Manchester airport was surprisingly busy at 04:30am and the new ‘developments’ to Terminal 2 caused us to do several laps of the airport before finally reaching the un-signposted car par that we had booked into to ‘save time’! It was just as chaotic inside, with people queuing for the ‘fast track’ while the regular security… Read more

The Daffodils are making an early appearance in The Cottage garden already! A record perhaps?… For our final morning of the year at home, the rains and wind had finally (and thankfully) ceased, and droplets of water hung everywhere as the great evaporation festival began. The ground squelched underfoot as we walked down the track… Read more

December has been a bizarre mix of me buzzing around between training courses, equipment checking and general admin, while Clare has been Cottage bound having been stuck down (literally bed bound), by Cryptosporidium (not recommended at all!). While Clare has been either sleeping or attempting to stay hydrated (food has been off the menu recently),… Read more

Clare and I had intended to spend the day up in the mountains on a long walk or scramble, but neither of us could quite summoned the required energy. And with temperatures at The Cottage only just above freezing it felt bitterly cold out, so we put the idea on hold… In the shelter of… Read more