Cammoflage

Tackled our third Geocache today at Cammo Estate. Started in freezing fog on a multi-step trail. Found all the caches reasonably quickly. Spotted a Christmas tree in the woods and a frozen spiders web.

Roslin Glen

Fabulous walk along Roslin Glen on a very crisp and clear morning. Had a good lunch at the Original Roslin Inn before going to see The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in the evening. The film was very good.

The Junior Ornothologist spotted several heron and a dipper.

Good set of photos taken on the day. CLICK HERE TO VIEW

Festive Frolic

Very cold weather today for the annual Festive Frolic at John Muir Park in Dunbar. There was the added challenge of Suduko to complete as we went round. Very nearly completed the puzzle. Came in 23 place of 44.

Afterwards we went to Yellowcraigs for a spot of tree climbing.

Geocache 2

Found our second Geocache at Almond Dell near Cramond. Cold morning - great place. Saw some great birdlife on the mudflats. Goldeneye Duck, red shank, ringed plover.

Also saw Hannah's boat!

Merry Christmas!

A merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all our readers!

From the Ledlie family.

Braid Hill & Mortonhall

First day of the holidays. Had a lovely walk through the country in the city. Went to summit of the Braid hills then to lunch at the Stable Bar Mortonhall. Returned through Mortonhall to Braid Road.

Christingle

Busy Sunday with an orienteering outing in the morning and Christingle service in the evening. Picture is at Aberlady Bay on the way back from Yellowcraigs.

Radical Max

Picture of Max on the Radical Road. Edinburgh Castle in the background.

Round the Reservoirs

Max and Colin had a long walk around Harlaw and Thriepmuir Reservoir in the Pentlands. Weather generally OK but a bit cold and windy in places. Took around 3 hrs to get round.

Torville & Dean at Winter Wonderland

Max and Hannah went ice skating at the Winter Wonderland in Princes Street Gardens. Hannah didn't really like it. Max didn't either. We went to an orienteering party in the evening.

By the way - Max is a silly billy.

Cauldstane Slap Handicap Hill Race

Ran in the wettest and muddiest of races. Weather was OK and ran well.

Marchmont Christmas Tree Lighting

Cherry and the Marchmont Events Committee helped organise the Marchmont Christmas Tree Lighting. Max played clarsach in the German Church Hall afterwards. He was very good!

3 Hills of Edinburgh

Walked and cycled round Blackford Hill, Braid Hill and Craiglockhart Hill. Bacon rolls at The Park.

SOSOL3 - Kinnoull Wood

Tragedy strikes at SOSOL3 when Max loses his SI Card and finishes with no points. Hannah and Cherry were putting on a clothes sale and so missed the event.

Ian and Frank were visiting and enjoyed their first taste of orienteering.

Colin came 13 of 37 on blue and retained 4th place on the SOSOL league.

Scottish O League

The final results of the Scottish Orienteering League have been posted and Colin is first place in the M35S league. Sadly the short courses don't seem to count.

Max comes in 8th in the JM2 league.

Click here for the tables

Walk in the Pentlands

Went for a walk round the Carnethy 5 course in the Pentlands with Ian. Then spent a couple of hours at the Ratho climbing centre.

SOL7

A great run by Max coming in 4th place for the last SOL of the year. Hannah and Cherry had a gentle stroll round the white course. Colin struggled to find the controls and came 36th on Course 8 but could do well in the M 35 Short League.

The Winter Garden

A few pics of the garden. Went to see Dr Bunhead at the museum in the afternoon.

SOSOL 2 - South Achray

A long drive in the morning to Aberfoyle for the second SOSOL of the year. The day started badly - 1 hr too early as we discovered we hadn't put the clocks back. The rain
came down in bucket loads but as Max says orienteering is no fun in the sun - the wetter the better.

The course was in real rugged forest with lots of wild rivers in spate. Everyone performed well with the family hauling itself of the bottom of the pack. Hannah came 4th of 6 on Yellow. Max a very good 5th of 11 on Orange and Colin 16th of 41 on Blue.

Afterwards went to the beautiful Loch Katrine. The sun started peeking out and we hired bikes for a 1 hr trip along the loch side.

East of Scotland Orienteering Championships

Very bad weather on Arthur's seat for some tough orienteering. Hannah (and Cherry) came
second (and last) on the white course. Max missed a contol in the rush to reach the finish. Colin came sixth (and last) in the brown.

Race report and results are here

Thutmose III

Went to the Ancient Egytian exhibitian at the City Art Centre. It was "all right".

Crieff Hydro

Long weekend at Crieff Hydro. Played disc golf and crazy golf, walked up the Knock, enjoyed the evening dance, played bowls and chess.

Pentland Skyline

Ran the Pentland Skyline race in a fantastic 3 hrs 55 minutes. 16 Miles long - 6200 ft of ascent (and descent) that's 2 big munros from sea level.

Started out in sunshine completing the first three hills in good time and catching Willie Gibson (briefly), a much faster runner, near Flotterstone. Blisters came at this point and I wondered if I would make it. 1 runner came back down Turnhouse Hill saying its a much nicer direction to go!

Then the skys opened and the next hour along the high ridge saw rain and strong winds. Reached the half-way Drove Road in just over 2 hrs.

The return journey is a pig with smaller but very rough hills. Hard going through the heather and bogs of Hare Hill. Black hill - Black by colour Black by nature. A very tough ascent up Bells Hill past some runners that looked like the Living Dead. Along to Harbour hill by which time I knew that I would make it over the remaining three familiar hills.

Chatted with another runner up Allermuir. I thought we would just miss the 4 hr mark.
But we'd started late he said - another fifteen minutes top go. So with renewed energy we headed on to try to break 4 hrs. Never thought I'd be round so fast.

Dalkeith Country Park

Went for a very long walk through Dalkeith Country park to view the location of the new
road they plan to build near the park. There's a campaign to stop the road. Wouldn't seem to make much difference to the park although it's also not clear why they need another road just here. Played for a while in the fantastic playground.

SOSOL 1 - Corstorphine Hill

We started the new orienteering season with some good runs at the familiar territory of Corstorphine Hill in Edinburgh.

Hannah and Cherry had a good Yellow course running most of the way round a straightforward course. They finished 4th of 9 runners.

Max moved up to Orange and ran this colour for the first time in a competitive event. Got round fine though it was difficult, coming 8th of 13 runners.

Colin moved up to Blue and only got lost once, coming in 18th of 43 runners, some way behind a nimble 70 year old in 5th place. Room for improvement yet.

Little Girl in Blue

Yesterday my class made poems about works of art. I made this one:

Little girl in blue
Black booted, brown haired
Sad eyes watch children playing
She stands in a corner like a ghost
Staring longingly at those who might have been her friends
But instead are her tormentors
Her shadow is her only ally
Little girl in blue

The best six poems were read out in assembly. My poem was one of the six.

Max.

Walk in the Pentlands

Walked to the summit of Caerketton hill on Sunday evening. Great views.

Orienteering at Loch Doon

Away for the weekend near Loch Doon. We stayed overnight on a farmhouse. Wet and miserable weather on the first day, much better on the second day. Results not too great.

Carnethy Club Handicap

Missed the final race of the season due to work. Finished the season in third place.

Click here for Final Table

Jamie Stevenson Trophy

I ran for Interlopers in the Jamie Stevenson trophy today. It was one of the hardest courses I have ever done. I got a little bit lost in the middle. Altogether I did quite well. I had to wear a special Interlopers shirt which was much too small for me.

Afterwards we went to Lochore Meadows Country Park. We paddled in the water and made an
island out of sand.

Max.

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A Borrowed Bike !!

Today I got a bike. It's actually not mine because I have borrowed it from Edward. It is the same kind of bike as Hannah's one but it is yellow instead of blue. I cycled to school and when I came out I cycled some more.

Max.

Bird Watching at Vane Farm Loch Leven

Fantastic weather and lots of birds ov view. Say hundreds of curlews and a heron.

Australian BBQ

Went to a fantastic Australian BBQ hosted by the boss at his Merchiston mansion. Max and Hannah enjoyed the magician.

Later went for a long run in the Pentlands.

Orienteering at Blackford Hill

Cherry and Hannah got round the yellow course in an excellent 23 minutes coming 3rd out of 11 runners.


Colin and Max also had a good time of 48 minutes around the green coming in 15 out of 16.

Score-O and Festival Show

Glorious weather for a Score Orienteering event on the slopes of Hillend. Max did very well on the short course scoring 90 points to come 15th out of 19 runners, mostly quite a bit older. Hannah was one place behind with 80 points.

Colin came 17th out of 19 on the long course having failed to get back in time and losing 100 points.

Later went to a very good show with by Nicole & Martin at the Festival.

Orienteering Training

Max and Hannah went to Orienteering training at Cammo. They enjoyed an icecream afterwards.

Portmore Loch

5th Handicap Race of the season and an 8th place this time. A long hard climb up to the summit of Dundreich. Passed by a couple of runners on the way up as I struggled to move with any pace. A great decent improved my position before getting a bit lost in the forest. A slow jog home as I assumed I was going to be last finishing - in fact many other runners were much more lost than me.

For the story and race history click here.

Up to second place in the handicap series with one race to go.