I'm just trying to walk myself home.
Browsing Tag
August in Aberdeenshire Scotland I’m finding that looking back at my summer walks is a wonderful antidote to dark gray winter days in Aberdeen. This August day spent wandering the Shire was glorious. The skies were blue. The heather was in bloom. The kids were happy. Well, the kids that came were happy. (We left …
Fairy Pools Isle of Skye How can you not want to go somewhere called The Fairy Pools? Right? The Fairy Pools are essentially just a series of waterfalls and places where the water has gathered along this stream that runs at the foot of The Black Cuillin Mountains. You can walk for a long time …
Quiraing Isle of Skye The Quiraing was probably our favorite walk on the Isle of Skye. Located on the northernmost bit of the Trotternish ridge, the Quiraing on a clear day has to be one of the most beautiful places in the world. We did the circuit option which is about 7km and from which …
Y’all I can’t believe it but we are winding down #48walks. I still have LOADS of walks to share before Christmas so I’m going to crank them out this week because I am all ready to move on to the next project. 2015 will SO involve walking and I can’t wait to tell you all …
My SIL Whitney blogged about this walk last week, so I’m counting it as one of my #48walks. It’s a walk I’ve already done this year, but it was fun to do it in a new season and with our cousins, and it’s been such a delight to see Scotland through Whitney’s lens as she …
In celebration of the fact that we have now been in Scotland for one year, here’ s a quick look back at the last twelve months of life at the Chino House.
Summer 2013 Summer 2014 When we told people that we were moving to Scotland, for the most part the responses fell into two general categories. 1. That sounds crazy! 2. That sounds dreamy! And you know what, both of these descriptions are spot on. Moving abroad is crazy AND it’s a dream come true. At …
For the last two weeks, I’ve been journaling my walk along St Cuthbert’s Way and now it’s complete. Here are all the links in one place for your reading enjoyment. And there’s even a recipe! St Cuthbert’s Way Journal Beginnings Day 1: Melrose to Harestanes Day 2: Harestanes to Morebattle Day 3: Morebattle to Kirk …
Day 5 of St Cuthbert’s Way: Wooler to Lindisfarne From the moment we received our itinerary, the last day of our journey along St Cuthbert’s Way loomed large with its big number 18 in the mileage chart. Before we ever left home, I was harboring doubt about whether I …
Day 4 of St Cuthbert’s Way: Kirk Yetholm to Wooler Anna and I knew we would be walking some in the rain along St Cuthbert’s Way, mainly because over the half the walk is in Scotland. And if there’s one thing I have learned about Scotland in the last year, it’s that you can count …
Day 3 of St Cuthbert’s Way: Morebattle to Kirk Yetholm On our third day of walking we confirmed one thing for certain. When it came to estimating how long it would take us to finish a day’s walking, we were absolute rubbish. On our first day, we’d predicted 5:30pm and were two hours off. The …
Day 2 of St Cuthbert’s Way: Harestanes to Morebattle “Our guidebook says we only have to go 10 miles today.” “The printout from Macs says it’s only 9.” “Well, that’ll be a cake walk after yesterday!” “Easy peasy!” Anna had figured out with her FitBit that the previous day we had managed to turn what …
Day 1 of St Cuthbert’s Way: Melrose to Harestanes We laid our waterproof pants out the night before in anticipation of the rain, which was still falling when we woke up in Melrose. We pulled on all our gear, packed up our bag and left our comfortable room a little reluctantly. However, Sheila had made …
“This country would be really beautiful if it was warm and sunny.” We had just gotten off the bus in Melrose and were standing in front of Melrose Abbey in the rain. Melrose Abbey is the starting place of St Cuthbert’s Way, a 63 mile walk across the Scottish Borders into England and out on …
Are you still walking with me friends? If not, you can still start. It’s the beginning of June, so you still have almost seven months left in 2014 to have some amazing adventures! Make a list and tweet/Instagram me a picture! (@alisonchino) Here’s a walk we did in mid-May in Glen Clova, which is about …
A little yellow in my life makes me smile. On a cloudy spring day, this yellow rapeseed can almost take the place of the sunshine for me. Even in the pouring rain, I will stop for a spot of yellow. Glimpsed far away or along the River Tweed, these fields have been grabbing my attention …
Often there is such a long string of gray days in Aberdeen that I actually forget that the sky and sea can be this lovely. When the cold mist clears, it’s as though someone has taken a paintbrush to the city or like a black and white film has turned to color. Just north of …
When Taido and I get to escape from our kids, we usually run away to a cabin in the woods. Or a tent in the hills. But last week some friends from church graciously let us have a Spring Getaway package that they were not able to use at the last minute that included dinner, …
I promise to make up for all my winter whining about the weather by being ridiculously happy about all the days full of skies this blue. Yesterday at church, Simon’s sweet teacher told us we needed to enjoy days like these because they are so few and far between, so we spent every possible minute …
We walked the Eastern Scottish Coast on Saturday afternoon and it was crazy windy. The walk took us along a cliff above the sea and I was a weensy bit worried one of us was going to blow away. The wind was blowing all this sea foam into piles on the shore and after we …