Meall Ghaordaidh

Today was a momentous occasion in Rory’s life: his first Munro. He’s been up lots of hills this year, including three ascents of Ben Ledi! But until today he had never bagged a Munro.

Chris had heard reports of ring ouzel and ptarmigan on Meall Ghaordaidh, and hoped to add them to his Stirlingshire year list. We set off for Killin with our friends Ben and Helen, and headed off up the hill.

Chris and Ben on the ascent, with Glen Lochay behind.

Despite walking at a fairly leisurely pace, we reached the top in 3 hours.

Helen, Chris and Ben with Rory at the summit.

Despite a forecast for the weather taking a turn for the worst in the afternoon, we only had a brief shower of rain, and the cloud lifted from the top, allowing us to get a good view to the north.

Glen Lyon from the summit.

We took a different route down.

Eventually we got back to the car and celebrated with hot chocolate and cookies.

Rory has been given a bath and the obligatory tick check and is now lying beside me on the sofa in his favourite position, with all four paws in the air. And I’m afraid Chris didn’t see any ring ouzel or ptarmigan. A good day, nonetheless.

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Kinder Scout

On Saturday we were driving from Staffordshire, where my parents live, to Yorkshire, home of The Fella’s family. As we were passing through the Peak District it seemed only right and proper to stop off for a spot of hill walking.

We took a steep route up out of Edale, following the path up the rocky gorge of Grinsbrook Clough. Running four times a week plus taekwon-do have obviously improved my fitness over the last few weeks because we positively stormed up the Clough, scrambling over boulders and overtaking lots of other walkers. It was fabulous. We got to the top and felt like we could do it all over again! I think I feel a summer of Munro-bagging coming on…

Anyway, this was the view looking back from the top of the Clough (you can’t see the Clough itself – it’s so steep it just falls away to the left of the photo).

Most of the walk was over Kinder Moor, a desolate area of peatland. We briefly walked in front of a group of very loud women who we overheard suggesting that someone should plant wildflower seeds to brighten the place up…so we walked fast to leave them behind (it was either that or subject them to a lecture about the importance of moorland habitats and the acidity of peat).

Then there was the bit that comes during all of our walks…the bit where we lose the path. Despite having a compass, map and GPS, and the fact that we were on one of the most popular hills in the Peak District on a Bank Holiday weekend, we ended up wandering around in the peatbog for a while. We weren’t alone – other groups of baffled people kept popping up on the horizon and wandering around looking lost.

The Fella pondering how to cross a patch of ankle-deep peat. Gaiters would have come in handy.

Eventually we teamed up with some other walkers and their very muddy dog and located the Kinder River, which we followed until we got to our destination: Kinder Downfall. The river was low and as we’d approached the waterfall from above we couldn’t actually see it from the path, but the view was lovely.

Then it was time to descend the well-trodden section of the Pennine Way back down to Edale.

The way back down.

By now our legs were quite tired and we didn’t manage to overtake very many peoople on the way down! In fact, we were overtaken by a family…but they had sticks which The Fella reckoned allowed them to go faster.

Now I’m just itching to tackle Stuc a’ Chroin…

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Some photos, some WIPs and some jam

I’m back from a week away in England, visiting Hadrian’s Wall, the Yorkshire Dales and the Peak District. It was great and we did lots of walking (and came back with a bit of a tan). Click on the mosaic below to see all the pics from the week (plus a few you’ve already seen of the allotment!).

So what crafty endeavours have I been up to? Well, before we went away I managed to knit most of a baby sweater.

The pattern is Five Fruits, originally from Magknits, and the yarn is Knitpicks Swish DK. It’s the first top-down raglan I’ve knitted and I cannot stress how much I love the construction. No seaming! Bliss! I just need to knit and sew down the hem, do some sleeves, sew in the ends and find some buttons. It’s for J’s baby, Emily, and I’ll probably whip up a hat in the pink to go with it. There’s lots of each colour left, and I have several friends expecting babies soon so expect to see another stripy baby jumper here soon.

While I was away I wanted a bigger project to work on, so I cast on for Wicked in the Swish Superwash. I can’t believe how quickly it knitted up – I started it on Friday 18th, and I finished the body today and started the first sleeve. It fits perfectly (as long as it doesn’t change too much when I wash it – I washed my swatch and everything just to make sure) and, as it’s only my third sweater (the baby jumper doesn’t count) it’s been a valuable lesson in getting the fit right, measuring, and that oh-so-clever raglan construction (oh yes, and waist shaping). Here it is a couple of days ago:

Expect another post very soon with the finished object!

We came back from our holiday to find that the allotment had produced yet more strawberries, so today I made jam. The gooseberries from our garden were finally ripe, too, so we got about a kilo of those from the rather wild bush (getting thoroughly prickled in the process, mind you).

We ate some of them last night in a gooseberry and elderflower fool. Half are in the freezer and some went to make one precious jar of very delicious jam (tip: if you’re after preserving sugar, try Sainsburys, not Tesco).

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