Taexalia

wild.life

Baby Talk

There are many un-written blogs in the life of Taexalia, like the climbing of Ben Nevis or the trip to Norway. They lurk in my inner composter awaiting oxygen and some sort of activator to bring them to the cyber page... Jumping the queue somewhat is the familial encounter of the weekend just past. Writing about it may indeed break several of my personal rules of blogging. - one of which is not blogging about people who might read it and get upset. Well, tough quite frankly. My irk ... read more

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Highlands and Islands In a Week part 6

And now returning to the Highlands and Islands trip - I had meant to finish the tale before now!On the Thursday we watched the weather reports with dismay as almost all the Isles were sporting wee clouds with rain or snow symbols. It didn't look good for walking or touring or anything really. But we set off anyway with a vague plan to try and spot some dolphins or seals. We passed Inverness and crossed the Kessock Bridge and took a quick stop of at North Kessock. The tide was going out though, ... read more

Highlands and Islands In a Week part 5

The next morning we set out for Glen Affric hoping the weather would hold for our planned walk. We drove up the glen to the Forestry Commission carpark near Dog Falls. No sign of the Lord of the Forest from the previous evening but the scenery was as gorgeous.There are a choice of tracks to follow, most of which take you to the Falls - we decided on what seemed the longest one and set off.Around 5 paces onto the path I came across these wonderful roots and stopped to take some pictures. The ... read more

Highlands and Islands In a Week part 4

The downside of @ having to return to work was missing bosies but the upside was that I got to have two duvets on my bed at night. I slept with more warmth. Speaking of sleep, I am reminded of the tale @ told everyone at breakfast on the Monday morning...Apparently I was snoring like a kitten (must have been something to do with the clear mountain air!) and in the middle of a snore I whispered "that one that one that one and that one"... Much analysis took place over whether I was choosing new ... read more

Highlands and Islands In a Week part 3

On Monday I had an inkling of where we were going but @ had no idea...We drove down Loch Ness to Invermoriston and took the road to Kyle through Glen Moriston and along the banks of Loch Cluanie. We passed through Glen Shiel under the Five Sisters before the road took us to the shores of Loch Duich. At the end of the loch lies one of the most used scenes from Scotland, Castle Eilean Donan. It is as pretty as the pictures, even with the tour buses in view :)The road passes on to the shores of ... read more

Highlands and Islands In a Week part 2

I've cobbled together a map, which I think has a centimetre missing, to give an idea of the routes we took. My road map only shows up A class and B class roads so the struggling-to-be-a -single-track-road roads we took in some places aren't there. But you get the picture :)Sunday's trip was prompted by Dad asking "What do you want to do tomorrow?" and my reply of "Hmmm well I've never really seen much of Sutherland and aren't there some really cool beaches up there?"So we set off around 9:30am ... read more

Highlands and Islands In a Week part 1

@ and I set out from Edinburgh early last Saturday to catch the train to Fort William. Neither of us had done this trip by train and having now experienced it we agree with all recommendations that it should be on the list of things to do before you die.If you catch the very early train from Edinburgh, which I think might be the tail end of the Caledonian Sleeper Northbound, you can travel without changes. We decided on the slightly more reasonable 7:15am departure which involves a train to ... read more

Ready To Go

Well I didn't get the clays out yesterday. Instead I packed my suitcase and got myself almost totally organised for my trip. Call it productive procrastination, or call it living proof that I have learned some lessons about Being Ready Ahead of Time. I don't leave for my trip until early tomorrow.

The only thing I haven't done is complete the partner for this sock. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending how you look at it, my Mum ... read more