Day 1525 a day trip to Dumfries House with mum & Dad 🏰

I woke up at 5.46am after a good nights sleep…. Still dreaming of that honeycomb cheesecake last night!

So all prepared for today to be the Summer Solstice, albeit a fairly cloudy one.

WHO KNEW SUMMER SOLSTICE WAS ACTUALLY YESTERDAY?!??!?

You learn something new everyday.

I always thought the longest day was 21st June but it would appear that, in 2024, much to my amazement, it was actually yesterday. 😂 Who’d a thunk it?!?

How did I get to 51 years of age and not know that I was a moveable feast. Upon reflection, it’s obvious.

So…. These are for yesterday!

Puppy Leesi (as she’s affectionately known, had another good night without her cone on. She’s doing so well, just not putting any weight on her leg yet, but I’m sure that will come.

We had a really lovely cuddle for a while this morning. It’s lovely to have the trust of a dog that they will cuddle into you like that. Then I captured a yawn, albeit fuzzy…. You get the fangs!!

At 8.45am, I jumped into Bertie Beetle (could I make that sound any more cheesy?!) and drove down to Cumnock in Ayrshire, to meet Mum and Dad at Dumfries House.

I got here with a half hour to spare so just writing this in the car park…. Which is fairly empty.

We went for coffee first, as we do! Had a syrup scone with jam and clotted cream. We then had a wander round the grounds, while waiting on our house tour at 12pm.

The tree is amazing!!

Mum had a good hug!

It’s such a lovely space to be in.

We came all this way and spent the first half hour with trees 😂

I then did a 10 second delay to get this shot. Luckily there was a random beer keg perfectly placed to pop the phone on.

Now I know how to do that, there will be more of them.

We wandered around the front f the house and the lovely gardens.

There were men with a van cleaning out the fountain, in front of the house, so there are no photos of it. 😆 we had a good chat to them as the swept water and mud around the base of the fountain. It will be stunning once it’s been cleaned out.

Mum and dad are in there, honest!

Waiting for the 12pm tour. The white door will open at 11.55.

So once inside the house you can’t take any photos due to the value of some of the items inside. There are so many pieces of Chippendale furniture.

I’m sure the tour guide said that one of the cabinets in the living room would sell for £20-£25 million!!

Here’s the website if you’re interested in seeing some of what I saw today.

Dumfries House

It’s really beautiful. It’s been so well preserved.

You will know by now that I am no historian and much of what I was told goes in one ear and out of the other, while I wish I could take a beautiful photo….. but King Charles saved the House from auction and all the contents being sold off, in 2007, when he got a personal loan of £20 million and then secured a further £25 million from investors etc to purchase the house and save all its contents.

It’s been lovingly restored, is the second largest employer in East Ayrshire, second only to the Council, and now trains many local people in the old skills required to keep a house like this restored and preserved for the future.

In a hour we walked through 3 public rooms, the large entrance hallway and 4 private rooms. The tour was really informative despite my retention issues. 😆

We left the house at 1pm and headed out to the Walled Garden via this lovely bridge and pond.

I made them pose. How lovely is this.

This is exactly why I want to do these trips.

We have a lovely day and make some lovely memories… Dad has to reacquaint himself with the fact I take so many photos, but once he does, he embraces it!

This water lily is on 15x zoom. I was really pleased with it!

There were tadpoles everywhere in this pond.

So back to the Walled Garden….

It costs £3 each to get in and if you have a KA postcode, which I do, you get access for one whole year!!

Here are some of the gorgeous flowers.

Mum was in flower heaven in this greenhouse!

Here I am next to the fountain.

And the view from the fountain.

The gardens are very well looked after.

I overhead one of the guides saying that you should visit the walled garden at least 4 times throughout the year to see the full beauty of it.

Stunning colours and great to play with my new phone.

By this time we were ready for lunch. We were all surprised to see it was 3pm!

The old stables hold the lovely cafe. The food is good and the prices are reasonable.

We headed back to the car park at 3.45pm.

Our days always go so quickly but it’s lovely to wander around and spend time with each other. I love that I get to visit castles and old houses and get to see them too.

Another special day full of memories. 💜💜

I’m shattered now and have a busier day tomorrow. I’m driving to Oban in the morning, to spend the day with my friends Helen and Mike, who are on holiday from Devon.

I have a huge walk planned but I have to drive 2.5 hours to get there, have the huge walk and then drive back home. It will be a lovely but LOOOOOONG day.

The blog might be short and sweet with all the details on Sunday but we’ll see.

Have a lovely weekend!

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Day 1377 reminiscing ♥️

I just realised that yesterday was the 20 year anniversary of my life changing trip to Australia.

I left Edinburgh airport, surrounded by family, and set off on an adventure of a lifetime all by myself.

Recently divorced and made redundant for the THIRD time in about 2 years due to factory relocation abroad, I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that this was my time to head to Australia and New Zealand… something I’d always regretted not doing straight from Uni. Yes I was terrified….. got Valium for the flight from the doctors but didn’t need it.

I was very lucky to have received ample redundancy money over the years so had plenty of money behind me to fund it. (Never did actually add up just how much it cost me and probably should never do!)

We have lovely family in Melbourne so I headed out there to use as a base. I ended up in Australia on and off for 15 months, bouncing around but always ending back up in Melbourne. Jeez I cringe at that actually, they must have been sick of the sight of me for all that time. 😂

I got a job in Melbourne and stayed there until June when I jumped on a Groovy Grape tour from Melbourne, through Adelaide, Alice Springs, Ayers Rock and up to Darwin. I then flew across to Cairns and went up and down the east coast by bus.… first up to Port Douglas then to Townsville where I worked in a cafe on Magnetic Island for a month or so. Then onto Bargara, near Bundeberg, to stay with this lovely couple.

I knew Father Norman as he had come to stay in Penicuik and lead the ministry at St James the Less Church, while our Minister John Farrant, went out to his parish in Australia. Have no idea what age I would have been but we spent a lot of time with him. Sadly last night I joined the online feed for his funeral held in Christ Church in Bundaberg at 11.30pm. I went to bed after Crochet and slept until 11.25, then got my earphones in and lay and bed and watched the service. A lovely service for a lovely man. I’ve not seen him in 19 years but I felt I could hear him leading his own funeral service. I can also remember him serving me a cup of hazelnut tea and a cookie 🍪, in his jammies, every morning for the month that I lived with them. A very religious and very kind man.

Since I had left home in the January of 2004, Norman and Gwenn had been to Scotland to stay with mum and dad so it was lovely to stay with them and have that link to home.

I left them and headed south by overnight bus into Sydney, where I stayed for a while. Then on through Canberra and back to Melbourne to say hello.

I then flew out to Perth and worked as an outback barmaid in a town called Dowerin for a while before heading back to Melbourne for Christmas.

2005 saw the trip to New Zealand for 7 weeks as my Australian visa was up. I then flew back in for a few weeks before making my way through Thailand before heading home in April 2005. Just the most amazing trip.

I always knew I needed to come home to Scotland. I don’t remember feeling lonely as I travelled, I didn’t miss home too much but I always knew Scotland WAS home. My only regret was heading straight back into the rat race with the “big job”. I may have been clever enough to work my way up to a Senior Manager but honestly, it was never really in my make up. It was something I felt I had to do rather than wanted to do.

You shouldn’t live life with regrets.

My life lead me to Craig. ♥️

If I didn’t get sick through work I might never have found the peace that I have now.

Those 20 years have flown by in the blink of an eye.

It’s the first full moon of the year tonight. I have paid for a full moon calendar (it was only pennies) to remind me when the full moon is due. This is called the Wolf Moon.

I got a lovely photo of last nights moon as I left the hookers in the pub!

It’s also Rabbie Burns Day in Scotland so I’m having veggie haggis for dinner… the turnip had already gone off, dammit. Nae neeps for us 😂😂

I also had Terry’s Chocolate Orange which isn’t Scottish in the slightest!

Don’t worry…. She didn’t get it.

That’s my working week over so I’d best make the most of this weekend! Next weekend we’re at the Caravan z show in the SEC again ALL weekend…. 😂

Stay safe everyone ♥️♥️♥️

Day 1312 a lovely day trip to Edinburgh Castle with Mum & Dad 🏰

A super frosty, foggy early start this morning, catching the train to Edinburgh to meet Mum and Dad for the day.

It’s 8.51pm and I’m already north of Glasgow on the train. The freezing fog still hasn’t lifted. It’s like pea soup. 😂

I’m half an hour early I think, but I booked my ticket through Trainline. Last time I travelled to Edinburgh it was £41. This time it was £25.90 because I booked in advance. I also upgraded to allow me to take any train today. I think that was an extra £3 or so. It was well worth it… hence the being half an hour early.

And just like that the sun burns through the fog just outside Falkirk. If you zoom in you can see a bank of fog in the distance. It’s going to be a beautiful day… didn’t bring sunglasses either. 😎

You can see the heavy frost in the foreground of this photo.

Crossing the viaduct.

I have arrived!

I went for a wander as I was a half hour early. It’s the most beautiful day now.

I met Mum and Dad up the top of Cockburn Street.

We decided to head straight up to the castle.

It’s so nice to see it without the Edinburgh Tattoo scaffolding on the Esplanade.

Edinburgh is so much quieter than the last time mum and I were here during the Festival.

I say that and there were a LOT of people I the Castle during the middle of the day.

Looking down to the east end of Princes Street and the Wallace Monument.

The one o’clock gun!

St Margaret’s Chapel.

Mons Meg.

When we were wee this was kept inside. It’s obviously been preserved enough to bring it back outside.

We stood up here to watch Edinburgh’s 1o’clock gun go off. Even when you know it’s coming, you still get a fright.

This is fired every day except Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day, to let ships in the Firth of Forth know what time it is.

Here is Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags… the crags aren’t particularly visible due to the sun but if you zoom in you might see them.

I’m sorry but does this gold roof not remind you of something?!? 💩

You can see they are setting up for the Christmas Markets down in Princes Street Gardens. Think it opens next weekend.

I have so many more photos but I think I might break WordPress. 😂

I love this shot of us leaving the castle… the longest legs in the shadows!

We were SO lucky with the weather. It’s been very cold but a beautiful day. It’s so lovely to make these memories together, rather than sitting around inside a house.

I even got a nice shot in Edinburgh Waverley.

It’s dark now and I’m just north of Glasgow again where the blog started.

Thanks to mum and dad for such a lovely day.

Happy weekend!

Stay safe everyone ♥️🏰🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿