Menorgantry; Hanging Fire

Another thing that Mac1 and I did together was seek out new rugs for the van... I wanted something lighter and striped to help visually create a larger space. We found two excellent items in IKEA, and Mac1 used her stitchery skills to join them together into a runner. I'm thrilled.

My stay in Edinburgh was lovely, but came the time it was to hit the road again. I turned The Grey's wheels towards Fife, the first stop being Cowdenbeath. Here, there are good grocery stores; parts of the same chains found throughout the country, but as most work as franchises, there are differences to be found. For example, the Lidl stores in Cowdenbeath, Lanark, and Montrose are all excellent, with pleasant and cheerful staff... whilst the same might not be said on all counts about the stores at Greenock, Liberton, or Hawick. The latter three all seem to work on the principle that you are there to steal all their stock and must therefore be viewed as a potential shoplifter. Hard as that is to swallow, it is also an indictment of their customer demographic that they have had to take this stance. Customer demographics also play a part in shelf stock, which means that things I can get from one store may not necessarily be available in another. 

This applies to all the supermarkets I frequent, and is most notable with regard to vegetarian/non-meat offerings. As another example of this, Banchory Tesco has no less than four chill units filled with variety, Lanark has three, but Greenock Tesco has two, and Montrose, only one.

Hey ho. Anyway, Cowdenbeath. Once groceries are done, I can park at the leisure centre, where there is also an EV charger. As fate would have it, we ended up there for four days, because Storm Amy raged through and had a strong 'tail'. If I have no need of driving in high winds or battering rain, I don't. I wouldn't usually stay that long in a public, and very busy, central parking lot, but the weather dictated, and nobody was concerned.

During that time, I used up the last of Stephen's excellent hummus - here with sourdough toast and a lick of marmalade on top.

Yes, it was like a nutty butter! Thank goodness I had done the grocery run before parking up, or I'd have been out of bread, milk and eggs. As it was, I had to do another visit (this time to Morrisons), before moving up the road to Falkland. At this stop, the winds were still playing a bit of havoc for those of us with higher vehicles, so I spent three nights there. Can top up with water from the back of the toilet block there, so that was good. Next stop was Friokheim. You might gather from this, if you have been paying attention over the past couple of years, that I was taking a well-run route now, and not venturing out to places new on this part of the trip. Mainly because I had in mind to be in Aberdeenshire for the last two weeks of this month.

I ended up staying five days at Friokheim, a place for which I have great fondness and always find someone interesting to talk to. There were some tremendous sunsets.

Next, it was Banchory. This is where the wheels fell off. Not literally. Not the van. For me. For plans...

Strike one was that I hadn't had the sense to check when the school holidays were. Strike two was to go first to Tesco (as mentioned above, it's one of the best) with the information from strike one. Strike three was to have entered the store and discovered that every parent in the district seemed to find it necessary to drag the whole brood of virus-ridden kids with them: coughing, sneezing, touching all the fruit and veg. No covering of mouths or use of handkerchiefs - or masks. Then strike four, my little supply of masks to protect myself, which I keep in the Rolls-later, was out. 

I tried not breathing, but that started to be problematic. I did what I had to and got out as fast as I could. 

You are probably guessing where this is heading! Despite dosing up on my winter vits, wiping everything down and seeking to stay healthy, down I went. Thankfully, nothing more than your standard face-melting cold virus... but every bit as debilitating as your standard face-melting cold virus. No fever, minimal headache, but plenty of woolly head, a gallon of water from the eyes, more from the nose, the cough was dry and convulsive. It also wiped ten days off my calendar. Plans for a couple of visits had to be cancelled. At the start of this week, I had to gather myself together and start thinking of heading back down the way.

On the plus side, there are few places that could have been quite so conducive to recuperation. The Paddocks are in the centre of town, the main Banchory carpark being on one side of it, and the toilet block, water supply, and a medical centre on the far side of that. Lots of people coming and going, so if I had been in desperate need, there was help to be had. By the same token, I was left unbothered and could observe the sports being played on the field to the left, all the kids having fun on the grounds to the right, and could go to the car park when I needed a power top-up, all without having to get too much out of the van. The weather broke down, but there were a couple of bright days. I sign this post off feeling a little frustrated at the kibosh of plans, but then again, happy to have been in such a lovely spot...