Running away with it

I took the camera for a walk to the Tain Highland Gathering today. It's the first time it has been held since 2019, and I guess that's true of quite a few towns in Scotland. It was my first time at a Highland Gathering, and so long as the weather was good and I found some good perches to take photos, I was quite content clicking away (link to an album on Flickr). Unfortunately, around 2pm the heavens opened and once it had eased off a little, I decided to head home.

That was only a wet interlude as it is sunny again now, and I've been out in the garden to move a plant from front to back and to do some weeding. I guess no Highland Gathering is really complete without a downpour....

I ummed and ahhed about what to blip. I particularly liked the piper keen to please the judges and the winning leap, but in the end I decided on this still near the end of the 200 metre race. The open track and field events use handicapping to encourage female participation, and the 90 metre (i.e. 100 yards), 200 metre and 400 metre races were all practically dead heats between this woman and the man in the orange vest, which tends to indicate - since they were both good runners - that the handicapping was dead on.

The people watching was good (and by the afternoon it was well attended with a mix of locals and tourists), and there were a number of interesting stalls, but the food concessions were a bit pricey. I stuck to an Americano and a piece of rocky road.