September sunshine

Yes, it's been beautiful the last few days - better than some of the summer days - and we're almost in October.

I went cycling on Friday afternoon during a brief break from the first day of the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, but it felt as if I'd never been on a saddle before. I don't think I was quite over the holiday traumas yet. Likewise golf on Saturday at Duff House Royal in Banff - I could barely get the ball off the tee. Fortunately, although I started poorly yesterday in our annual Scotland v Rest of World Challenge match, I did recover a little and just did enough to help our team to a win.

All the sporting etc stories you can read about in my other blogs - if you're at all interested - but today, with the temperature above 20C again, Jo and I decided to go for a short walk. The initial idea was to walk to Woodend Barn at the other end of town and have a coffee in Buchanan's Bistro, but it was so nice, that, after sitting on the banks of the Dee, down by "Platties", for half an hour or more, just soaking in the sun and scenery, we decided to venture out a bit further and head for the tearoom at Crathes Castle.

This was our first stop by the river:

Looking west

Looking east

I set up the camera timer for a selfie of Jo and I, but this Vizsla walked right in front just as the camera clicked!

"Platties"

We walked round the little lochan and took the east trail up to the castle. There's loads of little wooden walkways there:

Waiting for Jo in the castle tearoom courtyard after lunch, when we were plagued with wasps

We went on a loop home that took us past Deeside Brewery and across Upper Lochton and out past Glen o' Dee, where the old sanatorium now looks a sorry sight:

We took our time, but we were out for a total of 5 hours and walked 11 miles in all. All the stats and the route are here - http://www.mapmywalk.com/workout/749358809