If you go down to the woods to day . . .

I can go for days not having ' Blipfoto' inspiration and for a number of reasons.

Sometimes I have a great picture, but can't frame a story around it, so I leave that picture and try another. Other times, as happened this week, you tell a few stories of children, their families and what they're going through, or been through and the reality of their situation leaves me numb as I consider how fortunate I have been with my kids, so I thought today was going to be one of those 'blipless' days.

That was until midmorning when I went outside to hang up the washing and everything changed.

As I unpacked the wet clothes from the machine my heart sank when I saw the amount of "Dad's black socks" and "Zoey and Holly's underwear". You see the problem with "Dad's black socks" is that there are hundreds to hang up on the line and given there are only seven days in a week you'd think there can't be that many, surely?

The answer to that question is quite simple as my three kids, I say kids but they're 23, 18 and 16, love "Dad's black socks" as they go with everything. They're great under boots, below jeans or simply to keep feet extra warm cause apparently "Dad's black socks", are the warmest socks, ever!!

As for Zoey and Holly's underwear well the problem is it takes ages to hang them up cause you've got to find a bit of material you can stick a peg on. They're really just bits of thread, so try hanging thread up and you'll know what I mean.

So where I hear you ask did the inspiration come from?

Well as I bent down to pick some pegs from the basket, it was still that cold I had had to wipe off around two inches of snow from the top if it, which made me think "hat's off to Sarah and her pals Alison and Rebecca for braving this weather in t-shirts to get some Kiltwalk training in" . . . so now I can begin todays Blipfoto story :-)

"If you go down to the woods today . . . or a Scotland fitba' game, or in fact a Kiltwalk", you'll always bump into a Grigor as they're everywhere, and come in all shapes and sizes.

The Kiltwalk first bumped into Sarah on Twitter last year when she tagged us and said she was looking forward to taking part in The Kiltwalk again, only problem was her exams were looming straight after, so there was a bit of dread about the Kiltwalk arriving so quickly.

Never shy to ask someone his or her story, I immediately bombarded Sarah with questions and asked for a photo to Blip. It was at this point I found out she was not doing University exams as I assumed, but was in fact doing her Intermediate exams and eight of them at that. Well we must have been a good luck omen as Sarah landed straight 'A's' and is on track to repeat that performance at Higher level if her Prelim results are anything to go by.

Ever since then we've kept in touch with Sarah and her mini band of Kiltwalkers, who become a major band of Kiltwalkers as her and Alison walk with her brothers and cousins and the rest of the "Ally McLeod Tartan Army", more of them later.

Anyway I noticed on Twitter last night Sarah said she was getting up early, on her day off school, to do some training and much to my surprise, she and her pals did and todays Blip is the picture to prove it, where Rebecca is on the left, Alison in the middle and Sarah on the right.

Still only 16, Sarah will be taking part in her third 26 mile Kiltwalk, so an absolute veteran and if you're struggling on the day, give Sarah a shout, she'll get you to the end. Sarah walked her first Kiltwalk with her Dad John, which leads us nicely to Scotland fitba games.

When I'm not Kiltwalking, I'm watching Scotland home and away and you can NEVER go to away games without seeing the huge Ally McLeod Tartan Army Saltire flag, and we're talking majorly huge. You then know that whenever you see that flag, a Grigor will be close by as John travels with a number of his sons and other family members and friends.

I have something in common with John, as when I travel away I'm trip organiser as is John for his gang. Where we differ is that John seems to like travelling, as most of his routes seem to consist of trains, planes, buses and boats and the more the better.

John missed out on last year's Kiltwalk but is more than making up for it this year as he has signed up for the Kilimanjaro trip in October and for those that know John, this is a source of great amazement and worry. It's not the fact that he'll be hiking up and down mountains, it's the fact he has given up cigarettes in order to get himself into shape for the challenge and if my Facebook memory serves me well, he must be around 3 months in now so keep going John.

So it's going to be quite a year for the Grigor's between Kilimanjaro and the pressure of Highers for Sarah as she strives to get a place at University where she fancies the delights of Pharmacology and I'm sure they'll both achieve their goals in style, well Sarah anyway :-)

You can read last year's Blipfoto story by looking back at our journal of 6th February 2012.