26th June – down at Glentress – more famed for mountain biking but I had 2 separate trail runs – 8 miles followed by another 4 and was lucky enough to see 2 red squirrels.
2nd July – in Glenshee – nice wee 7 mile walk taking in Mealna Letter (or Duchray Hill) – very boggy initially but lots of wild flowers, bog cotton and butterflies – along the shore of Loch Beanie a fellow walker pointed out an Osprey hovering above, despite watching for some time we never saw the Osprey diving for brown trout that the Loch is meant to be teaming with – the return leg of the walk took us along part of The Cateran Trail (trail of the cattle thieves).
3rd July – still in Glenshee – cycled up the trail from Auchallater to Loch Callater – leaving the bikes at the well appointed bothy (even has a toilet) – had an easy there and back walk up Carn an t-Sagairt Mor – we got lucky with the weather but bitterly cold wind at the top and glad I had my winter woolies with me – before descending we explored the wreckage of the RAF Canberra plane that sadly crashed in 1956 killing both of it’s crew.
?Date – very bizarre dream which went something like this – “bike required inner tube replaced – decided to replace both tubes at the same time and go for the newest and most expensive – the new style inners were divided into about 6 segments, each with a separate valve – the idea being that if only one segment punctured you could continue cycling – they were very complicated to fit and in the dream I ruined at least one.” I woke up before putting the new inners to the test – don’t think they will ever be for sale.
Week beginning Monday 4th July I was working in Larbert for 3 days, which meant, in theory, a good 7 mile bike ride to and from work on each of those days – except Wednesday which went something like this –
- cycle to work successfully
- finish work to find that back tyre is flat
- decide to run home as I don’t have pump or repair kit with me
- get 1/2 way home and remember that house keys are with my bike
- run back to bike and decided to push it home
- get me and bike home – pump, etc not where I expected them to be – yes you probably guessed it – pump and stuff was with me all the time – oops.
- a week later when telling my sorry story of blondeness to my sister and nephew, Ben rolled his eyes and gave that knowing look (both of which he does very well) and said Auntie Lucy “why didn’t you just push the bike home in the first place!” – maybe Auntie Lucy should have checked for pump and toolkit in first place!