Day 1471 start the day with a sea swim at 6am!!

The best part about not drinking is the time you get at the weekends, before anyone else is up… the roads are quiet, the beach is empty, the sea is calm, well not always obviously, but it was today.

Elly had messaged me on Thursday to ask if I was free to do a sea dip with her this morning. One thing led to another and it ended up being for sunrise (which is no mean feat at this time of year!) and in wetsuits, one of which Elly had to buy quickly! I don’t think I could go in without a wetsuit. I find the cold completely breathtaking in a wetsuit. Hats off to anyone who does that length of time without one!!

I woke at 2.30am to find my period had started.

Oh joy… that explains yesterday afternoon’s lethargy!

Elly was picking me up at 5.30am. I slept on and off between 2.30 and the alarm at 5.

The beach was empty.

There was only one other car parked with no people to be seen at all…. Turns out it was 2 girls from the Fit Body Farm, out for a run, as we saw them when they came back!

Ready to go in selfie. We couldn’t have picked a better day or time. The water was perfect.

I’ve always been told when you’re new to it, you should ideally go at high tide, when then wind is less than 5mph and coming from the east. That way you don’t get carried away from shore. you know how I like to follow a “rule” 😂

The conditions were just perfect.

The sun was just starting to rise.

Morning!!!

I love the colours in this next simple photo. The pinks and lilacs opposite the sunrise or sunset are always lovely.

It feels like we are really far out but that’s only because it’s so shallow.

I’ve found a hole in my wetsuit… I got an extra cold dip this morning!

Love these ripples in the water.

And again!

We stayed in roughly 20 minutes which is more than enough for me in this temperature. We both started to get cold at the same time.

I’m so chuffed with the photos this phone takes. The colours are so real.

The ripples seem real.

It’s forecast to be cloudy today.

We headed up and got dressed as quickly as we could. Hands and toes are always the coldest parts. It’s important to get them warm as quickly as possible. We went for a walk along the beach to warm up once we were dry. My dry robe looks like a dress!! It is a bit big now 😂

I’ve just noticed the heart shaped stone at our feet. The sun is rising fast but it’s still not even 7am.

I just had the best time. I’ve missed sea “swimming”.

For so long it’s seemed like too much hassle. Isn’t that ridiculous? When something you love seems like too much hassle.

I‘m so grateful to Elly for asking me to go today and bringing the sparkle for wild swimming back!

We were home for the back of 7 and it felt like lunchtime!!

I went for a warm shower and then Craig and I sat in the back garden, in the sun, for a coffee.

Look at Queen Khaleesi lying in the middle of the flower bed!

She’s loving the sunshine. It’s still nowhere near as warm as it looks!

We then headed back to Braehead so I could upgrade my Fitbit to an Apple Watch.

I only went for the SE because it’s the base model and is half the price of the Apple Ultra. It does everything I need it to do. It means I don’t need to carry my phone all the time. I say that and then imagine not being able to take a photo!!! Wonder how long it will be before the watch takes photos?!? ⌚️😂🤦🏻‍♀️📸

So back home and straight out to pick Gayle up for a wee lunch out. We were heading to Luss for lunch, but at the last minute turned in to Bowling to head to the gift shop called Paton Parcels.

Would you believe we drove straight into the Glasgow Kilt Walk!! There were people everywhere…. Our worst nightmare!!!

We had a sandwich with tea and cake in the Paton’s coffee shop. The radio was blaring, we could hardly hear to talk. It really wound up my anxiety for some reason…. Maybe it was that and the millions of people.

The Bowling Harbour was really pretty. The reflections were lovely.

The water didn’t move at all.

We walked down to the side of the Clyde and it was fairly calm too. There’s an old jetty out in the water, it was picturesque.

Looking back up to the Erskine bridge that we just drove over. if you zoom in to this shot, those two vertical posts are in the foreground and not part of the bridge. How random.

It was really cold so we didn’t hang around long.

We had a wander around the canal.

More reflections.

My friend helen will be so proud… she’s the queen of reflections!

It’s hard to believe there are thousands of kilt walkers milling around here… you can see some of them on this bridge!

I’ve been home since 3 and it’s still only 5pm. This is the longest day! I love getting up early.

There is a fair bit of anxiety today. I do wonder if it’s caffeine instead of decaf coffee maybe, by mistake…. That’s what it feels like, nothing more, just a jitteryness… I made that word up. 😂

I’ve had a great weekend but really desperate for some heat to that sunshine. ☀️☀️

Stay safe everyone ☀️☀️☀️

Day 1382 an antsy day with a stunning windswept sunset!

I slept like a log last night but woke in a complete lather of perspiration…. Us ladies perspire obviously…. Oh come on I was sweating buckets 😂😂 the sheets were soaking again but at least I hadn’t realised and it didn’t keep me awake.

I’ve been antsy and irritable all day today. Completely self inflicted and all in my own head. I didn’t really relax. I wasn’t in the present moment. I was focussed on anything but the present moment.

I knew I had to fix it so headed down to the sea for sunset. It’s been a beautiful day today, albeit, really cold. The sun has shone for the first time in a while. It was lovely to see.

The sunset was spectacular… hereby follows a million photos of the setting sun, but to set the picture….. I was FREEZING… completely under dressed for the weather. Check this….

😂😂 I was being slapped in the face by the sand…. It was really quite sore on my freezing cold face. The phone was covered in sand which didn’t seem great so I didn’t stay too long. But it was so beautiful!!

It was so windy it was difficult to keep the phone straight…. Hence some wonky photos 😂😂

The birds were floating about on the thermals… it was lovely to watch. They kept sweeping on by.

A lovely sky…. And it did the trick.

Back home and the house was sooooo cold but definitely warmer than the beach!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Day 1175 one of the most beautiful days in the Scottish Highlands 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️☀️☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

What a beautiful day at Clachtoll Beach.

It will turn out to be the best day of the week weather wise but we don’t know that yet. The joys of writing this a few days later. The sun shone all day.

It really is the most beautiful beach. There’s often no one on it. The waves have been high all week as it’s so windy but it’s lovely to see it in the sunshine.

I started the morning with Freya on the beach.

We both took a walk out in late morning to Split Rock, which Freya is showing off in this photo!

The colours are absolutely out of this world.

You can’t really see it’s a split rock when you approach it walking though… it just looks like a rock 😂

I was far too scared to climb up it. It looks like nothing here but I got a wave of vertigo and had to sit down!! Craig was off up there like a mountain goat!

I decided I would finally go in for a swim… checked the beach and didn’t see any jellyfish 🪼 so back to the van to get all my kit ready and back down to the near idyllic bay in the last few photos.

And there were jellyfish EVERYWHERE. All different colours, shapes and sizes. Now I know that many of them are no bother, whatsoever, when you are wearing a wetsuit, but sadly that seemed irrelevant at the time. I’m still putting my face in and snorkelling. Plus the wind is coming from the west bringing them all into the beach. I’m gutted to say I got spooked after only a few minutes of snorkelling. I saw two Lion’s Mane Jellyfish almost straight away. The sea was teeming with them. I admit to feeling marginally relieved when a couple and their son came down for a swim, fully suited up, and decided against it. Their son was at Uni studying Marine Biology and reported back that a good few of the jellyfish 🪼 were the poisonous ones.

I’m a bit gutted that we came here, or I did, a at least for the free water sports and it’s been too jellyfish-y (nope not even a word!) and far too windy for a novice to do anything else.

We sat on the beach for a bit enjoying the sunshine but came back up to get everything dried.

We cooked fresh chicken on the BBQ for dinner and had it in Brioche buns. Freya got a good few more walks too!

I take out the camera and boom, she hits the deck for a photo!!

It was a magical day today. Scotland in all it’s beauty.

Stay safe everyone 💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💙

Day 1174 a day in Scottish paradise, 3 seasons in one day!

(Again posting on actual day 1176 as no signal on the campsite!!)

Oooh I did not sleep that well. I was shattered but between the heat, some strong gusts of wind, Freya panting in the heat and someone snoring, I felt like I was awake a fair bit. That is ok, I have all day to do absolutely nothing if I want to.

The campsite is very busy but generally quietened about 10.30 to 11 ish last night when I went to bed. We sat watching the bunnies in the field in front of us. At one point there were 5 of them running about right in front of us. Fascinating to watch them.

This was the view out the window at 4.30am. It doesn’t get that dark up here. Even at 1.30am there was light in the sky.

It’s forecast to be sunny this morning and it’s trying really hard…. Not quite managing it.

Freya has been exceptional. Honestly we are blown away by our youngest pup. She’s always been the youngest of 3 so has always been more of a dogs dog than a people dog.

She’s lying at my feet now, honestly barely a peep out of her… except for that exceptionally heavy breathing through the night. The material for the sleeping bag isn’t the best for the heat. It’s amazing in summer but it was holding the heat a lot last night. She got herself a bit too embroiled in it! By the time I moved her, she stopped panting almost straight away.

So it’s now 8.15pm and with all things it’s not always perfect in paradise. It was so windy that we had to pack up camp to a certain extent. Down came the windbreak and pop top and we wound in the Fiamma awning. It was wild.

We went for a walk before it rained and the scenery was still stunning.

We went to Flossie’s Little Blue Shop in the Clachtoll village. It’s the cutest little place. We had cheese toasties.

Then the heavens opened and it rained for about 4-5 hours. Solidly. We went for a nap and I read. Don’t know if I’ve said that there no phone signal so I’m not glued to my phone which is nice.

We had a lovely salad late afternoon and it brightened up. We took Freya our for a lovely walk up to Stoer, the next village.

We walked round the Stoer headland and found the famous Broch. This was a stink g place. Must find out the history when we have signal.

It’s now 8.30pm and the sun is shining. It’s much cooler than it has been these last few weeks but it’s beautiful and that’s the main thing.

Stay safe everyone ☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️

Day 1173 ROADTRIP To Clachtoll in the Scottish Highlands! 🚐🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️

(Posting this from Ullapool on what is actually day 1176 😂 we have no signal at Clachtoll which I really rather nice. I wrote 2 days of blogs and I’ve had Monday and Tuesday off completely… doesn’t happen often!)

We are finally on holiday!!!

I’ve been awake since 5am and we finally got out the door about 10.45. It felt like it took forever… there were a few last minute things that we had to hunt for that took a bit of time. 😳

The whole works well under pressure… NOT…. Reared it’s ugly head this morning. I am not good when we need to find something that has been in the same place for 100 years, until we moved the house around and I put it in a safe place. I was raging!!!! But I found it…. Eventually 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️😂

Anyway, here’s wee Freya all secured in and surrounded by crochet 😆

Calaidh and Bhruic have stayed home and our next door neighbour, Louise, has moved in to live with them for a week.

It’s a 5 and a half hour trip without stops so we won’t be there until about 6 I reckon. Craig is driving Abbie the camper van. Very nice of him! I’m sitting taking random photos as I do!!

We stopped at Ralia Café to let Freya out and grab a late lunch. I don’t know what we are both doing but I liked this photo 😆

The gift shop here is called the Hairy Coo funnily enough, so I bought a pair of cosy socks… forgot to bring socks for my hikies 🤦🏻‍♀️

Next quick stop at Tesco in Ullapool to pick up supplies. Freya and I went for a walk while Craig went to Tesco…. Girl chose wisely!

We had the best drive up though the last 6 miles is a very tight single track road. Mrs anxiety was very glad not to be driving!

The campsite is everything we could wish for. Never been anywhere as friendly as this. It’s a 2 minute walk to the beach. Just beautiful.

Saturday nights sees the local fish van the Catch Toll, open for business.

Oh and did I say we have ZERO SIGNAL. So nothing is getting through. I feel bad for the poor girl Loki f after the dogs as she will have no idea why we disappeared but other than that it’s rather lovely.

Freya has been the best dog ever… and check the view out the window. That says it all. It’s 10.40pm and it’s still light, I’m still in shorts and flip flops but I’m very tired. 5am was a very long time ago!!

Stay safe everyone ☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️

Day 1162 writing this from my happy place! 🌊🏝️🌊☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Honestly if the sun shone like this in Scotland, we wouldn’t go anywhere else.

I’m sitting out on the rocks at Portencross again and it’s just out of this world. I feel like I just popped over to Greece for the evening! there is actually a heat haze over the sea!

It’s obviously been raining since I left work but I missed all of it. The van was 48.3°C when I got in it at work tonight. I decided in my wisdom to wash it before I left. I was soaking in sweat by the time I’d finished… sorry perspiring… us women perspire don’t we?!

I’ve even dipped my toes in and it’s surprisingly freezing cold. Considering I was in here in a wetsuit last weekend, I really didn’t expect it to feel so cold.

The clouds are just beautiful. We very rarely get an extended period of heat like this.

It was VERY hot at work. 28°C in the office today. I struggle to concentrate… the Scottish Dog Behaviourist is working tonight so I took the chance to head to the sea. The tide is gently coming in so I’ve had to move back a couple of times.

I went to the supermarket in Stevenson and got some salad for my dinner and I ate that with my toes in the water. Honestly I can’t manage more than 10 seconds at a time because of the cold.

I slept like a log last night and couldn’t wake up this morning but I dragged myself out on dog jog. As soon as I was out of bed I actually felt fine. The hardest part is thinking about getting out of it!

It was a beautiful morning again, with stunning clouds and we never met a soul. Just how I like it!

I know I’m writing this as I sit here but it’s fascinating to watch the tide come in. My feet just got soaked again in my new perch and it was a welcome freeze!

In my element.

No worries.

No stress.

No anxiety.

Just focused on the present moment and just being me.

I was sitting here with my toes in what must be less than half an hour ago!

Ellison just phoned about going for a swim at Seamill beach but I don’t have my stuff with me! Such a shame!!

I’ll have to make do with my tootsies!!

What a night.

Stay safe everyone ☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿☀️

Day 1153 wild sea swim at Portencross! 🏊🏼‍♀️🤿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💙☀️

That sun emoji is still right up there at the top. Even above my ♥️ emoji which I use a lot.

I’m sleeping really well these days… there no snoring in our house as he’s away and obviously I don’t snore at all so I’m out for the count! 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️😂

I felt a lot of anxiety when I woke this morning. It’s a beautiful day again and I have a sea swim planned at my favourite Portencross beach, today at 11am.

Now that sounds to me like the perfect day… and spoiler alert… it absolutely was… just the best…. But oh my god I make some amount of fuss in my head before I go!!!

There’s the dogs to be walked… and I like to do that before everyone is up… so I better get moving…

We went a different way today. They were so excited as they know they get off at the top of the hill so they pulled me all the way up. I stressed about that.

Then Freya needed a wee rest!

There are loads of buttercups up here.

Look how clear the sky is. You can see all the way over to the Isle of Arran.

A gate specifically for The Windsor Waffle my blogger friend. Just so she knows I’m still looking for gates 😂

Sooo many buttercups!!

I still had ages to get ready to head to the beach. I was stressed about remembering everything I needed to take (which was all safely stored in one place, I might add..) and of course I needed to be there an hour early so I could get parked. my driving and parking anxiety has been quite bad this weekend.

We’ve had a big event on in the Village Hall this weekend and I seem to be petrified of not getting parked when I come home. My whole weekend has been jigged around this event, which is, quite frankly, ridiculous!!

Anyway… I get there for about 10am and this is what greets me. Portencross is the best I have seen it this year.

The water is so still, so calm and peaceful. I could sit here for hours.

It’s just a shame a big group of age 60+ seem to have moved in to the picnic area and even at that time, have music blaring on a loud speaker. They are all chatting over it. Sitting under a large gazebo, none of them in the sun and they’ve brought an actual karaoke machine. I mean, really?!? Who does that. No care for anyone else sitting nearby them. Not sure why they hadn’t just stayed at home.

Down on the rocks and thankfully their tunes don’t travel.

I sat and watched this wee family of ducks float past! The wee one at the back was paddling like crazy to keep up. I was so lovely to watch.

I go swimming with Ellison from Tartan Campers and her sister Eileen who has been doing it for years so knows her stuff! We also met Chantal and Lesley today (they are really good swimmers so they were off for a good two kilometre swim).

Eileen is really good at taking photos but had left her phone pouch at home. I gave her mine. No point in me faffing with my phone and getting nothing! Also allowed me to relax and enjoy it without taking photos all the time.

We swam out the little stony beach at the side of Portencross Castle.

We literally walked in here and swam away!

Don’t be fooled into thinking I was swimming with a spaceman!! Ellison is wearing her snorkel mask which covers her full face and allows you to breath through your nose and mouth while snorkelling.

Eileen obviously took all of these photos. It just felt like such a special day. I’ve always wanted to swim there. I was petrified of jellyfish and saw none. I preferred not to look but once I borrowed Ellison’s snorkel I saw that it was amazing to swim under water.

I could have lay about in the water by the side of the castle all day!

It’s lovely to come out of the sea into the heat but you’re still exceptionally cold. The heat helps you to warm up a bit faster but you still have the shivers.

We sat and had a lovely lunch looking out to sea, I took a salad with me, I was ravenous by then!

Then to top it all off, Ellison and I took a wander back round to the castle and went inside. I’ve always wanted to do that! The views from the top are incredible.

This next picture shows the bit we swam in. It was amazing to see it from above.

Yet another day spent with people who are very good for my soul!

The whole reason I write this blog is to show people that I might look like I do lots of amazing things at times but I do feel a lot of anxiety around it. It doesn’t always come easily to me. It would have been so easy to stay home today and look what I would have missed.

Feel the fear and do it anyway!

Off to meet friends in the pub tonight about half 6… it’s been all go but a great weekend!

Lots of calls with Craig during the day today catching up on his dog training too! All good over there!

Stay safe everyone ☀️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿💙🤿

Day 788 a whole lot of exercise!!

I didn’t put out a blog yesterday…. and the world didn’t stop turning.

I had less than nothing to say. I honestly couldn’t even do the… wake up, went to work blog again. It bores me writing it let alone you guys having to read it.

So…. I’ve said this before but I’m going to make a pact with myself. If I have nothing to say then I’m not going to write a blog that day as this needs to be tool that helps my mental health and doesn’t add to the list of things that need doing. If there’s no blog in a day, I’m all good, just my day has been uneventful.

I should say I’ve been good this week. I’ve not been anxious at all really and it’s good I have nothing to have to work through.

Today I have loads to say as it’s 13.16pm and I’ve already done 23,245 steps!!

The weather has been crazy for May in Scotland. Its very wet, cold and windy. I’ve taken some pics on the way to and home from the Farm to show the crazy clouds. There was a lovely rainbow during the class too.

The Fit Body Farm was a killer this morning. We’ve been doing a fairly new thing called DecaFit these last few Fridays. There is a whole lot of running and it’s really just not my thang. 🥴

This morning we worked out 5 stations for 3 mins with a 500m run in between each station. I think I only managed the 500m twice and the rest were closer to 350/400m. It’s non stop without and break…. though hitting the station targets before the 3mins is up does give you a minute of a breather.

So, not my favourite day at the Farm but I still did almost all of it and I know the running will come the more I work at it.

It was sunny when we finished but still windy and cold.

I went straight into the shower when I got home as I couldn’t get a heat!

I had to have Abbie the Camper van at the garage for her MOT this morning, so I drove down to Glengarnock with Calaidh and Freya so I could walk back up.

I thought this bus stop looked a bit arty?!?

This is where all the daffies used to grow

A strange contraption blowing from this tree… either Chinese lanterns or poly bags?!

Back home and crawled into bed for a wee half hour…. then back out this time with Bhruic.

Craig was working in Ayr so I thought I’d go with him and walk her down on the beach. He dropped us in Prestwick as I’d never been down to that beach as far as I could remember.

It was wild!!! Sooooo windy and the sea was whipping up and splashing over the sea wall. I have so many photos.

I’m not sure they do it justice, it was really wild.

Then in the middle of it all, I spotted this.

The sun comes out but it doesn’t heat up much….. though it does look a lot prettier!

Mumma do you think Dad will hurry up so we don’t actually freeze to death?!?

I was fine for the first hour but after that I was just walking round in circles, praying Craig would hurry up. We sat on a bench for a bit but I think that just made me colder!

Come on…. Let’s move again…. We’ve been sitting too long!!

He phoned to say he was 6 minutes away! 😘😘😘 of course then the sun came out and the sea calmed down a fair bit.

It was soooo good to see him driving towards us…. I got the heated seats on and defrosted.

Back home to hang washing and made a lovely sharing snack late lunch/early dinner.

We had it with Nozeco (alcohol free sparkling).

It was really lovely and now…. I could sleep for Scotland.

It’s 16.18 and I’m now up at 24,951 steps and still waiting to hear if Abbie passed her MOT!!

She did not pass…..She failed for all brake disks, a top engine mount and a white indicator light….. a mere £374. 🫣

Anyway, all fixed now. I just put £133 of diesel in her the other day…. That better do her for now. She’s had enough!

Anyway it’s been a good day. I’m feet up on the couch now. Planning only steps to the bathroom 😆

Have a great weekend!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️