Mothering thoughts in Torridon

Greetings from Torridon, where we're spending a few days, just Gail and I, all by ourselves, 

Sometimes, it's the role of us pups to cuddle up to our humans and patiently listen when they want to talk. 

So here I am, comfy on Gail's lap, watching a superior Ireland rugby team winning against England in Dublin on Saturday evening, and Gail tells me she's thinking about her mother. 

It seemed odd to me that a rugby game prompted these thoughts, but then I learned how Gail's dad took her mother to see Ireland play England at Lansdowne Road when they were on honeymoon in Dublin in 1956, and her mother always said of the occasion "I thought I'd married a quiet man until that day". 

Yesterday, Sunday, was Mother's Day in the UK. Gail took me for for a long and wild walk to the magnificent Coire Mhic Fhearchair.  

Gail's mother once told her that she met Gail's dad at a 'do' at the Nottingham Squash club. He asked her if she would like to join him for a walk in countryside the next day and she thought "what a nice man". And the rest is history. 

Tomorrow it will be five years since Gail's mother died. She says they had an at times 'complicated' relationship. She also says that she treasures a copy of 'Winnie the Pooh' inherited from her mother and inside the book is a label saying it was a prize for 'good conduct' at school.

Apparently Gail herself never won any awards for 'good conduct' and she doesn't suppose I ever will either.

OK, so time to own up. Here's a picture of the remains of a packet of cup-a-soup which I stole from a couple of hikers on Sunday. They were the only other people we met on the whole 8.75 mile walk and they were enjoying a picnic beside the loch pictured above. Gail says the fact they weren't cross about my behaviour does not count as mitigation...