Lately I have been on a First World War aviation reading kick. I don't know why, but the topic is engaging me more than others. I read a couple of books back in February, and I've been searching for some others that can fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge.

That's how I found about Harald Penrose and his five-volume series on British aviation. Penrose was an amazing individual, a test pilot who later in life wrote several books on flight and the history of it. I have no doubt that I've seen his books on shelves before, only now my interests have aligned with his work, and I wouldn't mind trying him out.

Only I can't. My usual starting point after a brief confirmation that my local libraries don't have a book is to request it through Inter-Library Loan. Then after a week or so the book shows up for me to peruse, after which I start it, buy my own copy, or pass on it and move on. But I can't do any of those this because — well, you know why.

At this point, I'm deciding whether to take a plunge on one of the first two volumes, which are the ones that currently interest me the most. This would be easy if the price were right, but while I'm willing to spend $70-80 on a book that I want, I'm much less willing to do so to decide whether it's a book I want. So I'm bidding on a copy on eBay to get it to a price I can live with. Fingers crossed that the seller is either reasonable or desperate!

When @MoonlightReader first mentioned the buddy read of Miss Pym Disposes, I immediately thought about how to celebrate reading my last Josephine Tey book in style. 

I mean, Tey has become one of my favourite authors over the years and I had kept back Miss Pym Disposes for a special occasion, knowing full well that finishing it will likely lead to a reading slump and author hangover.

I mean, I still have a few other books and plays to read by the author under her other pen name Gordon Daviot but these are of an entirely different style and premise, they are not "Tey mysteries".

So, when I thought about it, it also occurred to me that I still had not been to that secondhand bookshop in Inverness, Tey's/Daviot's/Mackintosh's birthplace, that I've meant to seek out for years. 

As the weather forecast for today was pretty grim, I finally decided that I might as well spend the day indoors elsewhere, hop on a train and see if it is true that the bookshop has a wood-burning stove on its premises. Tey book in hand I set out on a small adventure...

The weather forecast was wrong, btw. It was cold, but really sunny.

Never mind. 

Leakey's, the bookshop, is currently housed in a former church. It does not like much from the outside...

...but looks can be deceptive.

And yes. Yes, there is a wood-burner right in the centre of the shop. 

What a brilliant place! The shop does have a small general fiction section, but it mostly specialises in antiquarian books and maps. The travel section upstairs is pretty impressive, too! I found it difficult to contain my book purchases to only a few books, but I saw an edition of Freya Stark's The Southern Gates of Arabia, which I hope will make up for the (so far) disappointing book by Gertrude Bell I am reading at present.

I'm currently trying to warm up from an evening out with friends. We went to the local Spectra Festival which features art installations around the city centre. This year's theme was The Sea, probably because we're a maritime community.

Anyway, it was fun even tho it was freezing. Lots of people attended and there were queues at the main attraction - a church and the surrounding graveyard. 

We are told that another winter storm will hit us over the next few days, so people probably wanted to make the best of the calm weather tonight.

of this year's tour of Christmas markets: Edinburgh. It's madness down there, but then today is knows as "Mad Friday".

Hello.

It's been a crazy busy week, which started with a concert last Sunday night that kept me up way past my bedtime and was followed by an early, early morning work trip on Monday. For the rest of the week, I've basically tried to catch up on sleep, but the heat and a busy social/theatre schedule put paid to that idea.

Anyway, I'm not complaining. I loved every minute of it, especially catching up with friends that I hadn't seen in a while - years actually. 

One such friend was one that I got lost with on a hill walk a few years ago, and that particular event still gave us laughs when we caught up. It also reminded us that we needed to go back on that walk to find out what happened. 

So, yesterday we did just that. 

We met at a farmers market to pick up some food, then set off for the walk again. It just felt so much like unfinished business. And then we quickly found the problem:

This post lies, misdirects, and generally promotes bad faith towards all sign posts everywhere.

Do not trust this post!

The track this posts directs to leads away from the route and makes to walk around a hill that is an additional 4 miles of detour. 

So, this time we ignored this post and followed the original path.

As it was really hot and sunny (yay, I had packed sun cream!!), the official path led along a river and through some woods, so it was the perfect place to cool down - even splash some of the water for additional refreshment. And obviously, we had picnic breaks.

It was glorious.  

Here are some more views from yesterday:

Today, I mostly pottered about, read, did household chores, prepped my meals for next week (I made a huge veggie lasagna which should last me for a while), and discussed our next walking adventure with my friend.

We have great plans - some of which combine a distillery, a queen, and a pyramid! :D

Happy Sunday!