Spotted on my travels (11)

The heather is in full bloom on the Eildons and even on a grey day it is pretty spectacular.  I followed the extensive trail of the dropped sweetie wrapper like some sort of Borders Womble before they turned left and I went right.  I am always seeing oddities on my travels and you'd be surprised how often it is a life sized giraffe!!

Colorado living his best life!

My light shines on

Edinburgh was lit up with beacons of light over the weekend as part of "My light shines on" - the beams were to represent the ghost lights left on in empty theatres and they were placed around the Edinburgh venues which should of been bursting into life with the start of the festival this weekend.  Instead Edinburgh's streets were eerily quiet and we wandered up an empty High Street to the castle esplanade on a beautiful still summers night.  

Personal challenge

Lockdown has seen a rise in the number of walking challenges, I even found myself drawn to some where you got (I mean, bought) a medal to celebrate reaching targets.  Then I reminded myself my aim is to have less "stuff" and I didn't need some random bling.  The benefits of walking an hour a day are well documented both mentally and physically so beginning in May I planned to walk a minimum of ten thousand steps for a hundred days (a million steps).  However I was working about six paces from the kettle and could hit the end of the working day having hardly moved at all.  I know my phone isn't hugely accurate for milage (it underestimates, honest!) but I'd prefer to be able to judge like for like on last year so I leave my stride length as it is.  I can't lie, in the beginning there was a couple of days where I grudged every single step but there is no doubt I feel better for making the effort.  I've seen deer, foxes, owls, literally hundreds of painted stones and wee nooks and crannies in my corner of Scotland I would never of ventured to normally.  I carried on with a walk from East Linton to Hailes Castle today (day 101!) 

Small world

Linda with Chipita has moved house and Chip has also moved yard, on arrival they bumped into Christine with Tizona who was having a few days away, having some lessons and playing over the XC course.  It is such a small world and this will always be one of my "what ifs" - what if we'd bred another ten foals a year for ten more years, or twenty for twenty?  How could our wee community have grown?  How synonymous would Chamfron have become for Criollo in the UK or just for good useful and talented horses?  

Spotted on my travels (10)

Walks this week

Scotland is doing well controlling Coronavirus but cases are increasing in England again with certain areas being placed back into a stricter lockdown.  We actually went out for dinner for the first time in 2020.  We went to Provender in Melrose and it felt very normal, though the staff were being religious about using hand sanitiser.   It was so good we are going back next Wednesday as part of the government's "eat out to help out" scheme, we are just doing our bit for the economy obviously...!  Other than that, I walk!