Halfway through our fortnight, and some blue in the sky yesterday morning. In fact the forecast was quite promising, and we set off for the Lonach Gathering in optimistic mood after I bought some petrol. We even remembered to take food for the picnic at the last moment.

We arrived slightly late, and Ella was off looking for us in the grounds. I went to look for her, missed her and returned to find everyone stuck into the picnic. I joined in.

The weather turned out to be astonishingly varied. At one point I was so hot I took everything off but my shirt. At another everything was on again as it rained and turned extremely chilly. At the end of the afternoon it rained quite hard and was very cold on the way back to the car park.

The Gathering itself was traditionally good, with the marching bands especially moving. One of our group of Ella’s friends competed in the hill race and came in sixth in the women’s race, winning £5. Total entry (men and women) was 90, plus two dogs. The setting is pretty magical, though a mite muddy on this occasion. Of the gathered friends, we remembered Anne and Gareth, Ian and Trish and others by sight. The traditional picnic, to which we contributed wine, cheese and other goodies, was as usual far too big but delicious.

In the evening we got takeaway Chinese on a whim. Nothing to write home about.

This morning it could almost be described as sunny, and we’re heading towards Braemar and the Linn of Quoich.