Walking

What an amazing day! 

Ok. So I wasn't going to blog while I was on holiday, but I had to put a bit about today. I set out with DH and Oscar to head out to Lochinver and then to go walking. DD opted to stay in the holiday cottage with Molly and have a day doing nothing. After acquiring a few pies from Lochinver Larder (the best pies we have ever tasted) we set off from Glencanisp Lodge out in to the beautiful Scottish highlands. And what a walk! Beautiful blue skies, just a few clouds, a bit of a breeze, and we only met 7 people in 6 hours!

Poor Oscar found it a bit tough and needed a nap half way when we stopped for lunch. 

What a wonderful walk! DH worked out we'd done about 10 miles which is quite a distance for us, especially Oscar. 

I'm sure we'll do other walks while we're away, but this one was amazing, followed by an incredible sunset. 

Chill time

We finally made it. Finally got to our chill place - our favourite place to sit back and relax. 

 

I must have dozens of photographs all taken from the same spot, of the same view, but they're all slightly different because the weather's always slightly different! 

We stayed overnight last night in a Holiday Inn, designed to break up the travelling. But it has still been a long day today, made worse by the fact that both dogs decided to fall out with each other and have a bit of a scrap at 3.20 am. Then at 6.15 am Oscar decided it was time to get up! That meant getting dressed and heading out of the hotel quite early. 

But we're here now. We've eaten out, had a pint of An Teallach ale, and are all extremely tired. 

Here's hoping for a very relaxing two weeks. 

Final preparations

Well, the final preparations for our holiday are under way. The cats have been taken to the cattery (they went yesterday), and we've been doing a final gathering of what we need to take. I've also had to do a final check of my greenhouse and make sure that all the plants are going to be ok (my mum has agreed to come round and keep an eye on things and make sure everything is watered and stays alive while I'm not here!). I've left everything well watered so hopefully they will last for a couple of days at least before my mum gets round. Ppp

I've checked all the maps that we've got and packed all the ones we might need. I think DD has packed for longer than the time we're going. Mind you, I think I have as well! It's so difficult knowing what clothes to take when you go on holiday in this country, especially where we're going - we know that we could have any one of the four seasons thrown at us in the space of a few hours!

Not long to go now - just 24 hours stands between us and chill time ……..

A white Westie!

Dear old Molly was trimmed today. She gets trimmed on a regular basis and as the photo showed on her birthday on 3 June, she was starting to look a little scruffy. 

Not any more! After a trim and a bath and blow dry she looks even cuter than she did before!!

And whiter than she did before too! Hopefully she'll stay quite white for a while, but with quite a few walks planned while we're on holiday, mostly in woodland and on hills, I very much doubt that she'll come home looking this clean. 

But she'll look cute for at least a week!

7 days and counting ………

If you hadn't already worked it out, I like my holidays. I'm forever looking when the next one is going to be and where we're going to go.

However, there is no real discussion when it comes to our summer holiday. I know, and DH knows, that there is only one place that we want to be for our two weeks away, and that's in the Highlands of Scotland. And for the last ten years or so we've gone to the same place for at least one of those weeks - Ullapool. A wonderful place serving good food and good beer, and an excellent place to just chill.

So we're now on the count down until we can get there this year.

And chill.

Another plant update

I've been out in the garden this afternoon, after getting the food shopping out of the way.  I thought it was about time I replanted the tubs for the front of the house. I'm afraid the violas were really past their best. So, time to plant up with summer plants - begonias, marigolds and fuchsias in nice summery colours. 

I did a check of the vegetables too. We have mini cucumbers 

...... flowers on the tomatoes at last ....

......and pea pods!

It might only be a few, but it's a start. 

I've also got an aching back now from weeding the patio. Not the best of jobs, but with the rain we've had recently it's not only helped the plants to grow, but it's also helped the weeds to grow again too. At least it looks a bit better now. 

Cake!

I made a cake this afternoon, just. In the little bit of time between getting home from work and going back out again to collect DD from work there was just enough time to make this ....

 

.... a yummy chocolate chip sponge cake. 

Then my Monday night line dancing class after tea which was fun.  

Tomorrow I'm taking DD shopping in the afternoon which could be quite fatal to the bank balance - clothes shopping. Eek! I'm trying to get organised and get some new holiday clothes for our girls holiday in October, before all the winter clothes come out in the shops. 

Wish me luck! 

DH Driving Experience

What a day!

DD had bought DH a 'driving experience' for Christmas - driving an Aston Martin. Finally, today was the day that he got to do the driving. Unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side. The journey down to the venue was horrendous - lots of rain around which made driving on the motorway not very nice at all. Then it cleared up for a little while, and then just before DH went out for his drive, the rain came again, and getting any decent photographs was extremely difficult! But I managed to get a few …..

And then, after driving 6 laps in the Aston Martin, DH then had a couple of laps as a passenger in a Lotus, which looked a bit too fast for me!

Although it didn't last long, DH said that he'd really enjoyed the whole experience, so thank you to DD for thinking of it as a present.

It's also been my mother-in-law's birthday today - 85 years old today! Not bad going really. So, once the driving was done, we headed off to say Happy Birthday. 

And the sun came out as we got back home. Typical.

Plant update

I've been busy in the greenhouse again this afternoon trying to sort out some of the vegetable plants. I've had a lot of tomato plants in really small pots and they desperately needed to go in to bigger pots if they're to get going this year. 

So, over an hour later and I think most of the tomatoes are done, along with the cucumber plants and a couple of the courgettes. 

I've got some flowers on the pea plants  now too, and have sown some more to try to keep a steady flow going. 

There's still loads to do on another day, but that's today's job done. 

Molly!

Happy birthday to our dear little Molly, who's Sweet Sixteen today!

Who would have thought when we decided to get a Westie for DD all those years ago, that we'd end up with such a wonderful dog.  She's been so good tempered and well behaved (apart from the stubborn streak in her ). 

To think that we nearly lost her two years ago too - her spleen ruptured and she had to have an emergency blood transfusion and it was touch and go whether she'd pull through. 

I think she's about ready to settle in to old age gracefully now. 

Happy Birthday! 

Sneaky night away!

Yesterday I went to visit my friend on her farm and give her a bit of hand with some stuff. While I was there I started thinking about this weekend - DD was going to go and visit a friend and stay overnight, leaving me and DH on our own.

We'd been talking over the last few weeks about how long it is since we've had chance to stay overnight in our camper van, not having had either the time or the opportunity with being too busy doing other things.

Not this weekend!

I sent DH a text asking him to plug the van in to the electric to get the fridge cooling down, and he packed most of the stuff while I helped my friend and then picked DD up from work and took her to the train station for her train at 5.15pm.

By 6.30pm I was driving myself, DH and both dogs away from home and off up north to find somewhere to stay for the night in the van. We headed up towards Sedbergh and found a lovely, quiet spot to park up. Within 10 minutes we had tea on the go - steak and chips!

What a lovely night it turned out to be too - we had a lovely sunset and it was so peaceful.

This morning, after a lovely breakfast, we headed off up the hill towards Lunds (near Dent). The signpost said 1 3/4 miles. I'm not convinced as it felt like a lot longer! (see my walks page for some photos).

After getting stuck in quite a bit of traffic heading south, we finally got back home where I've managed to cook a chicken for tea and make a banana and walnut cake (very yummy) and both dogs are now worn out and fast asleep!

What a weekend!! Not what either of us was expecting. I think you can safely say it was a spur of the moment decision to make the most of an opportunity!