Scottish Holiday!

[I had expected to have some internet access while on holiday, so I hadn't said much here on the blog - as it happened, we didn't have internet, so I wrote a kind of bloggy journal, which I'm publishing after the fact - but to keep things simple, I'm dating it as if it was in real time - hope this doesn't confuse too much!]



Today we had a slow, lazy start, partly because we’d only got in the previous evening and were all a bit tired, but partly because there was no food in the house (due to the late arrival) and we had to wait to eat until the closest shop opened at 8.30 and we could get some breakfast food! (Technically, there were lots of bits of food in the house, but nothing practical to have for breakfast except porridge – no bread, no milk, and so on). By the time we’d finished eating, it was nearly 10am, so we decided to do something in the morning, then gather the rest of our provisions and spend the afternoon at home or walking around locally, depending on the weather.



So we drove to Huntly and went to Huntly castle. The castle was originally built in the late 12^th century as a motte and bailey castle, but the motte is now completed bare and the later building were established on top of the bailey section. There remains quite a good ruin of a 15^th/16^th century palace and tower, as well as foundations of some outbuildings. The kids had a great time climbing all over the various bits of wall that remain, and there were some lovely views from the top of the palace tower. (Tons more photos from the castle over here on flickr.)

By the time we were finished at the castle, the weather was beginning to look a little doubtful, so we ran a few food-related errands in Huntly and then made a short visit to Dean’s Shortbread factory, where you can watch the shortbread being made – from taking off the cooling racks, to packaging. And of course we bought some – a bit for gifts for those folks who are pet sitting or plant watering at home and of course some to eat ourselves.

Unfortunately, the afternoon turned quite rainy, so we simply built a fire in our lovely fireplace back at the cottage (views from the cottage are here on flickr) and spent the afternoon reading, doing puzzles, and playing games in front of the fire before having a nice dinner at home and watching a film to end the evening. It’s very cosy and very isolated – a good place for a holiday – far away from the hustle and bustle that normally makes up our lives, even when we are “relaxing”. Geoff was slightly worried the kids would find it too isolated and have nothing to do, but I think we’ll be fine – they’ve really enjoyed exploring the small wood surrounding the house and there are bikes to ride in the garage (for the girls – nothing small enough for Alex). We have planned for the next fine day – hopefully Saturday – a nice walk around Loch Muick. Not a short walk, but apparently quite flat, with an excellent path. Sunday, the weather is predicted to be fairly awful, so we’ll probably take that day to do more indoorsy types of things – for instance, there is an aquarium to visit – and so on. There is even a quilt shop to visit – how fun is that!