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Walk of the Week: Broughton Heights, Borders

IT WAS a truly wintry day in the middle of John Buchan country. The literary giant spent childhood holidays here and enjoyed walking in the area, but the big wet flakes of snow that were dumping down as I parked would have put off many of his more rugged characters.

Aberdeen ski club members pictured sometime in the 1960s

Roger Cox: Stop the bus! Let me in on some of those old-time skiing stories and drop me off down memory lane

A FEW weeks ago in this slot I wrote about how we should stop harking back to “golden ages” and get on with enjoying the here and now. Well, I take it back. Sometimes harking back to golden ages can be a blast.

Outdoors: The RSPB Forsinard Flows reserve in Sutherland

IT ISthe closest to wilderness we have left in the UK, a vast expansive bog that stretches for as far as the eye can see, peppered with dark peaty lochans and home to rare birds.

Walk of the week: Thorntonloch to Dunglass Collegiate Church, East Lothian

IT’S a windy day and the sand is being blown along the beach like spectral mist. St Abb’s Head lies far away down the coast, a jagged line of cliffs falling into the North Sea.

'Skulking makes them harder to detect'. Picture: Patrick Pleul/Getty

Outdoors: Jay bird - a sight for sore ears

FOR such a beautiful bird, the jay has the most awful call. It is not even worth trying to find some redeeming quality in the sharp, strident, hissing screech that conjures up an image of an incredibly bad-tempered bird that likes nothing better than to spend its time bickering and scolding.

Walk of the Week

Walk of the week: Creag Ruadh

MINUS 2C at the start of the walk, but with no breeze; a crisp sunny blue-sky day – January days don’t come any better.

Walk of the Week: Brunton to Newburgh

We started one mile west of Brunton, at a height of 150m at a track, map ref 310209, easily identified by a new brown FCP signpost.

Walk of the week: Atholl Woods, Dunkeld

HIGHLAND Perthshire is an intriguing, beguiling place. For many it is the large mountain groups, huge lochs and pretty towns and villages that come to mind.

Walk of the week: Norman’s Law

OVERLOOKING the Firth of Tay, 285m/936ft Norman’s Law is a Marilyn (a hill with at least a 150m drop all round)

Walk of the week: Flanders Moss National Nature Reserve

IT WAS my birthday. The other half was working and the elder offspring at a friend’s, so my 18-month-old and I went for a walk.

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Shooting & Fishing

Fishing and Shooting: “I only have to appear in plus fours and Crumpet starts turning cart wheels”

TO MORAY for my annual grown-up shoot with grown-up people; by which I mean people who really know how to shoot, not just muck about.

Shooting & fishing: Introducing shooting to a younger generation

A 15 - YEAR OLD cousin appeared the other day to stay with his grandmother who has a few hundred acres of charming woods, fields and scrub with nice boggy bits for snipe and pheasants.

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Roger Cox

Sarah Burke was at the peak of her powers. Picture: Getty

Roger Cox: Sarah Burke’s death reopens the debate about extreme sports

TO WATCH Canadian freeskier Sarah Burke’s gold medal-winning superpipe run from last year’s X-Games in Aspen, Colorado, is to see that rarest of things: an athlete at the absolute peak of their powers doing something mind-bogglingly difficult and not only making it look easy, but also making it look fun.

Graham Bell and Hans Kuwall, pictured on Ski Sunday

Roger Cox: A ski legend’s slalom down memory lane stirs up a chronic case of cabin fever

GREAT to see Cairn Gorm featured on Ski Sunday the other week, plastered in fresh snow right down to valley level and looking almost good enough to eat.

An 'advertising postcard' for Frys Cocoa

Roger Cox: You’ll be moved by centenary tributes to Scott of the Antarctic’s final expedition – but it’s OK to laugh too

THE line between tragedy and comedy can sometimes be a fine one, and that’s certainly the case when it comes to discussing the fate of Sir Robert Falcon Scott, aka Scott of the Antarctic.

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Weather for Edinburgh

Wednesday 15 February 2012

5 day forecast

Today

Cloudy

Temperature: 6 C to 11 C

Wind Speed: 18 mph

Wind direction: West

Tomorrow

Cloudy

Temperature: 7 C to 11 C

Wind Speed: 22 mph

Wind direction: South west

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