Shona and Mike Take a Hike

Sitting upstairs in the study... well, in the spare bedroom that houses a desk and a couple of bookcases, which at the moment is strewn with all sorts of paraphernalia, and before anyone checks, I can confirm the spelling is correct. I could of course simply say there is a lot of "bumph" lying around. Anyway, the place is a bit of a midden as I troll through various caravan park books, bus and railway timetables and other items whilst planning our route between Lands' End and John O'Groats.  We were still out and about during the day though, hoofing it here and there, we walked up to Canada Woods again and as usual there were quite a few dogs out with their "hoomans". I think it's fair to say that Shona and I can never really resist saying hello to any dog that approaches us, the photo on the right is one such "bonnie wee laddie" who was carrying such a huge branch. When we started speaking to his "hooman" and said how beautiful he lo...

We had it in mind this week to bring some statistics regards the miles we have covered since our training began for our long walk, then I thought, "is it just me or has anyone ever thought that the word statistics is easier to type than speak?" Every time I try to say that word I'm sure I sound like "Kaa" the snake from the 1964 Disney film based around Rudyard Kiplings "The Jungle Book". It's a film by the way which is one of my all time favourites, with Baloo the Bear, voiced by Phil Harris, being my absolute favourite character.  Even as I type this I'm singing to myself with the voice of Baloo in my head "The bare necessities of life, I'm also smiling that by mentioning the song some of our readers might have an ear-worm of it right now ringing in their ears. Now there are many lessons we can learn from the story but for me, the story in the Disney Movie portrays, to my mind anyway, "the kindness of strangers", albeit it ...

As I begin the blog this week I should explain, for those who don't know the photo on the right is of Lila Weir, Shonas' Mum, to many of us she was affectionally known as "Lal". The photo was taken up at Dukes Pass in June 2006. It was just over three years ago "Lal" went home, at the age of 88, to be with her Lord and Saviour.  Lal was no ordinary lady she was not just a mother to her four children.  She was without doubt a mother figure to many and an encourager to everyone she met.  Often when we were out, she would meet a perfect stranger and the next thing any of us knew she was in a full blown conversation. Of course Lal would say to us she only talked a lot because she was shy, this led to the family joke, "don't look now but there's Lal being shy again". There is hardly a day that passes where we do not remember her in one way or another. Often with a laugh and a smile. In fact, we used to say to her we enjoyed taking her out for th...

  I was going to waffle on about the statistics, now that word is easier to type than say I can tell you. It would have been statistics on how many miles we have walked and what our average for January was, but I'll not bore you with that.  However, to continue our training Shona and I discussed various walks we could undertake and what came to mind was the "Fife Coastal Path".  It is a walking route that begins at Kincardine on Forth and ends at either St Andrews or Dundee depending on what guide book is chosen. It is a walk that can be done as a whole over five days but it equally lends itself to be done in sections over a number of weeks, even months if you choose as there are good transport links all along the route.  An ex colleague of mine actually completed it over some months along with a few friends, if  anyone is reading this blog please feel free to share the details with the Scotrail Team in Fife. Also if there are any of my old team at Kirkcaldy the...