Three is the magic number

Another year has gone by and I’m very happy to be still writing my diary of adventures, photos and videos, in between my work and home life.

I wasn’t going to write a blogday post this year. I felt a little lost for different words at first, especially after writing my last three posts.

Everything comes in threes so it is said. Three is the magic number. Third time lucky. I started to think about this and curiosity got the better of me. I Googled the meaning of three and found one theory that I liked. Three is the number of time.

• Past, Present, Future
• Birth, Life, Death
• Beginning, middle, end

I’d never thought of that. This has some meaning to me that I can understand.

The past

Oh my, I have been less active this year. It shows in the posts I’ve written. Not being able to get away to the places I’d planned to visit didn’t help. I have a list on my peak challenge 2018 page, my goal being to tick these off. I feel a tiny bit annoyed with myself at not being able to reach all my goals. Possibly I had too many to start with.

Blog posts

1. Balmoral Cairns: Royal Woodland Walk
2. Camping at beautiful Braemar
3. Dramathon – running for whisky
4. Peaker friends of My Peak Challenge
5. Hiking Ben Arthur (The Cobbler)
6. Walking on Arran: Loch Garbad and the hidden trig
7. We’re all going on a nurdle hunt
8. Ness Glen and Loch Doon Castle
9. Winter walking in Ayrshire

Videos

I created some new videos this year though. Looking back now, more than I thought.

I always find this very time consuming, but I love making them. Clips are recorded by myself and my husband. We record using a mix of our Lumix cameras, GoPro, drone and mobile phones. Our kit isn’t the best out there, we have a wish list!

Quite often I need to visit a place more than once as the light isn’t right, or the day starts off sunny, then the rain comes in or it’s too dark to see anything.

These videos all link through to my YouTube channel:

1. Dunure Castle, Ayrshire
2. Eglinton Castle, Ayrshire
3. Ness Glen and Loch Doon Castle, Ayrshire
4. Inchcailloch Island, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs
5. North Queensferry Beach Clean, Fife
6. Goat Fell mountain, Isle of Arran, Ayrshire
7. Walking on Arran and finding a hidden trig point, Isle of Arran Ayrshire
8. Ben Arthur (The Cobbler), Arrochar Alps, Argyll and Bute
9. Love Exploring Scotland
10. Smugglers’ Trail, Troon to Dundonald Castle, Ayrshire
11. Isle of Arran, Ayrshire
12. Dramathon 10k – Aberlour to Glenfiddich, Moray
13. Braemar, Aberdeenshire
14. Balmoral Cairns, Balmoral Estate, Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire

Photography

A little recognition

I was chuffed that one of my photos was picked for the local Ayrshire Hospice Calendar – Castles of Ayrshire. It was this photo I took of Eglinton Castle ruin.  Funds raised from buying the calendar go to the hospice. This is such a great way to raise funds.

I entered about 12 photos. Strangely, Eglinton Castle was my least favourite. It’s not that I don’t love the castle ruin, I just wasn’t happy with the quality of my capture.

One of Alan’s photos of me in my blue cape made the social media page in the Scots Magazine using the hashtag #OutAndAboutScotland. I’m standing in an avenue of trees at Culzean Castle.

I love walking through these trees, it feels like I’m in a magical movie. We tried making the photo more interesting with me wearing a blue cape. The light was perfect. I love this one below.

Some people may think it’s silly and I’m a bit crazy. It’s all a bit fun and trying to be artistic in nature. The cape also hides my walking gear and makes the image look more mystical.

I’m becoming better at being me, doing what I love, and trying not to worry what other people think. I’d love to wear an 18th century dress. Alan is considering making one for me!

More photos

I thought I could show you some photos we captured this year. Just a few from tens of thousands we have taken this year. Most of the photos are taken around Ayrshire.

When I was looking through my 2018 photos I realised I have been out and about a fair bit, I just didn’t write about some places.

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The present

In keeping with my theme of three, I’d better say something about the present … I’m currently sitting in my living room, on my PC, talking to you lovely people 🙂

Today is Sunday. It has been a cold, frosty and sunny day. I didn’t get outdoors today. Apart from going to work, I’ve been hibernating for about a month now. I need to sort this out and get back out walking and running.

My cats don’t want to go out at all today, too cold for them I think. They are brothers and get on well together, most of the time. Sometimes there’s a fight for the best sleeping place and food! We adopted them from Cats Protection five years ago and they bring lots of laughs and affection to us all.

Aww look, this was when they were tiny kittens at around 14 weeks. This was the first day I brought them back to their new forever home. I was told cats choose their owners so I’m happy they wanted to stay.

The future

Who knows what the future holds. I know I’d like to go on more trips around Scotland, get back into my walking and running.

I’ll always be a peaker of My Peak Challenge, and will continue with my creative projects. In fact I’m working on one at the moment. I’m attempting to write my first rhyming poem and considering entering it into a competition. It’s more difficult than I thought it would be. I’m an amateur writer and it might not be good compared to the professional writers out there, but I need to at least try.

It has been short, but it looks like I’ve found something to talk about after all.

Have a great week everyone. Not long now until the festive holidays 🎄

Thanks for reading.

Love, Dawn-Marie x