It's more than a year since I last penned a blog, during which the world has been turned upside down and inside out.
Travel plans have been disrupted, and activities normally taken for granted, have instead been taken away, and my own forays into the mountains of Scotland with my best friend Pauline seem like a distant memory.
Celebrations of all kinds have been cancelled or postponed, but that does not mean forgotten.
On 13 August 1995, Pauline and I took our first booted steps up a mountain together, on the northern shore of Loch Tay, along the Ptarmigan Ridge.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
And what a history it has been.
Scotland has been our stomping ground in the main, but we gradually ventured far and wide on ever increasing adventurous trips, all with an outdoor theme of course.
We have been lucky enough to share, either by bicycle, ski or foot, the landscapes and terrain of the Dolomites in northern Italy; the snows of the arctic circle in Levi, Finland and the Alps in France; Torres del Paine on the southern tip of the Andes in Chile; the mighty Himalaya in Nepal; the long distance route of the Camino across northern Spain, and the mountains and prairies of the United States, right across, from sea to shining sea.
Then there's the every day life, of pizza and movie nights, evening cuppas with episodes of Frasier, local walks and pottering in our gardens at the back of our apartments. We're lucky to live one above the other, in a fabulous part of Scotland, right by the sea, which has been our base camp for our adventures for the majority of the past 25 years.
We had planned a number of celebratory activities throughout this year, but all so far have been cancelled. On Thursday 13 August this year we marked it with a wander around Aberlady Nature Reserve, coffee and cake, naturally (though takeway), followed by a fish and chips whilst watching a favourite movie, which, in keeping with the fact that just now every day seems the same, was Groundhog Day!
We're keeping our fingers crossed for an adventure in the Scottish Highlands come September, and all being well a visit to the Caerlavarock National Nature Reserve near Dumfries in October.
All our other plans are not cancelled, merely postponed, and today marks the start of our year of celebrations, when we will return to the Scottish mountains and start creating more memories over the next 25 years.
"Life was meant for good friends and great adventures"
