Jay in the distance

We were well entertained at breakfast in the hotel this morning by a couple at the other side of the dining room. They had no idea of just how hilarious they were with their barked demands for 'Hot coffee; it must be hot!' and 'Fried eggs - whites only!' and their views on 'Lorna' Thunberg, e.g. 'How on earth could a teenager know anything about anything?' I admired the waitress, who did well to keep her cool when serving them - even when they said they didn't want orange juice, later changed their minds, then left almost full glasses at the end of the meal. 

After breakfast, we set off on a beautiful walk in the sunshine through the woods behind the village and up into the hills. Our route followed the River Lednock to the Melville monument, taking in the Deil's cauldron along the way.

Not long into the walk Mr hazelh photographed this 'unknown' bird at quite a long distance. It's the first time that he has ever seen a jay. My extras capture other aspects of the walk: the beautiful trees, fungi, and the river.

The main event of this outing came on the descent. I was just toddling along, supported by my sticks, when I made a slight misstep. This first resulted in an agonising shot of pain across my kneecap that almost made me throw up, then the realisation that the return to the hotel would be very slow and painful.

Indeed it did take a long time to limp the last couple of miles back to the village. We consoled ourselves with a takeway lunch from the deli, which we ate in our hotel bedroom, and then rested for the remainder of the afternoon.

We had hoped to go to the village firework display, but this was out of the question because I can barely walk. Instead we watched the start of the march with pipe band from the hotel car park, then settled down for a game of Scrabble in the hotel lounge, followed by dinner.

The best news of the day is that (a) my blip of Thursday (the naughty squirrel) was selected for this week's BBC pictures of Scotland, and (b) the application for funding to extend the work on LornaL's war diary that I submitted with Bruce on 29th September was successful!

Exercise today: 6 mile walk/limp (13,744 steps).