Old Wood walk

I didn’t feel like going to the gym this morning (though JR did). We'd planned to go a long walk instead, the weather looked promising. And it was.

We set off for Dalkeith Country Park, which has various walks and we've done a few. Luckily, this time it has been so frosty that the often muddy paths were solid! Brilliant. Though Archie still managed to get manky within minutes.

We did the 'Old Wood' walk, passing through the 700 year old oak tree wood. (That's lots of really really old trees, not 700 young oak trees.)

At one point we took a wrong turning, and ended at a dead end up much higher than the path we were meant to be on. Nothing for it (apart from walking back to the turn off) was to get down the quite steep bank. Luckily, there were some bushes to hang on to, and to break any falls. Unluckily, they were holly bushes. What a fuss! I had to slither down, on my behind, with JR at the bottom of the slope ready to grab me in case I came hurtling down in a muddy bundle.

I've done that walk a few times. The first time, I nearly had to call for a rescue helicopter, I had a walking stick, and didn’t know how far it was and thought I couldn’t make it, and certainly couldn’t make it back the way we came. But this time, it was no bother. Well, it was, but was a lot easier. But I was really ready for the scone and cuppa at the end.

Archie was sick on the way home. He hasn’t been sick in the car for some time, but we daren’t think that maybe, just maybe, he's grown out of it. We called in to Waitrose to pick up (click and collect) our new hoover cordless vacuum cleaner. It's so cute, I may be insisting on doing the hoovering vacuuming in future.

I tried resisting. I've given in. I'm downloading Fire and Fury on to my Kindle.