Living in the present. Learning about the world. Navigating adulthood. Trying to find purpose and happiness. Muddling my way through it all.
The nights creep in a little faster,
the wind is blowing a little harder,
and a chill starts to sweep through the air.
The leaves are donning their finest colours,
splashes of amber and crimson dancing overhead,
their final hurrah before their end comes.
A few weeks ago, my best friend woke me up at 7am on the dot, with a very loud, bright "Guten Morgen" (she's not German, I don't know why she was speaking it). If anyone else did this to me, they'd get a slap round the face. Fortunately, she escaped unharmed, as she came offering coffee to me and proceeded to talk in a variety of accents so I couldn't stop laughing. And of course, we had agreed to get up early for our plans for the day.
What we hadn't previously agreed, was to stay up drinking whisky with my flatmates until 3am, so I was highly sleep-deprived and somewhat hungover. But, we soldiered on. I filled myself up with more coffee, she made the sandwiches, and we tumbled into the car to get out of Edinburgh for the day. Our destination; Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park.
If you follow me over on Instagram, you might have noticed that last month all of my photos came from outside Edinburgh, as I was visiting my parents in the Scottish Borders for a few weeks. While staying there, I got to visit a lot of places in the area that I had never been to before, despite having grown up there. My parents moved last year, and we're a bit more central in the Borders now, which means we're closer to more places. There was a lot of walking and hiking, as well as some more relaxed outings, with some combination of family members each time, depending on who was free and keen. I wasn't blogging at the time, so there isn't going to be one post for each place, but rather this is my summary of them all, for anyone looking for things to do in the Scottish Borders (plus one bonus location in the north of England)!
What haven't I read really? Ok, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but with all this free time stuck at home, I've read far more this year than I have for a long time. I used to read non-stop as a child, but while studying for English Lit degree, I stopped reading for pleasure because I had to do so much of it for my coursework, and I've never quite picked the habit back up int he same way again, what with adult life getting in the way a lot. But I've been off work for five months now, and even though lockdown has eased considerably, I've still got way more free time than usual, so I've made decent headway with my reading list!
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