First things...............

I've been meaning to post for the past few days but my computer has been mis-behaving and wouldn't load my photos from the sd card - until this morning............

Last Sunday was our first day back at home after the 'progress' up through England into Scotland, visiting relatives, going to a lovely birthday party, then the Outdoor Pursuits Show in Edinburgh, and finally, after a trip to Tesco's in Blairgowrie, arriving home on Saturday evening.

Sunday was a beautiful, sunny April day, so I couldn't resist the temptation to go for a quick walk. There's nothing to beat the route up to the pyramid on Balmoral Estate - so I set off after lunch having failed to persuade Him Indoors to come with me (well, there was football on the tele!)

I walked into Glen Gelder to investigate the fence I had spotted during the winter (but couldn't get up to in the deep snow. (click here). Actually it appears to be an enclosure and I noted on my GPS that there was only one gate I could see. The fence runs more or less parallel to the Gelder Burn alongside the landrover track. However, as I discovered on a subsequent walk on Tuesday, it doesn't go very far into the Glen and should cause no problems if you're walking over to the bothy.

{Looking along the fence towards Lochnagar}

{Looking back towards the forest - the gate at NO 25410 92845}

I turned back and climbed the hill up to the pyramid. Queen Victoria had this built in memory of Prince Albert. I had a neighbour here once who told me confidentially that the present Queen rides round this monument on Mid-summer's Eve, naked, to retain her powers.

{Prince Albert's Cairn}

No sign of anyone around as I walked on down the other side of the hill towards another monument - this time Princess Beatrice's cairn.

{Princess Beatrice's Cairn}

Obviously Spring is here. I saw large masses of frog spawn in the ditches and the daffodils in the garden are blooming.

{Frog spawn in a ditch}

This is a great little walk to blow away cobwebs and stretch the legs.

{Daffodils in my garden}

*There should be photos to go with the text as I said at the top - unfortunately now they won't upload to the blog - I'll try later (when the Gremlins are sleeping....shsh)

Success!!!

Hip Hip .......Hurry!

Yes I do mean 'hurry' but also hooray! Finally I've got my blog back!

I've been struggling for a couple of days with unwanted pop-ups, pornographic videos, fake virus alerts and worst of all, I haven't been able to put any text onto my blog page.

I now have no idea why it's working again but hey-ho I'm making the most of it!

It may have frozen up again the next time I come to type something............?

However I don't seem to be able to up-load photos yet.

Must be the Gremlins again........

Cross-country Legs...........................

Well, I wish I had some - cross-country legs, that is. Watching the t.v. last night, the Olympic Games Ladies Biathlon Sprint, I realised this was a lost cause for me.

Earlier I had spent the day with my friend Christianne at Arvieux on the x-c trails there. Arvieux is just below the Col d'Izoard - those of you interested in the Tour de France will recognise the name of this iconic 'col' or pass through the mountains. In fact had we been about 30 years younger and had those 'legs' the snowy road over the Col had been tracked for us to ski up!

We chose to do something a little more gentle!

It was a good day to go out.  The French school holiday crowd from this week past had all gone home and the next week's hadn't quite arrived and unpacked - so we more or less had the place to ourselves.

There were a few children (old and young) on toboggans using a rolling carpet thing to get back up the slope.

{Photo of 'tapis roulant'  at Arvieux}

The trails we managed to complete were beautiful snow and not too scary. My problem is that going up I'm rather slow - and coming down I'm not very sure of my snowplough. The skis don't have metal edges like downhill skis so stopping is a life threatening operation!

Anyway, we enjoyed the day.  As well as sore legs and arms my brain hurt all evening having struggled with my rudimentary French all day! I expect Christianne had the same pains after listening to me!

As we drove back home - the cars were arriving for this week's holiday...............................

{Photo looking towards the Col d'Izoard}

Ooops! The G........... are watching me! I'll add the photos later.......

Phew!.................

For my latest snowshoeing trip it was up to Risoul (probably our nearest bigger ski resort) with a friend who had found a trail which would take us around the forest beside the ski slopes.

We set off quite early and it was extremely cold and still but promised to be a fine day with a good deep blue sky developing over head.

After a bit of trouble finding the correct carpark we unloaded, and, carrying the snowshoes, walked up quite a steep tarmac road through the resort. When we found the start of the trail we put on the snowshoes and within a couple of minutes we were stripping off the layers as we climbed up the track and then turned into the forest.

We crossed a ski tow twice and continued to plod uphill. I used my heel lifters on the snowshoes to see if it made climbing any easier. It probably would if I was a bit fitter and didn't have to keep stopping for breath!

Eventually we were at the top of a hill and beside a chairlift. By looking at the map we discovered we had climbed way too high and now we were on a different track entirely. Not lost -  just a bit mislaid! Then the fun started.....

Instead of climbing up more we decided to take a cross country route and meet up with the original track (the one we should have been on!). The snow was quite fluffy and light but deep. I pushed one pole up to the handle into it and realised bigger baskets would be a good buy.

Desperately trying to keep up with my friend who has very long legs - I half slid and half plunged down the steep(ish) snowy slopes.

Must say I was impressed with the snowshoes and once I got the hang of leaning forward down the hill it was most enjoyable.  Finally we came across the track. We both decided it was a very dull flat track compared to OUR route!

 

{Photo taken after surviving the descent}

{Photo at the Cabane de Razis - our lunch stop}

We ate our sandwiches (cheese & jam for me) and enjoyed a huge flask of hot chocolate (YUM!) before trotting back along the track to the carpark. We even took our snowshoes off for this return walk - the track was so hard-packed they were unnecessary!

Phew! ............A great day!



PS Now the Gremlins are stealing my photos - I'll try adding them later on..................

Trains, Donkeys, and Gremlins......................

I was going to spend this post 'ranting' about the decline of the railways at a time when it could be good to travel by train (eco-friendly etc). But I'm not sure I've got the strength for it!

Instead I'm posting a photo and saying no more about it!

{Photo of Chessington North Station - didn't smell too nice either!}

I was impressed by the frequency of the trains and the relative ease of travelling around in the South East and in Yorkshire. Relative that is to living in North East Scotland.


Back to yesterday's skiing - the snow was brilliant - and in the carpark there were some very curious DONKEYS!  I think they belong to a trekking company but they greeted everybody in the carpark as long lost friends!

{Photo of donkey investigating my ski boot}

Oh dear! (That's the mild version.) Somehow the SD card I've just taken the donkey photo from has now no pictures on it!

I must have attracted the Gremlins again!.............

Sur le pont..................

The weather here since Christmas has been a bit grey and lifeless - not so good for the fair weather skiers among us.......... So John and I set off last Monday in our small camper van to visit Avignon. We found a campsite right opposite the town which was open and full of camper vans a good deal bigger than ours!

Of course the first place to visit is the famous bridge. Rather a grey day in Avignon too but the history made up for it.

The French authorities obviously have a different view of risk assessment.  We thought that in the UK the children would have to wear crash helmets and harnesses.

We spent the whole day walking (well maybe trudging at times) around the streets of the old town. The medieval walls are still intact and a good number of the buildings are really ancient.

The second day we visited the Palais des Papes. This is an extraordinary 12th Century palace with cloisters and great banqueting halls etc. You can see it in the background in the first picture above. We were about 3 hours wandering around listening to an 'audio tour' machine.

There's a garden laid out high above the town with fabulous views and a limestone grotto to climb on.

Finally we arrived back at 7.30 pm  on New Year's Eve and had barely made it to the door when our neighbours dragged us in for drinks and food until 11.30. We refused their invite to go down to a discotheque for more merrimaking and went back home for a few whiskies to welcome in the New Year. Hence today I have a rather fuzzy head! And all the Christmas chocolates seem to have disappeared............

Oh dear, the Gremlins have arrived and I can't add any more photos at the moment........I'll try later.