Velvet Antlers at the Christmas Market

Today (Wednesday) Dave and I are taking Velvet Antlers to the Christmas Market, Lochaber College, Fort William. Drop in and say hello if you are about. A good time to get a look at our hampers and some other cools stuff we will have with us. We're there 10am-4pm.

See y'all.

Ardnamurchan Powerboatin!

With all the manic work of Echo Wall I’ve not had time to upload these pictures of a lovely day out with Peter and Cat last month on their boat on Loch Sunart, Ardnamurchan. Being in the driving seat of that thing was well cool! We aren’t used to boats and we thought it was really cool that you could jump in a wee inflatable boat not far from the house and be out at sea near Mull in no time.

Me at the helm. Woohoo!

Just how many jackets can one person wear?

Glen Nevis River Race

Pre-race nerves

Yesterday saw the return of the legendary Glen Nevis River Race, where hoardes of mad folk race down the river with only a helmet, a pair of sensible shoes and any form of floatation device you care to mention for company. After all the rain we've been having lately, the river was running really high which some felt was a bonus, others not so. The water was so high, that the race organisers No Fuss had to chop the start of the course off. Apparently, one of them jumped off the spot known ominously as 'The Leg Breaker' in the morning to test it and he popped up fine. His airbed, however, didn't pop up for 10 minutes. Hmm, not my cup of tea but everyone else looked like they were enjoying it; some in it for a laugh, others taking it VERY seriously.

The lower falls of Glen Nevis - not for the feint hearted. One or two got to the edge and thought, "Actually.......I think I'll walk round!" I don't blame them, it's higher than it looks!

Before...

After!

Looking remarkably cavalier whilst holding onto an inflatable lobster for dear life.

Fresh bread on demand

This thing of beauty arrived this morning. A white tin loaf sprinkled with poppy seeds and hand- delivered by Mandy from Tigh Fuine on her bicycle. As you can see, I'm looking rather pleased with it. Who wouldn't be? It's home-made, hand-made, fresh, organic, cheaper than buying a slightly fousty loaf from the local shop and delivered for free. What's not to love? All those that live outside Mandy's delivery area may now turn green with jealousy. The rest of you shoud start banging down her door!

Drop me a line and I'll pass on your email (the website is being worked on as we speak) and you can be added to her weekly email she sends out on a Monday telling you what breads she is baking that week. You just let her know what loaf you would like and on what day. Genius.

All that was left for me to do this morning was swither over having some of my new delivery for breakfast, or some of those fresh baked blueberry scones that are cooling in the background. It was a tough call...

Today's lunch

I went out to buy lunch today. This is what I came home with. Nice eh? And yes, I did eat all of it! The flower garnish are Nasturtiums – completely edible, according to Becky from Shielfoot Organics. How did they taste? ‘Woody’, just like Becky told me they ‘would’ be.

Today’s lunch shopping was rather more interesting than normal; at Lochaber Larder’s monthly food producers gathering and market in Fort William. Among the delights on offer was Tigh Fuine’s (Gaelic – ‘bakehouse’) gorgeous breads. Mandy bakes daily and delivers her loaves to the door (so long as you leave her the dosh in a jam jar first!) every morning. Velvet Antlers headquarters will be partaking daily from now on. If you’d like Tigh Fuine’s number, drop us a line. I arrived back home with warm bread, edible flowers, chutney, rainbow eggs and more than a few new friends.

So there you have it. If the story behind this not-so-humble sandwich doesn’t convince you that seeking out local food is good for you, nothing will.

Fort William wall opening night

Last night saw the official opening of Alan Kimber’s new bouldering wall at Calluna, Fort William. For the past couple of months, Dave has been setting all the problems on the wall, built by Scott Muir. I even had a shot myself of setting some problems but we don’t have a telly at Chez MacLeod and the lure of the flat screen in the kitchen of the wall was too great most nights and ended up watching Taggart/Eastenders/Bear Grylls para-motoring about the place instead of unpacking holds.

Insert your own comedy caption in the comments!

Tom utilising his visualisation techniques.

The motley crew that made it happen - Scott, Alan and Dave.
Visualising a full brass band?

The entire Extreme Dream team came over from Aviemore for the opening and I’m amazed to say we staggered home at half twelve and most of them were still bouldering strong. That’s keen.

It’s great that there is finally a decent wall in Fort William itself and I’m pretty sure that there is going to be a brilliant scene there.

Skiing for the first time at Nevis Range

Waaah - how do you stop these things?

It was all systems go this morning for meeting Lisa Wharton, local writer and editor, for lunch at the Farm Shop when a sneaky wee email sent at the last minute asked if I fancied a spot of light skiing at Nevis Range afterwards. Not the kind of email one normally receives but I thought what the heck, I'll take my thermals along and see what happens.

Crikey, it's a lot harder than it looks. Lisa, a seasoned skiier, started me off with trying some turns. Then we back tracked a little and tried snow ploughs. I knew I wasn't doing so well when she then said "Right, I think we'll practice just standing still." Oh dear. We got there in the end though and I managed 4 whole turns in a row without falling over just before we got back to the gondola as it got dark.

Lisa looking somewhat more at home

What I find amazing though, is that this was all just a 10 minute drive from my house. Fort William keeps surprising me.

UK Slacklining Masters results

Michael Aschaber (Austria)

• Best International: Andy Lewis (USA) - £500 and a quaich (he looked a bit confused when I handed it to him and had to explain to him later that is a 'cup of friendship' and not, in fact, an ashtray...)
• 2nd International: Michael Aschaber (Austria) - £300
• 3rd International: Damian Cooksey (USA) - £200
• Best effort International: Nils Daimer (Germany) - Tensioning system

• Best UK: Jon Ritson (Lakes) - £500 and a quaich (also equally confused by the quaich/ashtray...)
• 2nd UK: Frank Kroner (Glasgow) - £300
• 3rd UK: Andrew Marshall (Belfast) - £200
• Best effort UK: Rupert Ollinger (Edinburgh) - Slackline kit

Andy Lewis (USA) winning Best International

Check out Andy doing the splits on the line in the clip above - one of the highest scoring tricks you can do on a line.

Well, there were a few twists and turns in the run up to the event but I think I can safely say that the day was a real success. A big 'Thank you!' to everyone that made the day possible.

Bad weather forces change of venue - eek!

We are now paying the price for the fantastic run of amazing weather we've been having here lately and that price is lots and lots of rain and it doesn't look like it's going to stop. As a result, we had to take the difficult decision this evening of changing the venue of the UK Slacklining Masters to a nice warm, dry indoorsy one at The Nevis Centre in Fort William.

In actual fact, it wasn't that difficult a decision if you'd seen how soggy the playing fields were today!

The date and time are still the same - 12pm this Saturday.

Scottish cafés we like part two: Lochaber Farm Shop

A welcome addition to the café scene in Fort William is the arrival of the Lochaber Farm Shop’s new café. In their new purpose built lodge, they offer the best of both worlds. You can sit down and enjoy the view of Aonach Mor whilst eating one of the best bacon and egg rolls known to man and then do what I do and pop across the hall to buy the same locally produced bacon and eggs to take home and munch your way through each morning until you run out and have to go back and buy some more. Not the healthiest, I know, but they taste so damn fine. I may end up the same size as their purpose built lodge if I’m not careful.

The shop itself has the best fruit and veg available in the area, far superior to the standard offered by Fort Williams’ big, local supermarket. If you know Fort William, you’ll know which one I’m talking about. Not long after we moved to this area, I made a lovely venison casserole with meat and veg bought from the Farm Shop and whilst eating it we couldn’t figure out why the carrots tasted so funny until it dawned on us what they actually tasted of – carrot! That may sound odd but they were the carrotiest carrots either of us had ever tasted. And they were organic and local. Far better than the bland, wobbly affairs on offer in town…

Just because I can, here’s an aerial view of the café, now that won’t be happening with every café I write about!

It’s a bit out of the way up at the Lochaber Rural Complex on the road to the Nevis Range gondolas and trying to remember on which days of the week it’s closed can be a bind (I’ve turned up many a time at the shop pre-lodge days to find it shut) but well worth the trek and perfect for fuelling up pre-skiing/boarding session.

Ben Nevis from the air

I cannot begin to describe just how awesome today was. Seriously. It all started last night when Dave Brown happened to mention that Diff, his partner in Hot Aches Productions, was coming up to Fort William in the morning to do some shooting for a new film Triple Echo are making about Ben Nevis. They needed aerial shots of the Ben; the weather was perfect and the helicopter was booked. I got to thinking…

So at half 8 this morning, I phoned Triple Echo and asked if there was any chance of a lift. It was a long shot but it worked! If I could be at the Nevis Range car park in half an hour, they’d see if they could squeeze me in – woohoo! Sheepishly blagging some wood (see post below) was nothing compared to blagging your way into a free ride round Ben Nevis in a helicopter on one of the best days of the year for it.

Click on the pictures below for a larger image.

All of the pictures I took in the air were shot through the helicopter window, so there are some reflections. But they still give you an impression of how awesome Ben Nevis is!

The shapely ridge of Carn Mor Dearg

A stop for lunch

An unusual view of the summit plateau of Ben Nevis. It looks so innocuous in sunshine, but can be a very scary place to be in a winter storm. You can see the summit observatory ruins clearly.

Slacklining update

The fabulous Tim Emmett has agreed to be our MC for the day at the UK Slacklining Masters.

If any of you have ever met Tim, been to one of his lectures or seen him on the telly racing Jeremy Clarkson up Verdon Gorge on Top Gear, I'm willing to bet you'll have been bowled over by his enthusiasm and energy.

This is tremendous news and I can't wait!

Fort William UK Slacklining Masters

Jon Ritson on the first highline in Scotland? Correct me if I'm wrong!

The good news is that the entry forms are now available to download here for the very first UK Slacklining Masters and the really, really good news is that there is now even more money to be won. The cash prizes for the comp are now totalling a whopping two grand.

UK Champion = £500

UK 2nd place = £300

UK 3rd place = £200

International Champion = £500

International 2nd place = £300

International 3rd place = £200

If that's not a hefty incentive to book your ticket to Fort William, I don't know what is.

The comp will be kicking off at 12pm on Saturday 23rd February at the Lochaber Leisure Leisure Centre playing fields with the Grand Final at 4pm.

Remember, entry is totally free, so there's no excuse not to enter.

Keep an eye on my blog for updates on the comp.

The return of the Fort William Picture House? Yes please!

I found out this afternoon that plans are afoot for the cinema in Cameron Square in Fort William to reopen. This got me very excited. Dave and I started visiting Fort William about 12 years ago to go climbing. On rest/rainy days you would often find us in the cinema watching films that had been released back home in Glasgow a good number of months before. I’ll never forget the first time it rained whilst we were watching a film and realising that the cinema had a tin roof that the rain was just absolutely stoating off and drowning out the film. And then the curtains shut half way through the film for a break; now that never happened in the UGC.

Back in Glasgow, I used to visit the silver screen at least a couple of times a week (I clearly had too much time on my hands in those days) but I now have to rely on getting my fix of the flicks delivered through my letterbox due to the nearest cinema being 60 miles away but would love, love, love to see a cinema back in the Fort so, please, comment here if you would like to see the return of the cinema in Fort William, or maybe you live in some far-flung place in the world where a local cinema is really appreciated, let me know and I’ll pass your comments on and hopefully that will help persuade them to reopen that lovely cinema, though hopefully without the intervals?