Sunday long day's journey into night and today's snowy Yaktrax run.

 I have to get a move on because Peter's working kind of hard this week. Well so he tells me. So I have to cook the dinner. Still I've still got pictures from Sunday and there's more from today.
On Sunday we took forever to get moving. People were already celebrating their Sunday run on "the book" before we were even yet out of pyjamas. It was cold and bleak and Richard Hadfield had been going on about Arctic Winds, which wasn't encouraging. But we needed to go out and we wanted to run medium long. Eventually we found our respective backbones and got out the house.

After a mile or two of running into the despicable wind we were warmed up and fine. By 4 miles we had the wind behind us and we were even better. It wasn't a day for seeing much though, and it wasn't a day for hanging around. We kept it to a minimum. There were a surprising number of people on this usually deserted stretch of beach given how harsh it was.

We carried on past the turn off for Archerfields and headed for Yellowcraigs which committed us to 13 and a half miles or so. The light was already fading.

I generally avoid running later in the day these days, but I did quite enjoy it. There was a frisson of fear and excitement running into the dark woods. Your ears prick up at noises you wouldn't normally pay attention to - twigs snapping, dogs barking, headless horsemen behind you, that kind of thing.

It all got quite spooky. Which is quite helpful for keeping the pace up. We got back to the car without the zombies catching us. But we were late home, having to stop in at Tescos on the way. We were both pretty tetchy by the time we got in, being tired and low blood-sugared. We had our tea sometime after 9. I went off to bed soon after and slept very deeply and had no interest in getting up when it was time to. Peter discovered the next day that he had actually forgotten to have a shower. I don't know what tipped him off to this, and I don't really want to know.

Anyway, that all seems a long time ago. Two stretches of work have passed since then. It had snowed quite heavily over night so I headed out this morning wearing my Yak Trax for the first time ever. I bought them in the sales after the winter of 2011 and have not even had them out the box. But the pavements were all looking coated with ice when I looked out this morning so I thought it was time to give them a try.

I didn't have much time as I had to be places and do stuff - so I just went a wee tootle round Arthur's Seat. I was impressed with the YakTrax. They were easy to put on and made the pavement fine. I didn't know what a difference they had made until I was out later in my  normal shoes and I was slipping all over the place.

I was against the snow, really. If there'd been a vote I would have voted against. But nobody had asked me and in retrospect I'm glad because I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the heavy dark skies and then the contrast when the sky cleared and the sun came out. There were even skiiers up the seat.

I couldn't hang round long and had taken my B camera in case of upsets. I would have spent a lot longer out otherwise. It looks like it's all melting now but there's more forecast for overnight.

I hope it doesn't all get too exciting for the Feel the Burns Hill race on Sunday.

That's a fat looking left knee. Must be some mistake.

Toodle-oo!