Cycle to Luing

Cycled over to Luing to the Atlantic Isles Centre for coffee.  Some wonderful baking on offer and it was consuked with a clean conscience having cycled all the way there!  Views across Sound of Luing were fabulous.

Walk to Ardmaddy

Played a little Russian Roulette with the rain showers today...........and almost won, got caught in a downpour just before we got home.

There was lots of water in the river after last nights rain showers.  Nice to see that our sophisticated teenagers and not so sophisticated that they can't resort to a good game of Pooh Sticks still!  Quite competitive it was too as can be seen in the photos!

Evening Kayak

It was a beautiful evening this evening so Isobel and I decided to head out for a kayak after she lost the will to live having been doing maths past papers.

Went for a quick circumnavigation of Eillean Tournal in Balvicar bay.  We met up with the local kayak club as we came back, felt a bit outnumbered!

Walk Round Arduaine Gardens

Woke up to a somewhat wet morning but thankfully the rain soon cleared and we headed out for a walk round Arduaine garden at Lochmelfort.  The magnolia stellata was particularly fine and there were plenty of Rhododendrons in flower, the R Macabeanum was particularly fine as were some of the Arboreum species.

After Arduaine it was off to Ardfern for a spot of lunch at the Crafty Kitchen and then dad got to spend some time in his favorite toy shop....... the Ardfern Yacht Chandlery!

Sunday Skiing at Glencoe

Had a day skiing up at Glencoe with Ellie.  Well I say "with" Ellie but I was meeting up with the Scottish Telemark club and the thought of hanging out with a bunch of Telemarkers was just too much for her so she joined up with the West Coast Race Training Group for a days training.

Conditions on the hill were pretty miserable, pouring rain even at the summit and thick fog that meant you couldn't see 10-15 yards ahead of you at the summit.

Needless to say the weather cleared just as we were on our way down at 3pm.  Typical.  Took a few photos on the way home.

Looking up Glen Etive, Ben Starav in the distance

Looking up to Grey Corries Ski Area Glencoe from the entrance to Glen Etive

Looking up the Lost Valley to Bidean Nam Bian

Looking up to Stob Corrie Nan Lochan

A bunch of Telemarkers! Photo carefully taken just below the cloud base!

Easter Cake

Isobel baked an enormous Easter Cake............the only problem now, how to cut it!  Probably even more importantly, how to eat it?

In case you are wondering ......it is an Easter bunny burrowing into it's hole underneath a tree trunk to get it's Easter eggs!

Spring Concert 2016

Last Wednesday saw Isobel performing in the Spring Concert at the Music Hall.  This was the last performance at the Music Hall as it is being closed for renovations for a couple of years.

Scottish Childrens Champs Fort William

Ellie and I headed over to Fort William for the weekend for the Scottish Childrens Alpine Ski-racing Championships.  It was certainly quite a weekend, the Saturday dawned wet and windy and we were up at 6.30 and arrived at Nevis Range at 8.00 only to be told that the wind speed up at the top of hte mountain was too high to run the races.  So what to do on a wet day in Fort William?  How about the Ice Factor indoor climbing arena in Kinlochleven.........no, closed due to a recent fire, how about the Cruachan power station................no closed for routine maintenance, so the kids had homework club in the hotel (although I remain unclear on how much homework was completed) and the parents went shopping in all the mountaineering shops (of which there are quite a few!).  In the afternoon we all went ten pin bowling and great fun was had by all.

Sunday dawned brighter but the temperature had gone up by 10 degrees and left some very soft snow which made conditions very difficult for racing slalom.  Ellie was one of many racers to crash out of the course due to the deep ruts that were building up but despite this we had a good days skiing anyway!

Weekend With Cousin James

Have had a great weekend with cousin James.  Isobel was playing hockey for the second team in a tournament at Countesswells on Saturday morning.  It was absolutely perishing with sleat and rain blown in on a bitterly cold northerly wind.  We all got soaked, both supporters and goalkeeper alike.

Came home and dried out and had lunch and then as the weather was improving we went for a walk and ended up going up Millstone hill which worked up a very nice appetite for the curry at Echt Tandoori.

Sunday Ellie was training up at the Lecht so we took James along and hired him some skis and boots and put him on the beginners slope.  He was somewhat handicapped by his instructor (me) but thanks to some extra hints from the proper Gordon Skiers instructors we had him doing some snowplough turns by the end of the day!  A few photos below.