….. They were fed altogether too much sugar, and rode everything at least 3 times in the 7 hours we were there, and we all got completely soaked through on the tallest log flume I’ve ever seen-the drop was damn near vertical…..

They spent the night at Grandma & Grandads as a treat, which enabled Mum & Dad to pop out to the finest Italian restaurant in Britain, and it was rather nice I can tell you…. who’d like to know what we had…?

Tomorrow we’re off to Inverness by train with Auntie & Grandma, so it will be another day without blogging Soon be September….

Those of you paying attention a month or so back, may remember that I have been suffering from Sciatica for a while. Strangely it all but disappeared in two weeks of sleeping on camp beds, but since returning home, it’s become unbearable, and this is the main reason that this blog is worse than usual.

I simply have not been able to sit down in front of the computer and concentrate on what I’m doing for any length of time, and oddly enough, Thermal is the most time consuming of my 3 blogs.

Still, I have a huge packet of pills now, which seem to be doing the trick, and hopefully normal service will be resumed.

I know, you were wondering……

For the second week of our holiday, we drove the 300 miles from Oban to the excellent Vale of Pickering campsite in Yorkshire. Everything a campsite should be, upon seeing the playground, Patrick remarked that ‘it was just like Heaven’….

We weren’t far from Scarborough which we visited on the Monday, and the first thing we did was give the boys their first ever donkey ride. They absolutely loved it, and Tom was a natural rider - it was so funny to see them casually chatting to each other as they rode, like they’d been doing it forever.

Just outside Scarborough in the village of Rudston is the 25 feet high Monolith, which is some 4000 years old, and quite an eyeful as you can see. It’s amazing that they never tore it down while building the church, as happened to so many other ancient sites. Perhaps this one was just too big, even for the zealots.

Just to prove that the sun did shine occasionally, this shot is from Fountains Abbey, some 850 years old, although long ruined and in a quite beautiful setting. It’s a lovely place to spend a few hours, despite being buzzed at 50 feet by the RAF, and then chased back to the car park by a thunder storm.

The boys week was made almost complete with a ride from Pickering to Whitby and back again on a steam train from the North Yorkshire Moors Railway which was absolutely brilliant. The power, heat and smells of these old engines is something to behold up close, and the boys loved it. Pat was most put out however, by the absence of the buffet car……

Finally we made their week complete with a visit to the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington, where they got to sit in a couple of cockpits, run round all the old planes and spend their last few pence in the shop.

All in all, a pretty good fortnight, except that I could do with another break to get over it……