Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Outdoor Activities

by admin - 20:32 on 18 April 2011

The growing season in The Rural Retreat's garden has begun (especially for the fiendish Japanese knotweed) so today the lawnmower made its first appearance of the year.

Mowing is usually a job that Matchgirl takes on herself, but a shoulder damaged by an over-filled suitcase – it seems that a girl can pack too many shoes – meant that the task was mine.

Two hours later the work was done and the lawn seemed twice the size it had previously. Why a neat trim and the removal of twigs and leaves creates this optical illusion is a mystery. Any suggestions, Ramblingbloke?

My reward was dinner at the Royal Hotel in Cromarty, where I took my first landscape snap for a long time – not up to the standard of Andrew's oil rigs in The Bumper Book of Black Isle Snappery but good enough for me for now.

Another machine that came out of winter hibernation was Kawasaki San, who was back on the road yesterday after a jump-start from Mr Ford got his engine moving.

I blew away the cobwebs with an eighty-mile meander through the Black Isle and Easter Ross while Matchgirl stayed home in case the jump leads were required again. Fortunately, he behaved himself, although the silent horn hasn't fixed itself during the winter. That will be a task for Richard the spanner god at RM Motors where Kawasaki San will go for his MOT in a couple of weeks.

So all is well, mechanically, for the bike club's first event of the season when we gather in Strontian for the bank holiday weekend. Physically, that's another matter. Matchgirl's dodgy shoulder means that donning her leathers could be an ordeal. There's a good chance that Kawasaki San will be followed into the wilds of Lochaber by Agent Cooper.

If Lochaber's as rain-lashed as usual, Matchgirl might not be too disappointed.

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