Beginnings

I may loathe January but spending New Year with my parents, besides being fun, means that My Beloved and I can abandon the kids to my parents (or vice versa, depending on your point of view) and walk the trail around the village. A lot of people do this on New Year's Day, some take the clockwise route, some anti-clockwise. We chose clockwise, omitting the lower half of the route which, like last year, was under water, and off we set through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier. Also sheep.

It was a beautiful day this year, with only occasional very light showers, and the light was beautiful.

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There's not much to say really, the pictures speak for themselves. This bit was particularly boggy, having been partly churned up by grazing animals. Apparently there was an alternative route avoiding this bit, but we were too busy looking at our feet I think and missed the turning for it. Ah well, we managed!

This was about halfway round probably, high above the village, and looking further up. It was pretty cold and breezy at this point and we stopped for a snack:

I hadn't noticed until just now that the wrapper says 'Enjoy Your New Day' - thanks Tunnocks, I did!

Crossing the burn as we started to head back downhill. In summery circumstances I'd be very tempted to stick my feet in the water at this point, but not with snow on the ground I don't think. I have paddled in a glacial lake though (bottom of the Briksdal glacier in Norway, many years ago).

Funnily enough the worst bit of the walk was plodding back along Main Street. I wore my snow boats as they've a waterproof foot part and are padded above. They're very comfortable on uneven ground - bog, heather, grass, any of it - but really uncomfortable on hard surfaces such as tarmac or pavement. But then we were back, and in front of the fire - bliss.

It was a lovely and invigorating start to the year, and a good reminder of what a beautiful country Scotland can be, and how great it is to be out in the fresh air. As long as you're appropriately attired! So I've decided that fresh air is one of the answers to the January blues. Well, it's worth a try!

Another January beginning was that I cast on my second orange sock (I did in fact spend the remainder of 2012 after my last post winding the orange Clan into a ball on a spurtle while eating shortbread and drinking whisky, thus hitting all the cliché targets in one). As I should have finished both socks by now I'm spending every spare moment trying to catch up. I've got onto turning the heel now and once that's done it should be pretty quick. And a good thing too as I'm quite keen to get on to Jan/Feb of Project Rainbow...