Menoooooorrrkkk!!!

Okay, you were all very polite, but what glared from the blog this week? Yup, I didn't have a views post up on Tuesday! For one who is generally scheduled up to a fortnight ahead, I was as aghast as one or two of you may have been. It's been a month, this one. Well, if you count the COVID caper, it's been a couple of months, so this will be a 'collation' post explaining where things are 'at'.

I left you with a mention of The Grey getting through his annual check okay - though we did have to respond to a recall return due to unavailable parts. Thankfully, we had not travelled far away from Glasgow when the call came through that the parts were there and we could complete the process. My e-steed and I parked up in the Seven Lochs Parks area, which is urban water/forest lands, starting closest to Glasgow with the Hogganfield Loch, which you saw behind me in Monday's post (and thanks for all the compliments - I did lose nearly five kilograms during the lurgy, but it's not a weight loss program I would recommend!). We spent a couple of nights there and at the eastern end of the parks, where you see Grey in that first photo, at Drumpellier.

There are LOTS of photos from these two stops, which will be shared over several posts, starting tomorrow for Nature Friday, some Me-Now-Views posts and further NFs. And possibly just random drop-ins like this...

I will relate more about the places with the NF posts. 

Once Grey had updates on the 12th, we headed over to Falkirk for a night with the Kelpies (keep watching!), then on to Edinburgh on the 13th to spend three nights with Mac1. During that stay, we received word that our elderly aunt in Hawick had passed away. This left us discussing logistics as clearly, we would have to factor in an upcoming funeral. Things were getting congested on our calendars! Mac1 is always scheduled to the hilt, and she is bad at double-booking things. The critical thing for her is that she will be in Wales on the date, which has turned out to be July 1st. 

Myself, I had been planning to travel north to Alness anyway, but this became even more imperative for a couple of reasons. Since my last visit with my aunt and uncle, Aunty Mary has been given a cancer diagnosis in her spine and has been in hospital all these weeks, going through a rigorous treatment regime. At first in Inverness, but latterly in the more local Invergordon Cottage Hospital. 

Then I got word that blogpal Arti would be in Scotland for a week, and could we meet? By good fortune, due to it being a quick golfing trip for hubby, they were going to be in Dornoch, not so far from Alness. After some rejigging of my timetable, I decided to meet with her first and then go back to Alness for a few days after that. I can only linger for a short time because I have an appointment with some fish at the Macduff Aquarium. Some of you may recall I became a sponsor of a Conger Eel there, whom I named Argyll. That's on the 28th... and I then have two days to scurry down to Hawick for Monday the first of July... after which I will have to scurry again, this time back to The Hutch as, here in the UK, we have a general election on the fourth.....sigh...

So yeah, it's all a bit crazy. I went from the best part of four weeks of recovery into full-on motion, and as I prepare this post for you, I am on my last park-up before Dornoch and taking one full day to try and catch up with myself—and the blog! I'm feeling a bit like this swan, continuing to swim but feeling a little bit lacking in power as there's one foot doing one thing and another doing something entirely different! 

This is why a post got missed. There was just too much else going on. I lifted my left 'oar' out of the rivernet's water. 

Hey ho, there we go. The next several travel posts will be about all the places we have parked and enjoyed while scooting about the Bonny Land. In between all the planning and re-planning, there have been periods of quite blissful appreciation—almost enough to help one feel quite balanced. I'll check in again once the fourth gets over and done!

Oh, and as for the recovery, I was able to say to Mac1 last Saturday that it was the first day that I had woken up feeling free of the thing, and I could even smell again! Not 100%, but enough to rejoice and enjoy her fragrant garden. It's been a six-week run.... right, now to get a heap of posts ready for you!