More sunny days

Today has been gorgeous! It's been sunny and about 15 degrees, so t-shirt weather if you're out of the wind (or handle cold better than I do). Not wanting to waste the day by staying inside, I went down to Loch Insh (see map) with Sam and we hired kayaks for an hour. They gave us waterproofs fortunately, since Sam got wet owing to his paddling technique, and I got slightly wet owing to him using his paddle to splash me.

Stopped in Aviemore around lunchtime to pick up some bacon rolls that we ate on the shore of Loch Morlich, near Glenmore (and where Cairngorm Lodge Youth Hostel is). They were so good we stopped again for seonds on the way back to Inverness - Asher's Bakery, top-notch bacon rolls. Good sweet baked goods as well, I stop at their Inverness bakery every now and then for a treat.

Didn't feel like I was out in the sun too long today, but my face still feels a wee bit warm from it tonight. When I started work this afternoon, I had the hostel doors open whilst folding sheets and it was quite nice, sunny with a bit of a breeze. There was some ducks by scrounging for bits of food outside the front door, and they were here yesterday morning as well so perhaps they'll be regulars. Until they meet the manager's cat Scooter, anyway.

We had another eat-in-the-outdoors earlier in the week, Sam and I picked up fish suppers (the supper part means it comes with chips, so fish and chips) from a chippy on route to Kinloss (about 30 minutes east of Inverness, see the map) and sat on a beach on the Moray Firth accessed by Roseisle Forest, near Burghead. There's a long stretch of sandy beach with the dunes along the coast from Findhorn eastward , where I've been out to for a walk as well a few weeks ago. On the topic of really good food, that chippy, called the Bervie, does really nice fish and chips. It's also huge fish pieces that seem to come from whales, but it's so good I can usually manage to eat it all even when I think it will be too much.