I'm just trying to walk myself home.
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Last week we drove further north in the country of Scotland than we ever have before. Past Ullapool and all the way up to Clashnessie Bay. The bay is a little further north than the sleepy village of Lochinver. We drove miles and miles on tiny roads without seeing any other cars. It was eerily …
Scotland in September started out in the sunshine. I had a visit from a very dear friend. Kelly and I have been friends since we were in elementary school and she has visited me everywhere I have ever lived. She is the sort of friend with whom you can pick up like you have never …
I will forever remember it as one of the loveliest walks of our entire time in Scotland. It was Taido’s birthday weekend and we talked Ben and Simon into getting out for a longer day so we drove a little further than usual (over an hour) and hiked a little further than usual (over 10 …
Chasing Daylight in August: Cruden Bay in the Rain Friday night, 11 pm The chance for rain had gone up to 90%. Taido had been checking the weather hourly all evening, watching the increase from a 10% chance to “almost certainly it’s going to rain.” Now he was feeling uncertain about our plans for a …
Our second week of walking new trails in Scotland was on the Kintyre Peninsula in Scotland. My sister and her husband, Robert, and their three kiddos were in town in July for two weeks. The first week we spent in and around Aberdeen, and then we rented a second car and headed west. We stayed …
The spring and summer months are so full around our house that sometimes I move from one event to the next without fully processing the first one. That is a little bit how it was to go from the Speyside Way in the middle of May to the Camino at the beginning of June. But …
Excuse me, miss, can I help you? I knew I was in trouble by the tone of his voice, but I was buying time. Um, no, actually, I don’t think so. I answered meekly. He came back with, What are you doing, exactly? Me: Well, we’re just walking down this road. (stating the obvious) And, …
We had expected to be at the end of the day’s walk by 5pm. We got an early start on our fifteen mile day, heading out under blue skies that promised to turn rainy later in the afternoon. We reached our highest point before lunch. All downhill from here, I thought. Piece of cake. I …
Back in April, when the whether was delightful and my mama was in town, I fell in love with a new bit of Scotland’s east coast. The walk begins near Cruden Bay, where we found a wee boat with my mama’s name on it: Julie! Blue skies + rugged coastline + castle ruins = …
You might remember that my May challenge was a three day walk: The Speyside Way. The Speyside Way is actually a 5-8 day walk (depending on if you add a couple of spurs) through Speyside, an area of Scotland that is famous for single malt whisky production. This area is close enough to where we …
Walking in Scotland throughout the Month of March We spent the first weekend of March in London, but since then, we have gotten out for forest walks every Saturday in March. Additionally one Wednesday, I went with a couple of friends to do a local coastal walk. I think getting outside has gotten me through …
So, the Chasing Daylight March Challenge was to walk (or bike) somewhere I would normally drive. I was going to try to walk to a friend’s house that is about six miles away from me, but when Simon asked me to get a new string for his cello from the music shop, I decided that …
“Well, this is some family hike!” Ben was indignant from the back seat that the family hike we had been planning for over a week for our Valentine’s Day outing was being missed by two members of our family. Somehow the perfectly reasonable 10am leaving time had become not-so-reasonable to everyone involved, the result being …
Back in December, we were living with just under six hours of daylight. Miraculously, I actually had a friend visit during this dark season, so one day we made the most of what we had to work with and took off to Royal Deeside for a walk in Glen Tanar. It was meant to be …
Cole and Taido both got up with me to watch the sunrise last Saturday. Bundled into all my layers, a tumbler full of coffee in one hand and my camera in the other, I hopped in the car and rode in the dark silence down to the beach. Bracing for the cold, we walked right …
One of the starkest changes that moving to Scotland has brought to my life involves the way I do grocery shopping. I used to make a couple of trips to the store per week in addition to one large shopping trip to my neighborhood Sam’s club. With my current kitchen and appliance sizes, buying in …
Oh Scotland in November. You are beautiful in your own way. Eeking out a few daylight hours between blankets of darkness. Misty walks among bare trees. Constant rain making the rivers flow hard and fast. Your autumn colors are all dark red browns painted between the evergreen. We race to stretch our legs during the …
Our summer went by really fast and we got to do so much that I have almost forgotten some of my favorite days. Slow days in Scotland with friends and family. Like this one, when we Sarabeth was in town and we went to Craigievar Castle, a place in Aberdeenshire that may have inspired the …
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 …