Boardwalk

I took advantage of the weekend's discounts to buy myself a new pair of walking trousers and a new pair of trail shoes - both of which were needed, I hasten to add. Today was my first opportunity to try them out 'for real', as it were, and see if they were as comfortable 'in the field' as they were in the shop.

I'm due to lead a Ramblers' walk in Kirkintilloch and Lenzie in the new year and so decided to 'kill two birds with one stone' (help, I seem to have swallowed a metaphor dictionary!) and try to work out a suitable route for that.

Today's walk took me to Lenzie Moss Local Nature Reserve (pictured) and, although that will almost certainly feature in the final version of my walk, the walk I did today was just a little too long for our Tuesday group - we try to keep that to around 5 miles (8km) / 2 hours. A couple of wee tweaks and we'll be fine, though, so another couple of recce's may be required just to try out some alternatives.

I can confirm that both the new trousers and the new shoes passed the test, however, and will make another appearance on tomorrow's Tuesday walk (which someone else is leading).