Rural Soap Opera

Lots of phone calls this morning, planning departments, insurance companies, car garages - nothing interesting. But it did mean I spent nearly 3 hours looking out the window - and what an astounding amount of activity i could see along the drystone wall that runs by our little beck. Mr blackbird having a wash, the mallards courting, the long-tail tits mobbing the trees - but this little fellow peeking in and out of the gaps in the wall made me laugh the most - it was amazing how far he'd travel and then pop out again, a reality check to see how nervous he was - even the blue tits seemed to startle him.

This evening 10 out of 11 students turned up for a Developing Skills for Night Navigation workshop - a great result as the weather was truly awful - we made our way into the Glenderaterra valley building up the techniques needed to find increasingly vague points - but eventually i turned us back as i was concerned we'd get back across the two fords - in the 3 hours we were out Id estimate they'd risen 4 inches.
A little bit of additional challenge often reinforces the learning, certainly enhances the experience - it was a happy, chatty and slightly relieved bunch that debriefed in the Sally for last orders.

Top Tips Tuesday
If you find yourselves in our wilder places (soz folks, this is a pretty UK specific tip) then its well worth registering your phone to send and receive 999 SMS (text) messages.
Often when there's a poor signal a text will get through - but it can also be typed, sent and then someone can head to higher or more open ground simply waiting for it to go - Ive used it like that and it worked really well. Most modern phones will also have embedded location information - so help will find you much quicker.
To register simply send a text with the word "register" to 999 then follow the instructions on the reply texts you receive.
Nb - if you think you may have done this before then start the process - you'll get confirmation if you have.