Has Spring sprung?

We've had some lovely weather - bright sunny days, although not the temperatures they've been getting in the South of England, but it seems to have gone a little changeable again. Still, it can happen anywhere - even in the Algarve as we found out on our recent golfing trip. It was a short trip this year - just 3 days' golf - any longer and I wouldn't have gone. The weather was unseasonably poor - cool and wet at times. We would wake to temperatures of just 11 C - similar to Banchory - rising to just 16 C. Thursday morning was really bad - it was lashing and we had to postpone our tee time. Fortunately, it stopped at lunchtime and we did manage to play in the afternoon.

Friday was better - it got up to 21 C - and we did manage 3 rounds of golf in the 3 days, so it wasn't a complete disaster - just a little disappointing. The worst was getting some kind of food poisoning on the Thursday night - and I wasn't alone. I couldn't even face going out for dinner on Friday night, our last evening.

So, yes, as I suspected, this was my last overseas golf trip. I just can't hack it any more. I'll still keep playing golf here of course - and I have one more big commitment I've signed up to, which involves 3 straight days of golf on our annual Summer Tour - to Peebles this time, in June, immediately after a cricket trip to Edinburgh. Will I see Ross when I'm there? Who knows? He's still looking for employment down there, without any success at the time of writing, and he's given himself a deadline of the end of this month, so he may be back in Banchory by June.

So what have we been up to since I got back from Portugal? I went for a cycle with the Freewheelers last Monday - the first time I'd been out with them since our Xmas lunch. Tuesday it was back to Inverurie and Wednesday was golf for me and swimming for Jo again.

On Thursday, Jo and I took advantage of the good weather and went for a walk. We parked the car at Milton and walked eastwards along the river. It was a voyage of discovery for Jo. We came across a "host of golden daffodils":

A little further on, we came across a tiny adder on our path:

Friday was a really busy day for Jo - she had the West Church coffee morning, immediately followed by her afternoon swimming. I was going hill-walking in the afternoon, but had been working away on re-varnishing our garden bench that sits out front and also preparing the balcony decking for its annual oiling, so I got on with these chores in the morning.

More of the same for me on Saturday and I also managed to give our new car its first wash in the warm sunshine. On Sunday, after Jo had finished her duties at St. Columba's coffee morning, we drove down to Perth to meet up with Barry, Helen and Dawn, who were caravanning/camping near Scone Palace - they had come to see the Classic Car show on the Saturday. We all went for a stroll to Scone Palace and took a wander round the grounds, taking a photograph in the old graveyard:

Annoyingly, there were some showers on Sunday and, all of a sudden, my car was filthy again.

Today (Monday) I played my first Seniors golf match of the season and tonight we have another live show on River Dee Radio - https://tunein.com/radio/River-Dee-Radio-s274232/ in case you've forgotten.

Tomorrow it's back to Inverurie and then golf and swimming on Wednesday. Thursday is medical day - Jo has her breast screening and I'm going back to the Dermatology Clinic re my nose.