"The Old Fox" to be honoured
I am settling in nicely to Sri Lanka now but I still want to know what's going on at home. So, first thing on Monday mornings I like to have a quick peek at the Scottish news. Today I was delighted to see that one of my family has been honoured for his commitment to mountaineering. Hamish MacInnes, the inventor of the MacInnes Stretcher and some say of modern climbing, is the first ever recipient of the Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture. He is also my Granny Purdie's cousin and although I have never met him, he was talked about a lot - she was obviously very proud of him. His love of Scottish hills and mountains seems to have rubbed off on most of the family - there are many climbers among us. And although I can't claim to have done much in the way of hill walking in recent years (haven't done much of anything except work and politics!), it's one of the things I'll definitely be making time for on my return.
