Aberfeldy

(with a bit of Haddington)

June 2013

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Tuesday saw a trip to Cluny Gardens, the "magical woodland" meticulously but anonymously kept (there was no-one greeting us, just a car park, a money box and some instructions).

A series of signs numbered from 1 to 33 showed us the way to go and turned out to be a fun game for Daisy, who is helpfully pointing out the first one here.

There were many striking flowers littered around the place, such as these pink numbers.

Of course, a proliferation of vividly coloured flora invited me to test out my camera's capabilities, and I duly obliged with some zoomed-in action.

Most of the trail was through what seemed like fairly well enclosed wood, but one occasion at least we had the opportunity to spy a large building in the distance.  I know not what it is, though, unfortunately.

Daisy was eager to hunt out the numbered signs.

Having spotted a bee or two, I was determined to capture one on film.  This focus wasn't perfect, but I couldn't stand around all day trying to get something better.  It's good enough, though.

We did see a little monkey on a bridge.

This might make a good wallpaper on a computer, you know.

We finally made it round all 33 signs, although we somehow missed 4.  Daisy dutifully sat down for a pose at the finish, having had to be carried up the stairs as she was getting a bit tired from all the walking.

It was not yet lunchtime when we got back to Aberfeldy, so we took a trip to the local park.

We thought about gatecrashing the local school's clown show but decided against it.

Daisy looked on somewhat enviously, though, when they all got a go of the bouncy castle.

She made her own entertainment, with this almost perfectly designed slide.  (Perfect because it slowed her down at the bottom and the height was such that it landed her in a standing position, enabling her to simply walk off after going down the slide.)

Lunchtime finally arrived and we headed over to the Watermill, which was apparently opened by Michael Palin, where Daisy homed in on the doll's house.

Lynne ordered the chilli hot chocolate, which was... a little warm, although she acclimatised to it quickly.

Daisy got her way with some chocolate brownie cake and an orange fruit shoot.

More at another time.

This is what fathers tend to describe as "a very proud moment", taking Daisy for her first curry out, to Chillies in Aberfeldy on the Tuesday evening.  Her debut order was the mellow, savoury dupiaza, with poppadoms, rice and naan bread.  It brings a tear to my eye just thinking about.  (From pride, not due to the chillies in my dish.)

What was also unprecedented was the concept of having dessert following a curry, the default position usually being far too stuffed to eat anything again that day (but just about have room for beers, naturally).  In fact, Daisy effectively had three - this well-presented (and actually rather tasty) coconut ice-cream in a, erm, coconut, a lolly and the inevitable small chocolate.

Late on Wednesday morning, we visited Castle Menzies, which is apparently where Nicky and Calum got married (I say "apparently" because it was a long time ago and my memory is poor).  Or had the reception.  Or something.  (See!  Poor.)

Lynne got chatting to the guy while I snuck off with Daisy to the TV room.  Daisy can sniff a TV from a hundred feet.

The many corridors gave Daisy a sense of adventure, with her favourite blue cardie and pink wellies combo to the fore once more.

Some of the rooms were grandly bedecked.

Daisy sought, where possible, nooks and/or crannies

This bedroom was rather minimalist in design.

This is more like it - a big hall in which to run around.  Off each corner were some stairs leading up to viewing points.

I also keep torture implements with my bike in the garage.  Not that this was a garage - that's just where I store my bike.  And my torture implements.

And then of course lunch at the House of Menzies nearby.  It has become somewhat cloudy but refuses to rain in any way significantly.

Inside is a vibrant mix of colours and items for purchase.

Daisy, meanwhile, quickly found a source of entertainment.  I used to have a bit of a train set like this - they must be fairly standard.

That afternoon, after repairing Calum's puncture, we set off for a bike ride, driving to the bottom of Glen Lyon for a bike ride up it.  This was one of the splendid views that we had.

Look!  I wasn't on my own!  Calum determinedly looked at the cows not the camera, though.

We passed a monument for fallen heroes.

And the weather started to roll in as we climbed higher and higher (it was a fairly gentle climb, unlike the utter bastard I did with Mr Rowllings).  In the end, a later than planned start, a lack of express pace and fatherly responsibilities (Calum's not mine) meant that we did not manage to make it all the way up Glen Lyon, which is the longest enclosed glen in Scotland.  Here is the route that we did.

Will that do yer for now?

Well, it better had, since I have left it a long old month before updating this website again.  There are reasons: we spent 10 days in Menorca, for example (photos of which will, eventually, appear on this website).  It's also been very busy at work since returning to the UK, not to mention at home (Lynne has been suffering from morning sickness, aka nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, aka NVP), and such mental and physical distractions inevitably lead to a decline in creativity and thus website productivity.  But there comes a time when the backlog of items that requires uploading overrides verbal fatigue and that time is the time at which I am writing this (rather then when you are reading this - I may have lapsed by then).

Anyways, we'll start off these proceedings with a picture of Daisy retrieving some wool from the wire fence.  This is just after breakfast on the 13th, so the Thursday, in what became the routine mini-pancake washed down with warm milk, then quickly dressed (and welly-booted) for a run around the lodge.

It was lovely and sunny, so I took the chance to take a shadow picture of Daisy and me (lest you suggest I am never in my own photo reels and rarely on this website).

Later that morning, we found ourselves back at the Highland Safari as we had booked ourselves on to the wildlife safari tour.

It was just us and the tour guide, as made our first stop to look for, er, wildlife.

Unfortunately, as we were to discover, there weren't many sightings of wildlife and we, largely, had to make do with locating footprints.

That said, as we climbed ever higher in the 4x4 jeep, we got ever more spectacular views.

Well, having said that I don't feature in my own photos, here I am!  With the girls, obviously.  And our trusty jeep.

Without much in the way of fauna (unless you count insects), our main focus was flora, as attested by this picture of a vivid red plant.  Probably not poisonous.

That's it for now, sorry.

Moving on (to the next page)...