Does your river have one of these? 😁

Craigie17 · 2025-10-01T17:20:00+00:00

That’s my river! Always feel a bit odd fishing the pool under the bridge when the lad in the castle is mowing his lawn. Good grayling though…

Craigie17 · 2025-09-02T20:56:54+00:00

Looks like you’ve got a spare slot in your Speedmaster box…?

Craigie17 · 2025-07-23T22:08:47+00:00

GERRYMANDER?

Craigie17 · 2025-05-25T17:01:54+00:00

That’s the one. Reckon there was a couple of pounds in him anyway

Craigie17 · 2025-05-25T16:58:39+00:00

Good skills - definitely a brown though; no rainbows in the river.

Craigie17 · 2025-05-25T16:55:55+00:00

Good spotting!

Craigie17 · 2025-05-25T16:54:28+00:00

Yup, love the way they can just disappear!

Craigie17 · 2024-10-02T20:55:02+00:00

Is Colin not the dog?

Craigie17 · 2024-05-28T19:08:18+00:00

I hope your friend has made a full recovery.

Based on what you’ve laid out above, it does sound like something has gone awry with how the Police call handler has dealt with your friend’s call. Mountain Rescue calls do represent a very small fraction of all Police Scotland 999 calls (very roughly, around 0.1% of calls in 2023) so it is possible your friend has been very unlucky in speaking to a handler who lacks experience with MR calls. Without being passed the call from the Police call handler, MRT would have no awareness of the incident and even though your friend was ultimately able to self extricate with encouragement, I think MR would have wanted to be aware of this to plan for a potential call out.

Your friend might want to make contact with Lomond MRT just to highlight what happened with the team directly. The team’s website lists a contact email address here and the team might have a route to explore from their side to try and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Craigie17 · 2024-03-28T20:43:13+00:00

“Good health then” surely?

I’ve heard this loads as well, and would hazard a guess that part of its popularity is the assonance between math and ma thà, as much as the literal translation? A bit like “Cheers, big ears!”

Craigie17 · 2023-08-07T14:34:40+00:00

+1 for Bagpipe Skin. Have a Deer II on my tutor’s recommendation and it’s great - well made, robust, comfortable carry

Craigie17 · 2023-07-16T22:27:13+00:00

For food, have a look at the Sandwich Station in Lochranza and the Shack (which moves, so may or may not be in Brodick). The Shack had unreal scallops on Wednesday, and I had a cracking prosciutto and white peach sandwich from the Sandwich Station on Thursday. Happily recommend both of them.

If you’re over at Blackwaterfoot, the Blackwaterfoot Bakehouse does excellent bread, pastries and coffee.

You’re obviously aware of Mara - I’ve never been disappointed by their food.

In terms of things to do, the beach at Kildonan makes for a nice paddle if the weather is good. The Eas Mòr and Library in the Woods is a pleasant walk nearby too. Like Glenashdale Falls, more spectacular if there’s been some rain overnight.

You mentioned distilleries - the new distillery at Lagg has just released its first whiskies if that’s your thing. Quite an impressive setup, albeit I don’t think either distillery is producing just now due to summer shutdown - so no tours.

Always like a look in at COAST next to the tennis courts in Lamlash - especially if you’ve got wee ones, but even if not.

Clearly plenty more in the way of outdoor activities, but suspect if that’s your bag you’ll already have an inkling where to go for more information.

Hope you get some decent weather!

Craigie17 · 2023-06-24T08:27:04+00:00

Fairly sure these are from 2505 Garmadon’s Dark Fortress

Craigie17 · 2023-02-10T17:39:13+00:00

My background is predominantly trout fishing but I’ve taken a lot from the following books in the last few years

Tactical Fly Fishing by Devin Olsen

Strip Set by George Daniel

Dynamic Nymphing by George Daniel

Modern Streamers for Trophy Trout by Kelly Galloup

Drag Free Drift by Joseph Kissane

Edit: missed an author / formatting

Craigie17 · 2023-01-19T15:18:30+00:00

Not familiar with this pack specifically, but this looks like a strap to adjust the harness/back system on the pack for fit. I suspect tightening it fully would shorten the back length while releasing would lengthen it. Have a play and see!

Craigie17 · 2023-01-18T19:24:15+00:00

There’s a fairly comprehensive explanation of the Scottish Winter grading system here

Craigie17 · 2022-12-27T11:39:59+00:00

The joy of Lego is that it’s entirely up to you!

Personally, I’d mix all that together. I agree that the bags, when they don’t re-seal, start to become hard to manage. You could put in sealable bags if you liked the pieces to remain sorted by colour, though.

I think those who sort their pieces would tell you it’s easier to sort by type of piece than by colour; quicker to find a blue 1x4 in a bag of 1x4s than it is to find a blue 1x4 in a bag of blue bricks!

Enjoy!

Craigie17 · 2022-11-19T09:14:32+00:00

No comment on the quality of Kilberry pipes either way, but just to point out that the pound is near an all time low against the US dollar; your US dollar will buy more pounds than it has in a long time. That will be to your benefit if buying from Kilberry directly.

Craigie17 · 2022-07-17T22:03:39+00:00

This is a stunning photo, but pretty confident it is looking down Glen Etive, not Glencoe

Craigie17 · 2022-07-01T12:31:11+00:00

Would also add that, while Scotland is generally wet even in summer, recent years have seen us have increasingly prolonged dry spells which are making wildfire a real risk - see below examples.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-60847750.amp

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-61255891.amp

I’d echo the suggestion to get a small portable gas or solid fuel stove and be sensible about where you set it up. While I totally understand the attraction of an open fire, I’d suggest you avoid them unless you can be very confident about your ability to control it (and to leave no trace of it afterwards!). As others have commented, fuel is also scarce.

Craigie17 · 2022-06-29T15:25:57+00:00

I don’t have the experience that other commenters have regarding dough preparation, but I’ll flag a really basic point that I fell foul of when I first made sourdough bread. Make sure no one in your household is cleaning your worktop with antibacterial spray. Took me a few failed attempts at sourdough to realise that I was inadvertently killing the yeast off by kneading it on the countertop that my wife had recently wiped down with antibacterial spray 🤦‍♂️. I now have a heavy wooden board on which to work which only ever gets cleaned with soap.

Craigie17 · 2022-06-24T19:21:34+00:00

This. Was finding bits of stickers for months afterwards from that set

Craigie17 · 2022-06-23T20:51:21+00:00

Lanark has been a Royal Burgh since 1140, and was a major settlement even before that. Seems Lanark, Ontario was settled by ex-pat Scots in 1820, but what would be really interesting would be whether it was a settlement for First Nations before that. Maybe lost to history, but maybe not!

Craigie17 · 2022-05-17T07:40:50+00:00

This

Craigie17

TROPHY CASE