Daring To Go Out!

 We left the house twice yesterday and not for shopping.  Well, actually that's not strictly true, one was indeed for shopping but not my usual shopping!

The first outing was to a nearby and relatively new park near us.  It's a very well laid out park called Cuningar Loop which is built across the river from the houses which were built for the Commonwealth Games and are now privately owned.  The river is the River Clyde and it takes a big loop at this point, hence the name.  The park has an adventure playground, climbing rocks and a bmx track for the kids but it also has very wide paths round some stunning scenery and a boardwalk along the riverside.  Because it's fairly new, just finished last year, its still relatively unknown and underused.  The entrance is also off the beaten track down a small road, although it's well signposted from the main road and not many have found it yet.  That suits us just fine at the moment and the dogs love it!  As is the way of things, the dog walkers have discovered it first which means the dogs get lots of lovely new smells and meet new friends!  As it was a lovely sunny golden autumny day so we decided to take the dogs there and we all had a lovely time.  It was nice to get out and a bit further afield for once.  That said, the park is actually only a 5 minute drive from our house so we weren't that far afield!

Our second trip of the day was a lot further afield yet still on the banks of the River Clyde!  We went to an area called the Clyde Valley which as the name suggests is a valley the river runs through but which is dotted with lots of different garden centres and farm shops.  Normally at this time of year we head down there to look at all the Christmas decorations in the garden centres, have a nice lunch and we always stop at our favourite farm shop for some potatoes and usually some butcher meat too.  Yesterday though was a bit different.  The farm shop sells Wilja potatoes and they are brilliant.  They are great all rounders and have a lovely flavour and for the past four or five years I've been buying a sack of them which lasts us till about January.  They keep well in the sack in hubbys hut (prior to his hut we kept them in the car boot! It was the coolest place I could think of and were only brought in if a serious frost was forecast!).  Anyway, I decided to get them this week and if the garden centres looked reasonably quiet I might be tempted to take a peek.  Let me tell you, everybody and his brother had the same idea and it was incredibly busy so needless to say we only stopped at the farm where they have erected a gazebo outdoors and only have the butcher meat indoors and they have made the shop much more spacious and you pay outside in the gazebo.  I felt very safe being there and got my sack of potatoes and some tomatoes and we returned home.  On the way home hubby turned to me and said 'so are these potatoes worth the 30 mile round trip?'  'of course' was my reply!  Not only are they cheaper than the supermarket and much nicer than any they sell, I just love the journey there.  The first part is not so interesting, its motorway but once you get off the motorway the road is lovely.  It's small and tree lined and very windy (not windy as in blowy, windy as in lots of turns and bends!)  It's a lovely route and one we go to often.   I just love it and I told hubby it was worth going for potatoes just for the drive alone!

We've to have some horrible weather for the next few days (it is indeed a horrible day!) then some lovely calm, sunny and dry days which will be colder.  I love cold clear days so I'm looking forward to them.  I need to get my garden ready for winter and hopefully I'll be enthusiastic to be outside in the winter sunshine. x