Two Kinds of Soak

For my birthday I went on a long bike ride up the back road along the railroad north to Connel and then in a loop back along the main road. I got soaked in the rain, but it was a pleasant temperature as long as I kept moving and the damp colors of the hills made up for the wet.


The bracken fern dies back into a tangled mess of copper and iron rust, giving a deep red glow to the hills. I like this better than garish neon-colored autumn leaves, I think.


There's a herd of Highland cattle that Andy runs into frequently when he rides this way on his commute to work, sometimes having to edge carefully around them in the road. Unfortunately I didn't see them.


I followed a ruined rock wall along a slope toward a rocky, grass-covered ledge where sheep were grazing. There was a ruin of a stone house and several other structures flattened into rubble in the grass.






The sheep looked back at me as I picked my way down through the boggy turf and back to the road, where my faithful steed was waiting.


In the evening Andy and I went to a waterfront hotel that advertises a hot tub with a bay view. About 20 seconds in the outdoor tub, which wasn't hot at all, but only lukewarm, was enough. We ran back inside, out of the freezing wind and sat instead in the steam room until we were broiled like lobsters. After a cold rinse we sat in the sauna until we were properly soaked with sweat and then rinsed off again. At this point we were almost prepared to go back in the slightly warm tub just to cool off.

Instead we dressed in our fancy going-out clothes and went to dinner at a fantastic place in town that I hadn't been to before called Coast. I had pumpkin and wild mushroom risotto and Andy had roast partridge with gnocci and parsnips. Everything was fabulous!

To top off a marvelous day, we watched My Neighbor Totoro while eating chocolate before heading to bed.