Monday, 22/7
It's not a huge country, but the drive north from near Colchester to Scotland still takes a long time, especially when you're trundling along the freeway at about 80 kph. But it is so worth it!
We had only a couple of brief glimpses of Stirling Castle as we came by, but we're very keen to visit it again. On our two previous visits we've been fascinated to watch progress on the restoration of the Royal Apartments and the tapestries that are being reproduced to hang in them. According to the timeline we were given on our last visit, the apartments should be open by now, so we don't want to miss seeing them.
We're staying in the beautiful and comfortable home of our friends Mary and Mike, just on the edge of Comrie. They bought it a couple of years ago and have worked miracles, bringing back to life a house that has been unoccupied for over twenty years. As well as tours of the property and house, delicious meals and talk late into the night to catch up on news and to hear plans for the future, we have enjoyed visiting several gardens, open as part of Comrie Fortnight and we've pooled our knowledge at the Sunday evening quiz night in the village -- great fun!
And we've just been watching Hamish from the front window. Hamish is a red squirrel, an endangered species in the UK, as they are being gradually pushed out by the introduced grey squirrels. Here's Hamish helping himself to peanuts from the hanging feeder...
We mentioned the woodpeckers on the grass at 'the land'; they were Green Woodpeckers. Now, here in Mike and Mary's garden are Great Spotted Woodpeckers (a juvenile pictured below from a bit of a distance) along with Blue Tits and Great Tits (pictured further below from a closer position), pheasants, and many others that we are just beginning to learn about.
Regards to all from Judy and Rob
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