How’s your week been?
Mine has been catch up from being gone and prep to leave soon on my first long walk!
My sister and I head out next week to walk St Cuthbert’s Way with Macs Adventure. It is sixty miles of Scottish + English countryside because it’s right on the border. I have been looking forward to this moment since I started #48walks in January, and now it is here.
Am I ready?
Only one way to find out! I can’t wait to tell you all about it, but in the meantime, you can follow along on Instagram or Twitter.
Here are few links for your weekend!
Highlight of my week: Being mentioned as one of 10 international Instagrammers to follow over at Yes and Yes.
Kate, faithfully blogging her walks and making me smile!
I’ve watched this accent tour of the British Isles like 12 times.
Oh the helpfulness of this guide to family friendly hostels in Europe!
I’m always curious about why people choose the names they do for their social media handles, so I love it when someone shares their back story.
Related: A Guide to Naming Things.
Last week I dropped in on a few rounds of the World Championships of Irish Dancing that were happening in Killarney and I spent hours later asking Google things like “What’s with the wigs?” and “Are you supposed to smile when Irish dancing?” At some point, I happened on this fun take on some of the quirks of this particular niche.
I need to print out this list of things happy people say every day and hang it on my mirror.
In awe of this tech gal who taught herself app development (and makes me feel like we should all be homeschooling).
A great guide to places to stay as a solo traveler in over 50 countries.
Now that we don’t have one anymore, I love finding confirmation that owning a home is not all it’s cracked up to be.
While on holiday I read like three novels (the decadence!): finally read Gone Girl, and if that didn’t creep me out enough, I also bit my fingernails through The Secret History. So creepy in a Cannot Look Away kind of way and just gorgeous writing! Also finished Magnus. It was beautifully dark and poetic Scotland and probably way too smart for me.
This week I started Iain Banks’ A Song of Stone, which has me all gripped from the first pages and I will totally finish it even though it’s going to make me depressed. (Glutton for misery, y’all).
It has rained all week and is supposed to rain all weekend here in Aberdeen, so feel free to send along your reading suggestions. Reading + Soup = Our Weekend.
Hope yours is grand!
Iain Banks is one of my favourite authors! There are just a couple of his books that I haven’t read – Song of Stones is one of them. I’ll have to check it out of the library as his writing is worth getting a bit depressed 🙂
The writing is brilliant but I did see a review that said it lacks redemptive moments. Yikes. Do you have a favourite of his?
Oh that’s always a hard question – picking your favorite! Two that I’ve reread are The Business and Surface Detail, so they’re probably up there in my list of favorite books by Banks. Have you read any of his others?
I will write those down. I’ve only read The Crow Road. He’s very celebrated/beloved here in Scotland.
I loved The Secret History and I kind of got tired (maybe just frustrated) with the characters in Gone Girl. I just finished The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova (sad but stirring). I have had Magnus downloaded for some time and have not gotten to it – thanks for the inspiration! I appreciate you sharing all of the links on so many of your posts. Your photographs and writing is such a treat for me to read each day.
I’ll put The Swan Thieves on my list! Yes, I don’t know if I’ll be able to bear the film of Gone Girl. It’s sad to come to the end of a book and not like anyone any more. Like I said I think I missed a lot of underlying meaning in Magnus, but I’m so fascinated by Orkney (where it takes place). Hoping to visit at some point.
It is so great that your sister is coming over! The Big Walk sounds like a really wonderful adventure!! Can’t wait to see the pictures!! Have a safe trip!
Thanks so much!! I’m super excited to see her! 🙂
That is some walk. Have fun!! I’ve got to be looking into family hostels. What a great guide!!
Thanks so much!! Yes it is and there’s loads more great info on that site about hostels in Europe. Plus if you have questions or need specific recs you can ask him on Twitter @budgettraveller 🙂
[…] more Ireland walks to share this month but at the moment I am still walking with my sister on St. Cuthbert’s Way. Where are you walking in […]