Testing the Waters

Last weekend I had a very water themed couple of days - a garden round a lake, a hotel by the Firth of Forth, and a walk with a dip in a waterfall! Oh, and I've rejoined the dating pond....

So, for those who are curious, I've been chatting to few guys - all very different. Let's call them R, M, D and H. There have been a few messages with others, but these four seemed to be the ones who have a bit a spark and were able to sustain an interesting conversation in their own style, over the course of the last month and made me smile and begin to feel more confident again. They have begun the return of hope for the future and the whisper of potential for another crack at the happiness pie! I didn't know what to expect when I joined the dating site again, but it has brought me to today and enabled me to meet a couple of lovely guys.

For about a year I've wanted to visit the Japanese Garden at Cowden. And as I'd had last week off work I decided I had time to head off to Fife this weekend to check it out. It also happened to coincide with a M going to a football match nearby and the chance to meet up half way between where we live. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours wandering twice round Cowden, me listening to M's gentle Aberdonian accent as he chatted away. He's sweet, funny, thoughtful and attentive. He has a story about anything and everything, is open and open to listening to anything I want to share. He hasn't shied away from my recent past and I feel able to share anything with him without fear of scaring him off - he wants to know everything about me. To be continued?

The garden was really beautiful, even this early in the year. It has all the elements of a traditional Japanese garden - rocks, moss, a zen gravel garden and wooden bridges. I wandered round the lake twice and did an extra bit up to a weir by an old pumping station. It was tranquil and not too busy. Afterwards I drove over to a small hotel nearby and had a drink in the bar while watching Scotland decimate France in the rugby, holding them off from winning the tournament a week ahead of the final matches. I had a very nice dinner in the restaurant and read my book until bedtime.

Tillicoultry Glen was a spot I had earmarked for a dip and it happened to be on the way home. It was a short 2km walk, which should have been circular but sections of the path had been washed away. Not that that stopped several other walkers who disappeared or appeared as if from nowhere. I kept my eyes on the water all the way, looking for a pool big enough and accessible enough to and chose one just a little into my return walk. It was bracingly icy but a picturesque spot on an otherwise badly treated section of river. Elsewhere there were bits of fencing and plastic bottles in the water - sad and disappointing.

On the way back down I couldn't resist a look round Craigfoot Quarry. Anyone who has known me a long time will know I'm an occassional urban explorer. A disused quarry with some cool abandoned machinery was just a quick 10 minute wander round but satisfied my curiosity. Craigfoot was one of only two quarries in the Ochil Hills working andesite, a particularly hard and imporous volcanic rock. It originally worked a quartz-dolerite fault within the andesite, which is a coloured streak running down through the blue-black igneous rock – often referred to as “whinstone”, and long used as kerbing, hardcore and road metalling. Craigfoot Quarry was opened in 1930 by R.W. Menzies (although smaller scale quarrying had taken place here since 1880). In January 1949 it experienced a large explosion, when a magazine containing 150lb of high explosive detonated killing quarryman Alexander Honeyman and blowing out doors and windows in the Shillinghill area of Tillicoultry. The Menzies family still own Craigfoot's former operator, Tillicoultry Quarries Ltd, today although now they only operate hard rock quarries located at Wellwood, Dunfermline; and Northfield, Denny. The internet says Craigfoot shut around 2005 despite having planning permission to extract more stone.

The National Wallace Monument in Stirling can be seen from the road for a number of miles but I didn't have time to stop today - maybe next time. It is a 67 m (220 ft) tower on the shoulder of the Abbey Craig, a hilltop overlooking Stirling in Scotland. It commemorates Sir William Wallace, the Scottish hero. And, just look what a glorious day it was! I enjoyed the drive all the way back, with hills adorning the horizon all the way and taking mostly quiet country roads, it was over in no time.

As for the other guys I've been chatting to: R, originally from Qatar but now living in London, was initially the romantic one. He said all the right things - flattering me and sounding sweet and caring. Then he moved onto a much more personal track and it became awkward. I didn't enjoy the way it was going as the rest of the conversation dried up too and I decided to let it fade out, which it did quickly.

D, from Dudley, was a completely different character - a well educated, professional chap, chatty, warm and went straight into an actual phone call rather than texts. He is interesting, refined and with maybe a bit of an edge to him. After two lengthy phone calls we decided he should come up to stay for a few days. But, something happened at his work and he had a meeting he couldn't get out of so the weekend got called off. I found, though, that I wasn't upset as that 'edge' became more apparent and so decided that was a hint that he isn't right for me. I guess he decided the same as he hasn't messaged me again either, after all that!