Inverness

Last week we were up in Inverness on holiday, having a lovely time. We had intended to get a holiday post on here sooner, however, James started feeling unwell and after a trip to the doctor on Tuesday, ended up enjoying the hospitality of Ninewells. He is feeling much better thankfully, but is still in so the docs can keep an eye on him. Esmé and I are missing him loads and hoping that he will be better and back home very soon. I have cobbled together a post, we had such a good time and did so much, I am not about to try and get it all down, just some of the highlights. It will be be wholly inadequate without James' input though, I fear.

We hadn't planned on going away on holiday, but it didn't take much to change our minds!!!
So, we headed up to the lovely Iris' B&B(please get in touch for contact details). As we left Carnoustie the sun was shining on us and it remained so for the whole of our holiday. To be honest as we sat out every night in shorts and t-shirts til 11pm, it was hard to believe that we were holidaying in the north of Scotland! We slapped on the factor 50 daily and topped it up and we all have managed to still get a tan.
We managed to squeeze so much into our 5 days away.

We went along the coast abit to Burghead to visit the old fort and well. We never got into the well, the key holder wasn't available :-(

The rock pools at Burghead are fantastic, they were all crawling with crabs, hermit crabs, anemones and sea hares(as seen in the picture).
The stone was a lovely golden colour and the water in pools was so clear...they really were the perfect rock pools!!!



We decided to have lunch on the beach at Burghead and discovered that it wasn't just the rock pools that were amazing. Burghead also sports perfect sand castle building sand.

You can imagine the seen Mum and Dad getting stuck into building a huge sand castle, small child disowning parents.
Esmé was trying to pull down the castle, she took great delight when she, along with the various friends she had made in the beach, was allowed to knock down the castle!

May we add it was the biggest and best castle on the beach and there were lots of people at the beach!!!




If you are in Inverness you really do have to visit the Black Isle, it really does have some beautiful spots and interesting places to visit. We didn't make it up last time, so we thought we better had this time.

We found a museum in Rosemarkie that houses the local history information and artifacts, including locally found carved stones. It is great to see stones in the area they belong to... The museum also had a good range of things for kids to do, including this harp, which children are encouraged to play!

We saw alot of different birds and animals while we were away. We watched a red squirrel run up a tree, saw a deer, Esmé spotted many a bunny and there were jellyfish galore.

However, while up in Cromarty stood caught sight of a little lost mole looking for his mole hole. For all of us it was our first ever mole sighting!!







I fondly remember as a small child, probably about the same age as Esme is now, going on a barge on a canal. I don't think that I had ever been back to visit a canal since, until last Thursday!















Now Esmé would have loved to go on one of the boats in the canal, we didn't manage that, but we were lucky enough to see 2 boats go down through the locks on the canal. Esmé was fascinated watching the water level out between locks. She was a little disappointed that they wouldn't let her on them though!!!







We walked right along the tow path between the two road swing bridges. On our way along we found the first of the years raspberries. James bravely clambered in to get them and oh they may have been small, but they were nice and juicy!









On our visit to the Black Isle earlier in the week we had run out of time and had to forget visiting the Black Isle Brewery.
We decided that before went headed for the lowlands on our way home, we would pop in. It is a small scale micro brewery and it was interesting to see where the beer comes from.

All real ale lovers should try the Black Isle Brewery beers and if up that way, it is worth a quick visit, even if it is just to stock up...






Happy holidays!!!

We have been meaning to put this on since we came back but here is a video of the lovely summer weather at the summit of Stuc a Chroin back on the 5th of the month. Wintery conditions forecast for high tops this week temperatures close to zero brrrrrrrrr.

Esmé's first camping trip

We have been thinking about taking Esmé camping for a while now and since Kev gave Esmé a wee persons sleeping bag, we thought we had better get on with it.



So we packed up the car, with everything apart from the kitchen sink and the laptops. Then we made for the coast via the chippy. Having found the 'good chippy' in Montrose to be shut, we continued up to Inverbervie.

We had a yummy, truly Scottish tea and then had a walk along the beach. Having spotted a perfect site, a good bit away and across the river from the camp and caravan site. We got our kit and set about making camp.

There was plenty of evidence of previous campers, but we gathered most of that up and burnt it on our camp fire.







It kept us warm well into the night, as we watched the sun go down, lighting up the clouds beautifully and later as we counted the stars as they came out for the night.

We awoke on Tuesday morning to sun and the sound of many a sheep bleating around the tent. They did keep a respectful distance as we had our breakfast!

Esmé thoroughly enjoyed the experience and is keen to go again, although she was a little upset, complaining 'Daddy rolled on me and squished me'!!!! Never mind, these things happen!!!!!!!

Oh my word, that is so sweet!

As you all know James has just finished his PGDE(Primary). It was a hard year of much laughter and tears. For some on the course however, they found a little more than they expected. Paul and Elaine meet on the course, fell in love and got married on Saturday! See, we told you it was sweet!!!!

The whole wedding was lovely, very romantic, the food was great and the ceilidh was grand and everyone had a ball, especially the kids.

So, congratulations to the happy couple and of a big thank you for a lovely day, from all of us.

With a little help from our friends

We love the beach and spend alot of our time down there. Since the start of the holidays, we have set about experimenting with sandcastle building.

Rarely has this been a purely aesthetical venture. We have been going for good defence and scale. We had to purchase two extra big spades, so we had one each and have taken to lugging the tub~trug along too, to facilitate greater quantity sand moving! Oh yes, we are taking this very seriously!

However, how do you go about building a huge multi#sandcastle empire before tea time???

The simply answer is have a fun afternoon with your friends! Marta, Jamie and Alex joined us and together we made this monument to sandcastle building. Thanks guys xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Two at a time baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We made our third attempt, this year, to get to the summit of Ben Vorlich. On both of our past attempts, the weather beat us back.

On the the 5th July, the forecast was for sun with shower, with some wind rising gusts of 40mph max. So, in good faith we set off, thinking it would probably be a pleasant summer days walking.

As Ben Vorlich came into view it became apparent that the weather was somewhat at odds with the forecast. The summit was shrouded in cloud and as we climbed higher it was clear that it was going to be another very windy day.

We were frozen, but trumphant as we reached the summit and our glee lead us to successfully make it up to Stuc a Chroin!

Rather wind blown, we returned to the car, glorious in the knowledge that we had done both the Munros in the area and that we would not have to return again, well not this year anyway!!!

Slugs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails...

... well slugs, snails(still), worms and slaters anyway!

Esmé's interest in all things 'creepy crawly' simply grows and grows. Not content with just two racing snails ~ normally named George and Molly, Esmé has decided that a careful study of the creatures in the garden should take place at every possible opportunity.

Her sand bucket doubles as a collecting pot, for the beasties she finds under her rocks and stones in the garden. She takes great delight in finding the largest slugs and biggest families of slaters.

To aid her in her investigations we bought her a 'Bugscope'. She is now able to examine her captive creatures until her heart's content! And of course it is a very valuable learning experience ;-)



Oscar was a little put out that both Ivory and Cola had made their débuts on the blog, but that he was yet to be seen. He made sure he was in the picture this time!!!!!

News Flash

Despite heroic efforts, the latest additions to Carnoustie's sea defences fail!

It has to be said that we all put in an hours hard graft, before the natural forces of the sea breached our sea wall!!!