Dawyck Botanic Gardens

It's impossible to do full justice to a packed day through my own photographs, so I'll link to the blips of the four other blippers (and three other non blipping book group members) that I was lucky enough to share a weekend away with. I've also saved blipping until Monday morning, as my photo editing and conservation approach relies on better wifi than we had in the house.

Ridgeback13
HazelH
Winsford
LauraMuir

I've also added a couple of group photos as extras - one after Parkrun and the other in the dining room of Mossfennan House.

I was up pretty early on Saturday morning, although unfortunately not after a particularly good night's sleep. All the conditions were correct. A nice cool room (after switching off the radiator and opening the window). A lovely cosy duvet. A comfortable bed. Dark and quiet. None the less, partly because I have been running a cold for a few days, I had a disturbed night's sleep. Even so, I was eager to be up and to enjoy the day.

We left early to drive over to Lanark for the Lanark Moor parkrun. I didn't run, but walked as fast I could, around the five km course, so as I was a parkrun virgin I inevitably got my fastest time. Which was pretty slow, of course. And I was last! I'm a bit out of the way of walking purposefully, partly through lack of time, partly because my hip has been hurting, and partly because I often prefer to do other things like cycle or go on the peloton. This reminded me of my lack of walking fitness, which is something I ought to rectify.

After a quick lunch, we headed out again, to visit Dawyck Botanic Gardens, which encouraged me to take lots of photos on the camera for the first time in ages, and which is where I got my blip. The colours in the day's wall to wall sunshine were amazing.

The evening passed extremely pleasantly. C and M whipped up a marvellous meal between them, with C in the lead (and indeed C was pretty much our leader for the weekend as it was she who suggested and organised the house, having visited there in the spring, and she who got us organised over provisions and sleeping arrangements and such like). We sat around chatting in the elegant drawing room, until the time came to draw to a close. I'd done a lot of steps and a lot of active minutes....so I was definitely ready for bed.