I don't like it. It's all going too well

For today's venture I was looking for something to get me on to a hill, something to work on the "up" muscles, something I had done before ( to measure how I'm doing), and something that would be  less than calf deep  in mud. As you can imagine, I was not spoilt for choice.

The eventual winner was The Nebit, a cutesy little hill above Alva.

You start off up Alva Glen where the waterfall was every bit as spectacular as yon Viagra Falls in Canada

Then traverse across to Silver Glen and up the windfarm haul road.
Complete with cross drains !

At the sheep pens, I did consider going East up Ben Ever, but decide to stick to the original plan. Next time !

Call that a summit cairn ? These Tory cuts are really starting to bite.

Now the last time I was up here it was very windy and it was the day that I finally decide that the two walking poles configuration was not for me - they kept getting blown between my ankles.What? Well if you find that amusing that's your problem.

The Hills 0' Fife. must get over there sometime

On the way down I was trying to remember when I was last on top of a hill. The blog archive revealed that it was Myreton Hill in January. And before that, I think, Louise Wood Hill in July 2011. FFS. A missing year right enough.

Peuth Inspector Clouseau Closes the Case

We at the Surete (Access Division) never give up until the last kilometre of peuth has been walked and the last stile shaken. Like a poodle with a bin, we are !

So as yesterday promised to be what passes for a reasonable day, I set off to complete the inspection I had started on Saturday. Now this little mini-network involves a bit of doubling back and overlapping, but still could easily be completed by a fit and active person in one session. But then, a fit and active person wouldn't be writing this blog. You can't have it both ways

The weather was that familiar struggle between the Sun King and The Rain God - hazy sun trying to burst through the cloud and halfhearted spitting of rain

On Saturday I had louped this stile and headed off down the glen for the bus home. Today it was onward and upward.

The first of the 478 frustrating false summits (I've counted them !) if you choose to ascend Dumyat from this side.

Interesting question - when does a cross-drain become a ford ?

This little spot just seemed to have "Reserved for OM's Arse" written on it. "Table for one,sir? certainly. Are you having the set menu? Can I recommend the banana with hardly any black bits, followed by the cheap Tesco coffee from the flask ?  Enjoy" The Rain God was beginning to prevail, so I didn't tarry, and moved on , leaving a generous tip (Don't eat yellow snow)

Those of you who are reading this without moving your lips might be thinking "That's not a path - that's a track" Correct. However it is part of the Core Path Network As the Bee Gees said "It's only words"

We're at over 1000 ft here, and it's raining fairly steadily

Here's an "issue". If that lett was just lowered a bit the puddle would drain away.

This junction marks the end of my jurisdiction. I had planned on retracing my steps, however there was a longer option to carry on up Glen Loss to the Sheriffmuir Road and home that way. It had stopped raining, I felt surprisingly fit, and, with the weight of  official responsibility lifted from my shoulders (must get some of that titanium responsibility) I carried on up the glen.

I don't know who is responsible for this path, but judging by the straightness, it's probably Via Inspector Morse.

Colsnaur. It holds the snow early and late.

When I was up her last year they were in the middle of harvesting this little bit of woodland. Now it's just a corpse of clear- fell with only the buzzard poles remaining.


And so back home by way of the reservoir. No sign of the swans. Does anyone know what has happened to Danny who used to blog about cups and rings and a whole lot of other interesting stuff ?

About 7 miles and 1100 ft. Perhaps, just perhaps, we might be starting to get somewhere again

You dont have to be a famous movie star

or a big pop star to do it.

You don't even need to go to Africa to do it.

Bishop Joe Devine has no objection to gay couples doing it.(Obviously they'll burn in the flames of eternal damnation, but, hey- thems the breaks)

An interest in furniture would be useful

Apparently, you can do it with a dawg and some pies

Even I can do it !

Yes, It's Adopt a Path.  I couldn't resist the appealing little faces of some of the homeless critters in my area. ( What? You've never had a path sob "Take me home with you" ? Just me then ?)

I passed the exhaustive medical (a little condensation formed on the mirror held to my lips), lied about my criminal record (called criminal download these days, apparently) and was selected from a host of other applicants of dubious moral turpitude seated on the Group W bench.

A couple of my paths are around the village and can be done while popping up to Sunil's for my copy of "Reader's Social Workers".

But this is a little further afield and is in two sections (watch this space !)

So, how did it go ? Well, no Bangalore Torpedoes were required. A couple of shoogly stiles and a rotten but "safe with care" sleeper bridge went on the Inspection Report Card.

And, of course, it was feckin muddy. Good job I was wearing my ( you can rent this space for a small fee) waterproof trail shoes. They really are the dog's.

 

 

In my life

I've eased up on the historical anecdotes, as they have proved to be among the less popular posts on here. "Popular" , of course, in the context of this blog, is used in it's sense of "What is the most popular venereal disease ?"
So, instead of regaling you with tales such as being handed a bottle of Lone Star and a shotgun over the bar of a road house outside Tyler, I will let the following clips give you a tantalising taste of "OM- The Texas Chronicles"

Dunblane residents..

..take extreme steps to prevent folk frae Brig 'Allan joining in the Andy Murray fest today !

Curios

Thanks to the amazing restorative powers of hot Vimto, I may soon be allowed out to play
In the meantime, I have been having fun with Youtube. You know how it works - you search for something and the sidebar throws up something that you had forgotten about and then as yo follow this up you disciver little gems that you never knew about.
Here are a few.
(Warning ! If you've been on here before, and find my musical taste to be, well, crap, press the Red Button NOW to go straight to the Paralympics)

OK. Lets start with a man in a cowboy hat singing a Country song in a pub in Errshur. Nothing unusual about that, you may say. They've got to fill in time somehow until the fighting starts. But this is big John Stewart, considered by some to be among the best songwriters of his generation. Formerly a folkie in the Kingston Trio, he wrote a lot of poppy stuff in the sixties, including Day Dream Believer for the Monkees and a minor hit for himself with Gold (When the lights go down in the California town....)
Iin his later years he wrote, performed  and recorded some very worthy stuff I (I was looking for a clip of a track I have called The Ghost Inside of Me)
So  best of order now. Wan singer , wan song.




Next up its Joe "The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get" Walsh. Filmed in 2004, it shows he could still sing and play a bit, as could the guys backing him. Recognise them ? ( before they get introduced at the end)



Joe Walsh again from the same gig. Looking worryingly like Russ Abbott, he backs one of the many sixties legends required to wear a cap while being filmed in order not to dazzle the pilots of incoming planes.




There's lots more, but I don't want to spoil you. If you;re good, I'll put up the Chuck Berry/ Jimmy Campbell stuff next time

For no other reason

than the fact that I happened upon this clip by accident a minute ago.
I had searched for it several times in the past without any luck - it contains one of the most memorable lines in English Literature/Music, so I thought I'd put it up before it disappears again. Roy Harper -  a total fruitcake !!








Nope? Fair enough - suit yourselves