Busy day

Well, busy morning and early afternoon, at least.

Mr A and I drove down to the building supplies shop in Alness today, and purchased some slabs, some sand and various other bits we need to make a patio for a picnic table out the back (part of Operation Get Rid of the Lawn and Replace it With Things Which Are More Appropriate for Us). Most of the big stuff will be delivered in due course.

I got my blip when we parked up at Fraser Brothers. It offers a good view of a ripening cereal crop with the Cromarty Firth behind. And good cloudage.

We returned to Tain and then went out to the community market, where I procured a bottle of gin from an Ullapool distillery, plus some charcuterie from Bogrow Farm. Mr A went to Macleods for a spirit level and we popped into Pipers for coffee and a bun, before heading back here as rain started (yes, it was sunny earlier), picking up a programme for the Festival on the way. We went to a few festival events last year during one of our first weekends up here, and it will represent a neat one year marker for our stay in Tain. How things have changed!

Then I headed off to Migdale Loch, picking up LU on the way, and together with a couple of other friends, we swam across the Loch and back. It was around 1200m, somewhat longer than the swim I did with KG on 1 July, but taking slightly less time. It was huge fun and a great boost to the confidence to head right across the Loch and back. That's something I've never done before. It was quite funny when some blokes on paddle boards and in a kayak passed across in front of me. Migdale Loch is a great resource for fun on the water. Last year, I was only thinking about the walks. Meanwhile, there was epic thunder and lightning in Tain and an incredible hail and rain storm along the Dornoch Firth as we drove back. I am really happy we were not out on the Loch when that happened. That would not have been nice (to put it mildly....). Anyway, I want to put this in context. It took me 56 minutes to swim about 1200m. Meanwhile, yesterday, my cousin's daughter did very well in the sprint triathlon in Hamburg. She did 750m swimming, 20km cycling, and 5km running in 1 hour minutes 10, or so. And she didn't even win. Here's the course.

Home, and I've vegged out for the rest of the day, which seems entirely reasonable, in the circumstances.