How to destress my way!

Well, I have to say, it's absolutely ages since I have visited my blog! There have been various reasons for this, mainly, since retiring I have very little time to myself now!
The last few months have been a bit stressfull. Amongst other things we were wanting to do some alterations on our house, so set about getting an architect, well one that would actually do the work! Easier said than done. The plans were eventually drawn up and put in to the council, planning permission wasn't too bad to get, however getting a building warrant was a different ball game. Change of architect (the one that actually wanted the work!) eventually the warrant came through.
To keep sane during all this time, we found that locking the door, packing the car and going off paddling was the best destress we could get and as we seemed to have had more than our fair share of hassle, we have managed to probably have more than our fair share of paddling!
Since Orkney, I've managed to fit in my 4* OC training, not sure I'll ever be up to scratch for the assessment!

OC rescue practise

Next was a special paddle. I took the Kayakey Kid for his first sea "trip" in his own boat. He was delighted to be visited by a seal. 

A very happy Kayakey Kid

We've had a wonderful weekend paddling from Easdale, battling the currents, through the Corryvreckan, battling the wind, through the Cuan sounds, generally a bumpy, refreshing, but great time weekend!

The bridge over the Atlantic

It was an exhausting trip!

A weekend up on Skye doing rescue scenarios ended up with me only having half a set of spare splits - not happy! Tried to contact Celtic paddles to see if I could buy a replacement half, didn't even get a reply!

Me 'n' He having fun

Then there was the Scottish open canoe symposium up at Glenmore - more paddling up at Knockando, great weekend!

More OC rescues

More fun

Next we were up at Ratagan with the Lothian club, out round by Plockton, then a play down at Kylerhea. Another excellent weekend!

After the, we needed a wee warm up off in Florida. We did manage out in the Everglades for some paddling, however, there had been a lot of rain just before we arrived, as a result there were masses of hungry mozzies. We also managed to get a bit of diving down on the Keys with Turtles, Nurse shark, Barracuda, lots more. Fantastic holiday.

A couple of our paddling companions

Coming back from the lovely heat of Florida, we went straight up to be final sweepers for the Tay Descent. I have decided this is about the most soul destroying job of the Descent. We left after everyone, including the racers. We paddle the full course of 23 miles to make sure no one has been left behind or injured and never saw any other paddlers at all.

Glad to have finished!

It didn't seem long before we were now into the New Year which of course meant our New Year's day paddle. It was certainly breezy enough to blow away even the most stubborn of cobwebs, but good to be out again.

Our New Year's day jaunt

Out again on the 2nd, Inchcolm this time.

Still January, up at St Andrews this time where I managed to have a battle with a barnacle covered rock, the rock won!

February was pretty much taken up with our son's wedding, there are certain times even we don't go paddling!

Not a drysuit in sight! With No.3 Grandchild

In March we had a beautiful days paddling on Loch Lomond, stopped for lunch on Inchconnachan, spotted a Wallaby, then on to Luss for what else, but icecream!

Loch Lomond Wallaby

The following weekend was a SSKEG trip up on the Moray coast with Zoe. Big and bumpy conditions meant we couldn't get close in to the shoreline. Day 2 saw us having a great time with a surf session.

Into April with another SSKEG trip, our one this time, out to the May Isle, unfortunately a bit too early for the Puffins to have landed.

Rounding the May

Next weekend we had fun under the Forth Bridge playing in the faster flows with "An introduction to moving water" session.

Even more rescue practise!

The following weekend, we were back up at Ratagan, seeing the Leopard man's bothy, then stopping at Eilean Donan for icecream, where they thoughtfully put up a "wet floor" sign behind us!

Inside the Leopard man's bothy

Eilean Donan for ice cream

Still in April, we were up at Glenmore again for the CVC, this time I took up my river kayak and ended up on the middle Findhorn, then had a fabulous surf session the next day up at Sandend.

Time to warm up again, so off to Tenerife, no paddling, but we did get out diving, lots of Turtles and rays.

Me 'n' he again 

Going up!

So as you can see, we've had an extremely stressful few months! However, now that the building warrant has come through, the real stress begins! House has to be cleared again, quite how we have managed to fill it with so much junk already, I'll never know - we're never at home! At the end of May, the builders were starting. First off, walls were getting knocked down, so what did we do? We went paddling! This time to the Jersey seakayak symposium!

I love my kayak!

Listening hard

Colin

Again

Hubby dear

Me

Last Friday evening, CB, Hubby dear and I all traipsed up to Glenmore for the Club Coaches weekend. This is my 3rd year going and I have to say I look forward to it more each year. The company is great, the activities are great and the food is great. A sign next to the packed lunches states that as most folks are going to be doing energetic activities whilst staying there, the average value of the meals are approximately 4000 calories per days, bang goes my Weightwatchers diet! and that's all without a wee pint of Tradewinds at the end of the day.

Will that duck fit in his roll

I had decided on open boating for the weekend, as I already do a fair bit of river paddling and possibly too much (can you get too much?) sea paddling. We were spending the day down on Loch Morlich, with the group being taught all sorts of skills and techniques in both single boats and doubles. There wasn't any wind, but the day was still really cold. We finished off the day by poling along the edge of the loch, heated poles would have been appreciated by now. I'd had a great time and had learnt loads, but was now looking forward to a hot chocolate and a slice of Glenmore's fabby cake.

Pink poles

Think Colin's winning

We all met up in the lecture theatre after that to go over all the news from the SCA. I had been asked to do a presentation on club funding which I duly agreed to do before remembering I don't particularly like doing public speaking, therefore Hubby dear was given the task and a good job he did too.

"The Assessor" - Mike "Cake please" from Paddleactive

Our group then met up with our coaches for the Sunday to see who wanted to sit their 3* assessment. The group could be split into assessment or extra training. Extra training was definitely my choice!

Loch Insh

Hubby dear

On the Sunday, we were all going to be paddling solo. We headed up to Loch Insh, where it was beautifully calm, my kind of open boat conditions! The local Ospreys were giving us a good show before settling on their nest. The assessment group started off first, in their own corner, whilst we headed out to go over more coaching practises, more strokes and generally honing what we had learnt the day before. After lunch, we were to head down the Spey to Aviemore. This meant adding flow into my day! I've never been in a solo boat with flow before. We started heading down at a very gentle pace, before coming to our first "rapid", OK more of a ripple, but it felt fast in this boat and of course there was the obligatory rock for me to bump over! We then did a bit of ferry gliding with varying degrees of success.

Colin and Stuart

Hope that's not him telling Wullie how to paddle!

Ferry gliding

Emily, Sarah, Colin & Stuart

I have to say, I was glad when the end came. Wullie, our coach did a wonderful job getting me down the river in one piece. As I tried to unbend my decrepit bones, after all that kneeling, I don't think my legs will ever be the same again, which some folks may say is a good thing.
I had a fantastic weekend, met loads of great folks, hopefully we'll get out paddling with some of them again. I've also learnt lots, with loads of tips to take away and practise. I will master open boating one day!
 One thing I did learn was how much I love being in my comfy kayak! 

Getting started

The reason I had decided to start my blog was my disappointment at not getting out paddling at the weekend due to an abundance of the white stuff - no not milk, just masses of snow. It would have been my first trip as a 4* sea leader.
I sat my assessment at the beginning of November in near perfect weather conditions! We were staying at Inchree with the course being run by Glenmore Lodge. We started off with a gentle breeze under the Ballachulish bridge where we started with a bit of edging, turning and questions. We then headed out under the bridge to the bay. We had an outgoing tide with a westerly wind (no longer a breeze!) which meant it was no longer nice and calm. The waves (and wind) started getting a bit bigger. Out in the middle of the bay, still doing our personal paddling skills, we were now towing in big waves. This was a tad tiring, me being a little old Grandma towing two big blokes. Further out in the bay and we were now crossing to the north shore. By this time we were paddling over our remit. It was blowing a hooley, the waves were now huge, and we were having a whale of a time!
Next day we met our two guinea pigs and our days paddling was in Loch Ailort. Again we were expecting (and got) strong westerly winds, so rather than paddling out to the bothy at Peanmeanach as we had planned, we found a sun trap on one of the islands. From there we watched otters playing on the next bit of rock.
It was a really tiring, but thoroughly enjoyable couple of days paddling. I've no photos to go with this as I reckon I was too busy concentrating on doing things right, rather than making sure everyone was posing and smiling for my camera.

Yep, still snowed in!

I'm now sitting at home, still snowed in, but I'm still being busy. I've decided to have a go at making myself a storm cag. I've got waterproof material from the year dot and made a paper pattern. I'll let you know how it goes. It might end up looking like a green garden sack!