Today we walked from St Jean in France to Roncevalles in Spain. We did not get off to a good start as J was late getting ready and all the other pilgrims had left – so walking on our own we immediately got lost. Luckily we managed to join up with another Pilgrim group – […]

This morning we went and had breakfast at the famous Ribera market in Bilbao. J had a hige speciality Basque Palmier – I’m surpised he would ever eat again after that. Then we went to the Basque museum which was quite interesting but would have been better if there were English lables on the exhibits. […]

Arrived in Bilbao fine. Unfortunately the appartment is a bit indifferent – we bought two pizzas and then discovered there was no oven! However Bilbao itself is surprisingly lovely. I always thought of it as a rather dull industrial city – but in fact it has a load of charming buildings, a nice river and […]

Whanne that April with his shoures sote The droughte of March hath perced to the rote. And smale foules maken melodie, That slepen alle night with open eye, So priketh hem nature in hir corages; Than longen folk to gon on pilgrimages A quote from Chaucer at the beginning of the Canterbury Tales and very […]

Beautiful day here today for Mother’s Day and we went down to Rhu to see my parents. The marina looked really scenic with bright blue water and hundreds of white boats – there is nothing more pretty than Helensburgh when the weather is nice – shame it doesn’t happen very often! I cooked a bit […]

Last night I got home from Glasgow quite late. I was sitting in the lounge and suddenly a heard the most tremendous grunting and squealing coming from the back door. I dashed over, thinking that something was attacking the cats (or more likely that they were fighting with each other – again). I opened the […]

I’m a big fan of Badgers and also of the Scottish Badgers charity. They have been asked to publicize some talks about the rewilding of Scotland – another subject which is very dear to my heart. There are upcoming talks happening here: 5th April – Corran Halls, Oban 3rd May – Theatre Royal, Dumfries 24th […]

I don’t normally watch wildlife programmes. Not because I don’t like wildlife (I clearly do!) but because I find it so depressing in modern programs when they insist on keeping on mentioning how humanity is wiping out every creature on the globe. Doubtless this is true (and I for one would be glad if there […]

I am seriously not having a good week. Calor were supposed to be doing a delivery today but R has gone to London with the keys to our Land Rover in his pocket and left it parked where the lorry can’t get in so I have had to ring them to rearrange the delivery. While […]

I went to Glasgow yesterday to see John Cooper Clarke. I’ve been a fan of his for years and I was particularly looking forward to hearing his rendition of my favourite “I married a monster from outer space”. Unfortunately, things did not go according to plan. According to the website (City Halls) the show started […]