Gallivanting in the Highlands

What a marvelous day we had today in Kingussie!  We started with a fabulous breakfast, of course, complete with a starter bowl of porridge.  This place makes some of the best that we've ever tasted!

We are staying at the Arden Guest House which is located just at the base of Creag Bheag.

We had decided that we would venture out to walk the  trail named after the small mountain.  We were told that there could be some rather slippery spots, as well as some challenging slopes, but we figured that we were up to the challenge.  After all, the walk was rated only a "2 booter."  That sounded innocent enough, don't you think?

Before we left, I mentioned to Norrie, the proprietor, that I wasn't too thrilled to see that his rain gauge was falling right in the middle of RAIN.  He insisted that the proper way to read that meter was to look at  the opposite end of the arrow.  And it was pointing past FAIR, so the day would be perfect.

Did I mention that Norrie has quite the sense of humor?

There were dark grey skies looming in the distance, we headed out anyway, hoping for the best.

The trail might be easy to find.......if someone knows where to look for it. We did finally locate the entrance to the trail, but only after stopping to ask a local along the way.  He said that we wouldn't be able to miss it.

We did find the directive pole, 

but the real clue was this green sign, pointing to the summit.  Note that the sign states that the summit is 3/4 of a mile. 

Let me just say that this just might be the LONGEST 3/4 of a mile that I've ever walked!

It began simple enough.

Fern and flowers along the way.

with a crumbling stone wall that added to the aura.

Of course, we had to stop after a bit and take a photo featuring the beautiful landscape.

Then we spotted this sign, pretty much in the middle of nowhere on this mountain, directing us to the left in order to get to the top.  And, to be quite frank, I do not recall any sign of a trail leading to the right.  

It was at about this point that I asked my husband what the reference range was regarding the boots in respect to the difficulty of the trail.   Was it 1 to 5?  1 to 10?  1 of 3?   That's when he informed me that it was the last option.  Not that I wouldn't have presumed that I could handle it, but I will admit that there were some challenges that did make the hike a bit tricky.

Nowhere had the paperwork mentioned that the trail would actually involve little waterfalls along the way.  And I don't mean waterfalls for viewing.  I mean that the trail was actually under water!   We were equipped with boots, but the walking was muddy, wet, and slippery at parts, as you can well imagine. 

But the views along the way to the top were breathtaking.

Here you can see the village of Kingussie from whence we began.

The Summit was adorned with triangular rock piles,

and there was a real relief when we finally reached the top.

This was a circular route, and we had some magnificent views to view while making the decent down the other side.

Once we were nearly at the bottom, we spotted another sign, which kind of reminded me of the scarecrow in the wizard of oz, as two of the pointers actually had the same route, but they were pointing in different directions.

We opted to follow along the loch and through the woods.

These trees at the bottom looked far different from the ones at the top as they had some sort of light green growth on them, adding a very eerie essence. 

We walked past this old crumbled stone house, and found ourselves on the local golf course, with a sign reminding us to be wary of golf balls.

Which we immediately heeded when a group of golfers suddenly appeared within a few feet of us.  

Just for the record, they didn't seem the least bit inquisitive as to why we were hiking through the course, so it must be a common occurrence as it is supposedly part of the path.  

I'll admit that by this time, I was pretty tired.   Who knew that rock climbing could be so exhausting!  But we finally ended up on a road, that led us by this amazing waterfall. 

After a short rest at our B&B, we headed out to enjoy to a local shop for something to revitalize us.  I ordered a Highland Fog, which was an Earl Grey Latte, and a Victorian Sponge cupcake.  Both were absolutely out of this world!

Afterwards, we walked briefly around town, enjoying the sunshine that had briefly popped through.

And here you can see the top of the front of the mountain that we had climbed earlier in the day.

Pretty impressive, don't you think?

Around 3:30, we headed just a few miles north, to see the working dogs at a nearby farm.  The location offered quite a spectacular view with the sun shining on that mountain.

The "working dogs" are border collies, and the shepherd who owns them is really quite famous in this area for putting on a demonstration showing them herding the sheep.

Just a few calls and whistles, and the shepherd had those dogs bringing in the sheep from quite a distance, with them all ending up in a puddle not far from where we stood.

This puppy caught my attention

and it was fun watching him concentrate on the shepherds calls

Hunkering down, wanting to be part of the fun.

The shepherd then grabbed one of the rams, and began to show us how he can clip the wool off of the sheep in such a way that it comes off in entirely one piece.

which he then rolled into a ball.  

He said that the wool is sold all over the world, mentioning more countries than I can remember.

Honestly, if you are ever in this area, it is well worth checking out this place.  This man is extremely entertaining and the dogs are a delight to watch with the exuberance and willingness to follow his instructions.

At this point, we headed back to Kingussie, but stopped briefly at the Ruthven Barracks.

This stone barracks was where the Jacobites retreated after their horrendous lost at Culloden.  It stands on a high mound, and dominates the landscape.  

We were very fortunate to have skirted the raindrops, but the weather became extremely windy and cold and we were glad that we all opted to bundle up prior to checking the place out.

Dinner was once again, only a few blocks from our B&B, at Norrie's suggestion.  Amy and I both opted for the Aberdeenshire Angus steak, which was amazing.  And, after today's hiking, how could we resist sharing this chocolate tart?

In case you are wondering.....it was delectable!

Well....tomorrow we say good bye to Kingussie, but you can be guaranteed that another adventure awaits us!

I'll keep you posted! 

  

Robert Burns and the Birks of Aberfeldy

Bonie lassie, will ye go
Will ye go, will ye go.
Bonie lassie, will ye go
To the Birks of Aberfeldy!

Well, this "Bonie lassie" had just that opportunity today, and it was fabulous, but I'l get to that later.

By now you might have realized that I am, once again, back in Scotland with my husband.  But this time we've brought our youngest daughter, Amy along, to make our gallivanting adventures even more fun!

I did throw this trip together very last minute, and I will admit, that things were looking a bit dire last evening when we found ourselves in the airport, watching the departure time for our flight change from 8:10 to 9:10 to 10:10 to 11:10 due to some sort of mechanical issue with the plane.  At least that is what we were being told.  And, the suggestion was made that we just might have to wait another day to fly, but the flights for Thursday were all full!   What to do?

So, Marty made the decision to have our flights changed to the "red eye" flight.  The attendant was quite adamant that once the decision was complete, there was no going back.   So, wouldn't it figure, that once the change was made, the red-eye flight arrived late, delaying its departure for an hour and a half from the original schedule?

Obviously, all worked out fine, since I am now posting from Scotland.  Would you believe that both flights ended up departing just minutes apart, and arriving at nearly the same time, with the luggage for both flights directed to the same carousel?  All's well that ends well, as they say.

We left sunny, 85 degree temps and arrived to 50 degree chilly rain, but, honestly, who cares?   We were prepared for the weather after so many trips here over the years.

Our rental car was waiting for us, and we soon found ourselves heading out onto the highway, several hours later than expected, but ready for an adventure.

It appears that a LOT can change in two years, because the long awaited Firth of Forth Bridge was now complete and here we were, driving over it!

How cool is that?  I only wish I had managed to catch the side view so that you can see how awesome it looks.  But there should be time towards the end of our trip for me to capture a photo from a different perspective.  

Our first destination was Dewars Distillery in Aberfeldy.  

There's just something about copper stills and distillation columns that Chemical Engineers find fascinating, and both Amy and Marty were obviously excited about the tour.

We walked through the doors just as a tour was beginning, so we quickly caught up to the group, and went through the process of learning about Dewars and the single malt whiskey that this particular facility makes.    

After the tour, we were directed to the museum, which was really quite fascinating.  We learned all about John Dewars who established this business way back in 1805.  The museum held many personal items that Dewars collected, including the table where Robert Burns was known to have penned some of his poetry. 

He is portrayed as a man who loved to offer his opinion, and a couple of his quotes had me chuckling.

"Experience is what you get when you are looking for something else."

"Never invest in a going concern until you know which way it is going."  Sage advice, indeed.

As part of the museum, there was a "sniff and guess" table, where one pushed a little button, and a puff of an odor would be emitted.  Then, one was supposed to try to determine just what that odor was.

Some were fun like different types of flowers, but this one stood out as a bit unusual.

Not exactly something that one would want to smell in regards to whiskey, if you ask me.

But, then again, I'm not much of a whiskey connoisseur.  

The experience was certainly a lot of fun, as you can tell by these smiling faces!

By now, we were ready for a bit to eat, so we headed to a place called the Millhouse, which is actually a bookstore in combination with a lovely cafe, which makes one awesome Broccoli Stilton soup, which I chose for lunch.  And, it was refreshing to see that they served Perfectly Drinkable Tap Water, don't you think?

Aberfeldy is a lovely little town, and I took just a couple of shots as we were walking back to the car.

Just on the edge of the town, stands The Birks of Aberfeldy,  a wooded waterfall walk that Robert Burns had been fond of, and is where he penned the famous poem by the same name.

The walk is easily spotted. Look closely, and you will notice that Burns bust is afixed to the top of each of those columns.

It didn't take us long to see just why this would be a favorite of just about anyone, Burns included. The rushing waterfalls were spectacular.

And, then, much to our surprise, look who we spotted sitting on a bench in the middle of the forest!

On a side note, one might not realize that "Birks" are actually "Birches".   The woods were filled with Birch trees here.

By now, we were pretty tired, having gotten very little sleep on the plane, so we decided that it was time to drive to our destination for the evening.  But I managed to get this shot just as we were heading out of the town.

Now, let me mention here that when we arrived in Aberfeldy just a few hour earlier, the weather was foggy and rainy and it appeared that there would be absolutely no chance of sun.  So, imagine our surprise when the blue skies appeared out of nowhere, allowing us the opportunity to enjoy the walk through the woods so much more than in the soaking rain!   Now, how lucky was that?

We are now in Kingussie, where we are once again staying at the Arden Guest House, a lovely facility that we have visited twice in the past.  We walked into town for dinner and had a lovely meal at the Tipsy Laird.

Who by the way, serves up a rather tasty Brewdog Punk IPA.  Well, at least that's what these two think. 

Well, it's time for bed!   Here's hoping I catch up on the sleep I missed last night! 

As always, adventure awaits us in the morning!  I'll be sure to keep you posted! 

spot where Burns was inspired to write the ballad"

Laboring on Labor Day

Well, actually, I'm not laboring today.  I'm finally relaxing a bit before hitting the road home.  And, what better place to take in the beauty of the day than here, at the Robertshaw Country Guest House?

The sisters who run this place were so excited to show us the new decor, complete with a new "old" set of fall dinnerware.

Everything that they have here is donated, and there are some very creative spirits here, as I always feel as if I've walked into an edition of "Home Beautiful" when we stay here.

As I've mentioned in the past, we find this place to be a comfortable, spiritual haven to help rejuvenate us.  I am so glad that I stumbled upon the Robertshaw three years ago.   And, they are probably glad as well, since we've visited so many times,  they consider us to be family.

So, you're probably wondering about the "laboring" part of the subject line, aren't you?  Well, sad to say, our purpose for the weekend visit was to, once again, tackle my in-law's house in order to get it to sell.  Honestly, I really did think that the Memorial day weekend of work was going to do the trick.

But, we had some issues with a leaking roof.  And, the sewer line didn't pass the Township requirements, which is actually of no surprise, as it appears that the lines that they originally installed don't meet their new standards, so anyone selling a house in that neighborhood is going to have the same issue.  And, the municipality required a certified document at closing.  So, there was no choice than to have them brought up to standards.  

Of course, that was beyond our abilities, so after some varied estimates, Marty hired someone to complete the task and I'm happy to say that we now have that certificate in our possession.

We decided that it wasn't worth trying to fix an ugly roof that was leaking, so he had an entire new roof put on.

And, Marty decided that he was going to remove anything in the basement that might be an issue, under any circumstances, so he has actually been driving out nearly every weekend and sleeping at the house.  I had to laugh when we fell into bed the other night here, and he said, "This is SO much better than sleeping on an air mattress on the floor".  You betcha it is, and exactly why I was NOT going to even consider that option,  Plus, let's face it, we've taken everything out, so there isn't even a pot to boil water, and forget about a microwave.  

So, my job for the weekend was supposed to be aesthetics, but I will admit that I worked doggone hard!  First, Marty wanted four shrubs trimmed so that the windows they were hiding could be seen.

In retrospect, I don't know why that was so important, considering that it involved quite a bit of effort on my part using a lopper, but I succeeded in the task in a few hours, using no less than 7 large refuse bags to clean up the clippings.

Then, I moved onto this area near the front of the house.

It seemed to me that people wouldn't want to see grass where a garden probably should be, so Marty mowed down the grass, and I laid the weedblock. pulling up whatever  grass and weeds were loose enough to come up.

I managed to finish the entire left side and part of the right side, when the rain began to fall quite heavily, so I moved inside.

In the kitchen, when I began this renovation work back in January,  if you recall, I had to remove panelling from the lower part of the walls that had been glued on with liquid nails.  I nearly ruined my wrists attempting to sand it off.  Marty tried using a hot gun, which melted part of it, but not all.  But I thought it was sufficient enough, so I put on a coat of primer.   Then, I used paint that included a primer.  Four coats.

When we came back for the Memorial day weekend work, I noticed that some "stripes" were bleeding through the paint, so I applied two more coats of the paint/primer.

Well, that pesky stuff just won't die!

It looked like someone had a terrible accident with a cup of coffee.....only along the entire wall.

So, I had to buy a new can of paint, as we had scraped the bottom of the 5 gallon canister on the last go around, and even though it was the same color, I found myself having to repaint the entire wall as I could see where I stopped if I just tried touching up the bottom half.  Two more coats. 

I moved into the bedroom where the roof had experienced the leak, on the lovely ceiling that I had repaired and painted back in February.  That repair took 4 coats of primer before  I could touch up with the ceiling paint.  Since the roof has been replaced, I sure has heck hope that stays looking white.

Then, I painted the front door.  "Why?", you might ask.  Because every article that I have read on what to do to make your house look appealing enough to buy, said to paint the front door.  I didn't have a problem with the white door.  I thought it was fine.  But hey, I'm getting desperate here.  So, after looking into what people might like, and ruling out most of them, because lemon yellow and turquoise just didn't cut it in my book, I decided on a green door.

And I even went out and bought a pretty fall wreath to hang on the front.

And although I wasn't crazy about it at first, I can see where it certainly does look different than the white door.  Now, I'm not naive enough to think that painting the door is going to sell this house, but I sure as hope that it helps!

Moving on, I had to scrub the front hallway and kitchen floors, which did NOT make me happy as they had been newly installed on the Memorial Day weekend.  But the front hallway was horrid.  I'm not quite sure what people were doing, as there are sidewalks around the house, and a mat for your feet at the front door.  So, I decided to move the carpet from the dining area of the house to the front hall, just to protect the floor.

Kind of fits in with the fall theme anyway.

Then, I really tackled the hardwood floors. And,  by that, I mean that I scrubbed, scraped, steamed, and scrubbed again, every floor in the house, except one bedroom that we had done last trip.  I even redid the living room as scuff marks showed up there as well. 

I even did every inch of the LONG hall, and believe me, it is long (this is an 85 foot long ranch house). 

In the dining area, we had these two sliding glass doors replaced.  The originals had lost their seal, and you could only see through parts of them.  I had never noticed, until one day, when my father-in-law was sitting by the window in his chair, I decided to "clean" them so that he could actually see something out there.  I soon found out that no amount of scrubbing was going to do a bit of difference. 

So, replacing them certainly made sense.

And, we also had the deck repaired and painted, which, of course, was a great idea now that one has a perfect view out of  those sparkling windows.  

We worked 12 hour days, picking up dinner at a local restaurant and bringing it here, to the Robertshaw as I was way too exhausted to even think about sitting in a restaurant.  Plus....the advil was in the room here.  And, Lord knows, I needed a LOT of that!

Marty made the mistake of asking me if I thought I'd ever look back and laugh at this, (as I was scrubbing scuff marks off the new floor....not good timing on his part.)  I'll let you guess what my answer was to that.  

So, now I'm just about ready to hit the road for home.  Marty is back at the house.  Kind of seems like an old record, doesn't it?

We've had the house off of the market while these repairs were being done, but tomorrow it is supposed to go back on.  We can only hope that someone will love the door enough to want to make an offer.  (that was a joke, by the way.)

So,  here are just a few things that I've learned:

1.  If you buy the cheap mulch at Lowes, they stick rocks in the bags.  And, they aren't little rocks.

    (That could explain why they can be heavy.)

2.  When you think you are done with a project, another one always comes up.

3.  People don't like green bathtubs.  But, we still left it green.

4.  People will use the toilets in the house even though the water is turned off.  (Believe me....it isn't pretty when we come back for the weekend and find this problem.  I wrote notes and left them on the toilets this time.....and I did not use the emojis that my children were more than happy to share with me.)

5.  Some realtors do not offer the best advice.  I won't elaborate here.

6. Believe it or not, you can have fun while doing doing work.  I'd say that Marty and I are proof of that one.

And, finally 7:  Nuns can be extremely welcoming and offer some very wise advice.

Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!  I'm heading home!