10 Years of Irregular Blogging!

Although this autumn has not been a banner season for blogging, I realised that I have been at it for some time now.  I think I have slowed down somewhat because I feel that I am just living regular life an am less of a tourist than I have been in the past.  I still have a few bits and pieces to add though so I will try for a bumper post!  The autumn has been busy and eventful even if I didn't realised it at the time.  Sometimes it is only when you look through your pictures folder that you discover you have indeed been doing things.

To start with, there was the Canadian invasion!  I had a big influx of Canadian visitors during the half term which was amazing.  I am so pleased that I could have everyone over.  We toured London and I terrified everyone with my driving.  It was a great visit.  It was so wonderful to have my friends around me.  I wish I had them around here all the time!  Hopefully they will visit again soon.  We have a spare a room people!  Keep it in mind.

Doing some serious brass rubbings

I also got the exciting news that my good friend Lauren is expecting!  I can't wait to see the new addition at Easter.  I love buying baby gifts!


To my lasting delight, we got a car that I can drive.  Hurray for automatic transmission.

The dream machine

Then we had Dad's 65 birthday!  I gave him the gift that keeps on giving:  a banjo!

On that same day, we headed off to Sri Lanka for a bit of safari fun.  We went on a whale watching and an extreme amount of bird watching. 

At Cinnamon Wild at 5 AM

 

 

A washed out road we had to wade through

 

 

Crocodile beside the washed out road

 

 

Yala National Park

 

Stilts Fisherman in Mirisa

 

 

 

What's next then?  Well, there are a few trips on the cards as always.  I will try my best to update on an as and when basis!  In the mean time, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too.

Ascot

After heavy consultation with Dad, I placed a series of bets at Ascot.  I did extremely well and was the top winner in our group, netting £6!  We Campbells know what the meaning of winner is!  We were there for a beer festival so we stayed out in the common folk bit.  It was a pretty cold day so I'm glad we didn't have to dress up.  I had to buy an emergency scarf.  It drizzled for the first half and then cleared up beautifully.  Here are a few shots from the day.

A bit more Edinburgh

Here is a little more from Edinburgh.  We had a really nice stay there.  I liked it better than Glasgow.  It has the castle, shopping, beautiful gardens and buildings and yet, a small town feel.  I loved it!

Dolphin Watch at Gairloch

As part our our tour out to the north west, we went out on a boat trip with the hope of seeing some whales and dolphins around the Hebrides islands.  The town was called Gairloch or the "so-called" town as their hilariously grumpy receptionist dubbed it.  She was right in saying so because it was a bit of a scottish back woods.  That being said, it is also the historic seat of the MacKenzie Clan for the past 500 years or more.
It has a beautiful sandy beach but I wonder if it is ever warm enough to swim in.  That is why british/scottish athletes are so hardy I imagine!  

The distant murky mountains

It is supposed to be warmer than most scottish waters though because it benefits from the golf steam currents.  The tide was out when we arrived and it was a sunny day.  We put on our boiler suits and headed out to some of the islands that make up the Hebrides.  There are two islands that are covered in puffins.  The grumpy reception told me when we booked that there would be no puffins because they migrate on the 31st of July.  Luckily they were still there by the hundreds on the 1st of August.  We didn't see any whales but we saw the about 20 dolphins, several porpoises, some enormous jellyfish, some seals of various types (including the hilariously named shag) and a crap load of puffins.  To be honest, I didn't care if we saw whales because they don't exactly leap out of the water like dolphins do.  It's more like spotting a black smudge a mile away.  By the end of the four hours, we had worked up a serious hunger but everything was closed, so we had to survive on a muffin and some potato hoops for the two hour drive back to Inverness. 

A mom and her one month old calf

Here they are leaping together.  So cute!

Many many more puffins

The eye of the island

Some shags

A brightly beaked puffin



 

Edinburgh Zoo

Catching my breath

We have kicked off the summer holidays with a trip up to Scotland.  We are heading to the Commonwealth Games to watch the athletics and see the sites.  I'll cover the games in another post.  I enjoyed it very much even though I am not very familiar with our athletics squad.  I know more about England's squad (vicariously through Taylor) so I was surprised to see the depth of talent in the Canadian team.  I don't really think of Canada as a "summer sports" kind of country but they really have done well!

Anyways, we have one more round of that to attend before I write it up.  Here is the delights of the

Sleepy pig in a mud puddle

The meerkat sentinal

Zoo.  As zoos go, it is a reasonable one.  It is built on a steep hill that goes up approximately 500 feet to plateau at a view point over Edinburgh and the surrounding countryside.  There was the usual zoo issues surrounding a large enclosure with no creature visible.  You are looking for ages but you are never sure if there is a tapier in there or not.  Taylor's main desire to visit the zoo was to see their set of pandas.  Only the male panda Sweetie would come out.  Sunshine stayed in her nesting box.  Not that Sweetie was that great to look at. He lay on his back beside a big pile of his own fresh poo.  You are only allowed to look at the pandas for 10 minutes and you have to prebook a time slot.  To be honest, I wouldn't bother.  Everything else was just fine though.  A lot of walking up hill but worth a visit.

 

I think he fainted

Chillin'

Big kitty!

 

 

 

And a pygmy hippo to finish!

Bushey Festival

Bushey is covered in bunting and looking glam.  There is an open gardens tour in our neighbourhood and every garden is looking excellent.  There was a garden party down at the rose garden in the cloisters today with a brass band, a fun run, tea and cakes and that kind of thing.  It was all very civilized and english.  We have been enjoying some excellent summer weather so it was about time we finally took ourselves out on the Merry Hill trail.  Here are a few pictures from blooming Bushey.

 

These lovely fox gloves grove in our driveway!
 



The entrance to the duck pond



Neil lounging in the freshly cut grass

 

The Merry Hill trail

 

 

Corsica

My favourite spot we visited on the whole cruise was Ajaccio.  I would seriously like to go back there and spend some time on their beautiful beaches and, yes, their excellent turtle and tortoise sancuary!  It had mountains, beachs, great food and a feeling of cottage country.   There is a sweet smell in the air where ever we went as well, a combination of all the herbs and wild flowers that grow on the roadsides.

I loved the turtle place.  We saw what we thought was a turtle fight and gathered our fellow tourists around to see it and take a picture only to discover that they were in fact mating.  No one was pleased.

Here are a few pictures of the day.