Mary had a notion to cycle to Blackness. Mostly out the canal past Ratho then turn right. Nice day for it last Sunday, the 20th. All the ducks and swans had chickadees. More difficult to carry a camera while cycling than running but I managed, mostly. I did have a tendency to touch the screen or push buttons inadvertently. Then it would change the settings. (Being a touch screen camera.) (I wish it wasn't.) I have never used the touch screen as an interface to suddenly (for instance) change from the single shot mode to the facility it carries for shooting 4k video for 2 seconds which you can then scroll through to use one of the stills as a picture to save. But then it does that continuously till I (shouting now at his point scaring the duck chicks off) can find the button to stop the bastarding thing shooting 2 secs of 4k video every time I push the shutter release. By this time Mary is a distant figure pedaling like blazes.
ugly duckling? Hardly.
So I must have set another dial to instagram my pics against their will. My will. The next pics are all slightly higher contrast and saturation than normal. Most of the photos are just Mary in red shorts cycling along the canal so maybe it helps the settings are artificially high. When I reduced the settings they looked dull. So I started making them all a bit higher in contrast and saturation. The day was quite fun and I think we got a bit high ourselves on coffee before setting off. There were songs and much tomfoolery. Stuff like that.
boat or bike make your mind up!?
We wondered if we should stop for coffee and cake in Ratho but agreed it was a bit early and we should head on to Blackness before taking a break.
they start them young in Broxburn
we saw some absent mothers in the chick-rearing dept but this lot
were being kept close by a mum who was having no nonsense.
We actually went a bit far before stopping for a break and were both a bit spaced by Blackness Castle. Which was crap and didn't have a proper cafe. Just coffee machine and crisps in the gift shop. It all merited moving on quickly which we did, paying no entry fees and requiring no tour. The route home was more scenic, nearer to the coast. We hadn't done much in the way of printing maps and choosing a nice route; more luck than good judgement. And it worked out fine. Mostly.
45miles
This was nicer than expected, and took us into the grounds of Hopetoun House. From there we snuck along the coast to the new bridge then back a bit inland from the coast. Surprisingly tiring. Good idea to do it on fatter wheels, plenty gravel trails etc.
Then, the next day I went at 6.30 to Gladhouse for another swim round the island with the Carnethy Monday evening Open Water group. Strangely it was colder than the week before which Carolyn said might have been due to rain falling. There had been loads of sunshine as well, so you'd think it couldn't have got colder, but it had. I took loads of photos but only with the small waterproof camera and only this one was worth posting, which looks a little like cover art for a jazz fusion album.
Then on Thursday, intervals. I took the camera because it looked like a haar might sweep in and make for one of those cloud inversions we got last year or the year before that was amazing. Unfortunately it just got a bit misty. Which was later found to suit a blue filter. Ok that is me nearly up to date with blogs, although I still have last weekend. It's never ending.
summit in fog
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