Walk Round Arduaine

Tuesday we met up with friends Tim and Ruth Jones for a walk round Arduaine Gardens.  The magnolias, comelias and early rhododendrons were out, the magnolias were nowhere near as good as previous years with very few flowers compared to normal.  Lunch at the Crafty kitchen was up to the usual standard.

Coffee on Luing

Wednesday saw us heading over to Luing to the Atlantic Isles Centre for coffee, the girls and I cycled from home, Julie took the car to the ferry and then joined us cycling from there.  Cake at the Atlantic Isles Centre was as good as ever!

Cycle Round Barcaldine / Benderloch / Ardchattan Triangle

Sunday saw the four of us cycling round the Barcaldine / Benderloch / Ardchattan Triangle, starting at Benderloch.  The circuit involves a steady climb up from sea level to 600ft as it goes over to Barcaldine.  The girls gave Julie some Tour De France style support as she reached the summit!  Unfortunately progress after that was slowed by two punctures, one for Julie then one for me, luckily we had two spare inner tubes.

And the great thing about having a long cycle?  You get to go for fish and chips in Oban afterwards and not feel guilty!

Scottish Schools Plate Final

Isobel was down at the National Hockey Centre at Glasgow Green on Friday.  Her team, Robert Gordons College had qualified for the Plate Final in the National Schools Hockey finals.  The weather was atrocious, seriously wet to the point where play was stopped at one point because the water pitch was becoming waterlogged!

They were up against locals High School of Glasgow.  Robert Gordons went 2-0 down to a one on one first goal and a second goal from a short corner just after half time.  They fought back with two goals to make it 2:2 at full time so it went to penalties and unfortunately they lost 2:1 on penalties.  Never the less a great day out and a silver medal at the end of it.

SSSA Indoor Race

Ellie was down at the indoor slope at Braehead in Glasgow yesterday in the Scottish Schools indoor race that was being staged to make up for the lack of outdoor racing this winter.  She skied really well to finish 17th out of 52 girls from a start number of 29.  Definitely her best result so far.

Hockey and Baking

Isobel had a busy time with hockey this weekend, playing for Granite Cit first team.  On Saturday it was down to Fettes College in Edinburgh to play Grange Ladies who are top in their division, National Division 2.  Grange got revenge for their defeat by Granite City earlier in the season with an 7:O win over Granite City.  Isobel had a busy time!

This afternoon it was a return to winning ways with a 4:1 win over University of St Andrews Ladies to leave them lying 5th in their division of 11 teams.

Meanwhile Ellie had a weekend of work and some baking...........and produced the most amazing Swiss Roll. It tasted as good as it looked, there is not much left now!