Went for a walk today...

We went for a walk today with the Silver Duke of Edinburgh group and some colleagues. The weather forecast was absolutely diabolical, sleet with 20 mile an hour winds, which basically means sideways in-your-face sleet, so we were all a little reluctant... we can't just cancel without good reason, because basically there aren't enough weekends in the year to fit things in if we do.

However, when we got to the car park where we were meeting the kids it was not even slightly windy, nor was it sleeting. What we did have was a layer of new, soft, grippy snow on the ground, and some gorgeous white mist eddying around the hills we were about to walk up. Obviously a reward from Santa for being good walkers...

We had a lovely walk through from Traquair to the Ettrick Valley, pushing the kids ahead of us and keeping them moving in the cold. The views were stunning, almost in monochrome, with all the field edges outlined in black and occasional patches of mist. At one point we came downhill towards a circular sheep fold, and it looked amazing from above, a white circle with black shadows on a white background... Of course, neither Handsome nor myself had remembered to pick up cameras this morning.

And then we went and sat in the Glen Cafe, in the squashy settees in front of the wood burning stove, and had steak and onion baguettes and masses of coffee while we waited for the kids to do the last (impossible to go wrong on) stretch along the side of St Mary's Loch.

Much better than shopping.