April action

(Remember if you're viewing this by email, that it's better viewed directly on the blog - particularly the photographs - at http://ianrstewart.blogspot.co.uk/)

There's been a gap of a couple of weeks again between posts, but I'm not losing enthusiasm for keeping my diary going - just been busy that's all.

My 3 consecutive days of golf when the clocks changed and the season started didn't work out too well - it was certainly one round too much for me, so I'll need to be careful next week in the Algarve when we're playing 4 days in a row - albeit in buggies. I squeezed in a couple of short cycles too, plus a coastal walk from Newburgh to Blackdog (see http://bvhill-walkers.blogspot.co.uk/ for details and photos).

Dawn came up to Banchory on Saturday for a well-earned short break which finished yesterday when I took her back to Aberdeen to catch the Gold Megabus back home. Gary and Luca came over and joined us for a curry at the Derbar on Saturday night, then, on Sunday, Dawn and I went for a walk along the Deeside Way to Milton of Crathes, where we met Jo for a coffee and scones etc. Jo, still troubled with her hip - and back - caught the bus home from there, but Dawn and I walked up through Crathes for the long loop home.

On Monday, Jo, Dawn and I took a drive up Deeside, stopping first of all at Burn o' Vat -

The upper path was a little too precarious for Jo, so she had her own sit-in protest!

Looking over Loch Kinord

Next stop was Ballater for a spot of lunch in Rock, Salt and Snails before heading further up the valley to Balmoral where we decided to do the tour of the estate -

(Jo and Dawn aren't phoning home - they're listening in to the audio tour!)

We got back to Banchory in time to grab fish suppers just before Gary and Luca arrived. It's Easter school holiday fortnight and his parents are working, so Luca is with us until Friday night. On Tuesday morning, Dawn, Luca and I cycled out the Deeside Way to Buchanan's where Jo joined us for some lunch. Of course, being a creature of habit, Luca insisted we stop off at his favourite river bank at the Platties -

The slight gradient back up from the Way to the main road was a bit too tough for some -

After lunch at Buchanan's, the 3 cyclists headed back home via the Banchory Circular Paths. It's a pretty good trail, but there are a few bumps and, if you're not concentrating properly on the surface, it's easy to take a tumble - and that's exactly what poor Luca did. He wailed for a bit and we all walked the next 100 yards ot so, but soon we were all back in the saddle and made it all the way home, where Luca exhibited his war wounds -

On Wednesday morning, we all walked along to the village and this allowed Luca to climb up and slide down his favourite hill -

The video Luca insisted I took of him sliding down can be viewed at https://youtu.be/8Ncohq-4IjY. I then drove Dawn in to Aberdeen and came back to Banchory and took Luca up to the driving range to hit a few balls.

On Thursday morning, Luca and I went back to Inchmarlo driving range, but this time we cycled there. He hit about 80 balls and was pretty hot and tired - this was one of his better swings -

Tomorrow evening, Gary comes to pick Luca up. I'll be long gone by then - down to Glasgow to see The Who with Dick Taylor. It turns out Dick is a closet Who fan - he bought 2 tickets, thinking Theresa would come with him, but she wasn't interested so he asked me - and I was delighted to accept. Dick's driving and we're leaving at 1 pm and won't get home until nearly 2 am - a long day, but hopefully worth it.