Haddington & Aberfeldy

August 2015

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So it's a Tuesday, we're at the Active Kids Adventure Park near Perth, and the cylinders of hay are relentlessly rolling down the sloping field, crushing all in their path.  It's mayhem.  Or hayhem.  Or something.

Obi Wan Kenobi and her young Jedi master, Luke Skywalker, watch Daisy's sliding with a mixture of amusement and horror.

Gregory and I headed in for some luncheon, and he was pretty well behaved as I queued for his lunch, a cheese sandwich, box of raisins and some fruit juice.

He finished his lunch first and concentrated his mind on the twin stacks of cups.

After lunch, off Gregory and I went on a hunt for, as it turned out, pencil crayons, of which there were quite a few.  For a short while at least, Gregory was happy to do some colouring, which he was getting steadily better at.

But, for some reason, he then wanted to take the box of pencils with him, the strangely plotting little monkey.  I put paid to this, of course.

And I made him sit on the Scarlet Sofa Of Miscreants.  (I didn't really - he sought it out.)

He then turned his hand to noughts and crosses, but soon got bored as obviously he had no idea what it was about.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the distance, Daisy held on for dear life on a zip cord...

...as Gregory looked altogether more chilled and, well, thoughtful in a swing.

I think I nipped to the gents and left Aunty Katie with her nephew.  (We were appreciating the man-marking with free-roaming sweeper defensive system we had adopted with the bringing of Katie.)  When I returned, Gregory was finding it hilarious to see his Aunty react in an over-dramatic style to his swinging.

I think I've probably beaten the record for the most different slides that Daisy has been on in a single year AND I HAVEN'T FINISHED.  Well, probably.  I haven't actually checked.

An opportune moment of noticing a short queue saw Daisy and I take on the miniature golf course.

Daisy celebrated her putting majesty in style.

At the final hole, numbered 9, Daisy was lining up her shot as a young gentlemen tried to complete the course.

This hairy horse is oblivious to the impending hay-rolls of doom.  Get out of the way!

We had entered the farm animal section now, where we saw Aunty Katie and Daisy head under the goat bridge, with no sign of any trolls.

This goat was having all the fun in the hay and ignoring the bridge altogether.

The girls seemed to have walked past the sheep oblivious of them (and vice versa, to be fair).

All was not well in the cow camp.  Words had been mooed and forgiveness was not forthcoming.  The frosty relationship would continue well into the afternoon, it seemed.

I carried The Boy round the farm bit, which made taking photos trickier, but I did manage the odd one.  Of course, he immediately targeted the electronic equipment.

Having decided, in her infinite wisdom, to finish off the bottle of Malibu on the way home, Katie was distinctly worse for wear* when we arrived back at the lodges.

* OK, in reality, this was what she had to do as a result of both children falling asleep either side of her in the car.  She had to squeeze between the front seats and shuffle out the driver door with her feet still caught behind her.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of her in this compromised position.

Back at the ranch, a lone sheep eyed us up.

That evening, we headed down to the village for a meal at the new restaurant Three Lemons, which had opened where the old pizza place was (I think).  The whole caboodle, minus the still-ill Nana Sue (and me, 'cos I'm taking it), posed for a picture.  Due to a mix-up, the children's meals were yet to arrive, which was not a good plan since they didn't really understand and were getting impatient.  Inevitably they would be finger-singeing-ly hot when they did arrive.  (Not sure this was actually the case here, but it very often is.)  Meanwhile, Aunty Katie got a ridiculously large meaty pizza - with chips - that she was never going to finish.  I was forced to help her out.

Things did pick up for young Daisy - she was very happy with her strawberry ice-cream.

The next morning, we awoke to the horrific sight of an alien infestation.  Or perhaps a can of coke had gotten rather too cold at the back of the fridge and exploded.  A clean-up operation was in order.

I headed outside to let the kids run riot, as is their wont.  Here, Daisy seems very satisfied that she has reached the top and watches Gregory struggle his way up the steps himself.

And that is it for now.

We start the next segment with Katie's photo of a cheeky young scamp named Gregory, looking a little bit trendy.

Aunty Katie was having one last mess around with her nephew before she headed back down south.

She did have time for a quick photo of him with me.  Note that I was persisting with T-shirt and shorts whilst Gregory had cleared been put in a coat by his mother.

Local farmer, Calum McDiarmid, inquires about the optimal cup stacking methodology, whereupon young Gregory is only too happy to oblige.

There was some sort of congregation as we started to bid farewell to the Allen girls, about to start their rail adventure to get back to Boothstown, with Nana Sue still not feeling brilliant but putting a brave face on it.

With farewells bade, we headed off to our destination of the day, Scone Palace (pronounced "scune" - nothing is what it seems, eh).  It was again near Perth, but on the other side of the River Tay, necessitating a trip in and out of Perth (although on the way back, we went a more direct route on a mixture of gut feel and earlier map scanning - it took a while for the satnav to be convinced but eventually it was persuaded).

I digress.  What's more pressing is to highlight the family being stood in front of some big-horned cows.

That was near the car park, which was some way from the palace itself...

...but eventually we made it.  We weren't actually going in there, though.  Probably wasn't going to be Gregory's thing.  So we just bought tickets for the gardens.

We paid extra for some strutting peacock action and were duly served well.

We didn't really.  Anyway, here is the guide to the grounds.  As you can see, there are lots of green splodgy bits here and someone has drawn in red all round it so that you can find your way.  Very kind of them.

Daisy was actually quite keen to feed one of the local birds...

...until bravery melted into a burning desire to flee for her life.

With birds proving somewhat too stressful, it was time to chill out in the confines (I say confines; the various items were quite spread out) of an adventure park.  Needless to say, there was at least one slide, which Daisy went on at least one time.

Brave knight Sir Daisy, who did so bravely fight off the evil peacocks, who did so fearlessly fly down the slide of doom, who did so willingly suffer the grizzly griping of Gregory.

And with that, it's decision time.  Do you want to see the next page or go back to the Secret Portal.