Between rains

Last night's clear sky didn't let us down - it may not have been as warm today as it was last week, but there was plenty of sun and not a drop of rain. Just as well: the roofers had arrived before I was properly awake, the two Lesser Roofers up the scaffolding all ready and waiting for the 8am arrival of Bruce the Boss. It's not really possible to see how much they've done without actually going up the scaffolding myself, but they took out the two old Velux windows and put in the new ones - making it watertight before the return of the rain tomorrow. The excellent Bruce also appeared outside as I was finishing breakfast to ask if we wanted the old, apparently paper-thin flashing (or something) replaced while he had the scaffolding up, so that's another job we'll not need to do before the winter. They banged and tapped away all morning and into the afternoon before going off to weatherproof another open roof job ...

I spent the morning doing Italian (I get further in the morning) and fighting to get back into a financial site whose saved details seem to have vanished in a system update. It was tedious and irritating, but I did it.

And then I escaped. My pal was in town on business and we'd arranged to meet and explore the area inside Glenstriven Estate, a whole chunk of hillside at the far end of Loch Striven where we used to visit with the boys when there was a muddy path along the loch side outside the wall and bypassing the forbidding "Private" notice cut in stone. The path disappeared and we stopped going, thereby missing out on the pleasant little beach where we used to sit. Now it seems to be all holiday rentals in various new builds or renovated cottages. We had a great walk - the photo shows the path we climbed before crossing a burn and descending by another track. If you're looking at it on a big screen, you might just be able to make out the distant pier at the fuel depot on the left of the loch - it's featured in more than one blip in the past.

Our way down took us right past the front of the big house - we weren't sure if it was empty or if we'd be berated for walking though someone's garden. In the event we only saw two tradesmen, with vans, apparently having a row over something, so we walked boldly by as if we had every right to be there. Maybe we did ...

I saved my route on my routefinder GPS so that I can find it again, but when I got home I had to scamper to make chilli for dinner as well as poaching some plums that were about to go soft and remembering at the last minute that I had to make bread for breakfast. 

Superwoman, eh?