Destination: Kingussie

As many of you blog readers know, Marty and I love gallivanting in Scotland and so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to learn that we left Newark last night and 6 1/2 hours later, we were in Edinburgh.  One might think that should be enough time to sleep, but, in reality, it's only about 2 or 3 hours straight, at best, since the airlines feel obliged to serve dinner an hour or so after departing, then breakfast, an hour or so before landing.  

But, I've learned to make travel day relatively easy and we had the luck of absolutely glorious weather on our side, so once we picked up the rental car, we headed about 2 hours north to Drummond Castle Gardens.

I had read that these gardens were pretty spectacular and they had actually been featured in the Starz production of Outlander representing the Gardens of Versailles in Season 3.  So, today was the perfect day to check it out.

One turns off the road then heads down a tree lined lane for 1 3/4 miles.  

The drive actually seemed much longer as we waited for a break in the horizon.  But certainly spectacular, don't you think?

Finally, we arrived at the parking lot and made our way to the castle. 

The building itself isn't open for touring, but a brief history tells us that the keep was built in 1491 by John, the 1st Lord of Drummond by Charter granted by King James IV of Scotland.  We were able to take a quick peek inside the keep, which pretty much just had display boards explaining the history.

The castle was built in the early 1600's, and in 1630, John Drummond, the 2nd earl of Perth, laid out the plans for a formal Renaissance Garden.

How amazing is that?  And as we walked around, we found way too many photo opportunities on this spectacular day.

It's obvious to me that Marty and I entertain easily as we found these electric lawn mowers to be quite fascinating.

They looked like little cars driving here and there, mowing the grass on the very steep hill. 

Once again, how clever is that?

Here are a few more photos of the beauty surrounding us.

There was a beech tree planted by Queen Victoria on the grounds, but you'll have to take my word for that as it was way too high to manage to photograph. 

In the center of the garden stands a very unique sundial that was built in 1630 by the master mason John Mylne.

It is a stone obelisk with geometric arrangements of dials on various panels and within several hollows. 

The lines on the dials cover the whole of Sundial mathematics from Britain, Germany, France and Italy. 

Now, I'll admit, that I had no idea that there was such a thing as "sundial Mathematics", so if you find yourself questioning that subject matter, you are not alone.  (And I'd certainly welcome feedback verifying that I'm not alone in that regards.)

In the long run, the obelisk features 61 dials that present 13 ways to read the time:  Common hours, Babylonean hours, Italian hours and Judaean hours.  

I never cease to be amazed by some of the interesting facts that I learn while traveling through this glorious country.

Strolling through the grounds, we passed ornate arches, 

and this unique waterfall.  It is difficult to capture in a photo, but if you look closely, you will see water falling from the arch.  It looked like rain dripping from a roof, but as you can see, there was no precipitation.  The effect was stunning. 

A hot house held a variety of colorful plants

and various types of flowers adorned the grounds

We were lucky that there was very low attendance and we could peruse the grounds at our leisure.  But we soon realized that it would be in our best interest to head to our destination for the night while we still had our wits about us. 

Two more hours of driving, and we were settled in the village of Kingussie.  This is a charming village, and Marty and I have stayed here several times, one with Amy included on a trip as well.  Unfortunately, the B&B that we had treasured had changed owners, and has since been closed.  So we are staying in the Duke of Gordon Hotel.  

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it is surprisingly quite comfortable.   We enjoyed dinner at a nearby restaurant, where we were treated as special guests.  One of the reasons that I love this country so much.  The hospitality is to be treasured. 

Dinner revitalized us, so we decided to take a brief walk around town.  Directly across from the hotel stands a lovely park with a World War II monument in the middle.

The beauty of the flowers really enhanced the view.

And this is the opposite shot, with the hotel in the background.  Picture Perfect, for sure!

The evening offered some other delights as well.

The perfect ending to our first day! 

Tomorrow we head towards Inverness and west to explore the North Coast 500.  We'll see just what adventures await us!

Celebrating At The Beach

 Look who turned FOUR!

And what better way to celebrate than with cousins in house?

AT THE BEACH!

It's the first time that this entire gang has been together having fun in the sun and the sand.

And you can bet that they are enjoying every minute that they can.

Even the Yinzer Fisherman is enjoying a bit of sport.

Pretty sure you aren't too surprised by that one!

So, here's to celebrating the beauty of the ocean, the sound of the crashing waves, family memories in the making and turning FOUR!  It doesn't get much better than this, does it? 

Final Day in Scotland

It was tough to say good-bye to that lovely view this morning, but we knew the stay was only for one night.  We just didn't know how awesome the Dryburgh Abbey Hotel would be.

Marty was able to get out in the morning to try his hand at more fly fishing, but luck was not with him.  He still had fun, though, and is already planning a future trip.  I'm not quite sure who is going with him, though.

Since it was nearing the end of our trip, I really didn't have any plans, but mentioned a botanical garden that was on our way, and Marty thought that was a great idea. 

I'll be honest.  I expected to see azaleas and rhododendrons in their full glory.  But such was not the case. 

In a week or two, they will certainly be amazing visitors, but not today.

However, a real gem greeted us from the gardens:  Blue Poppies!

How amazing is that?  My friend, Kathy, had recently made a trip to Longwood Gardens and had posted that she had seen these unusual poppies, but they were at their peak and would no longer be in bloom for us to see them in the US.  

That made this find even more exciting! One of the locals mentioned that he felt that they must have been subject to frost, as they were all holding their petals downward instead of upward.  What did I know?  I figured they were supposed to be that way!

After all, it was my very first time seeing them. 

The location of these blue beauties in in Dawyck Garden, which is now a regional garden of the Royal Botanical Garden of Edinburgh.  The history goes back to the 17th century when a family by the name of Veitch began planting various species to enhance their family home.  They created a woodland oases on the hillside and one can see the house through the trees that have grown all these years since.  

The house changed owners several times, with each devoted to enhancing the gardens.  In 1897, the Balfour family introduced North American trees, compliments of David Douglas, for whom the Douglas Fir is named. Rhododendrons from China were also brought to the estate to be planted, and most of them still stand all these years later. 

Here you can see a giant Redwood, compliments of David Douglas. 

A row of trees standing along the Beech walk

a wild apple tree in bloom

and several interesting ground cover florals. 

Here you se a money tree standing just in front of a rhododendron on the verge of blooming.

There was a lovely stream that stretched for quite some distance, offering some lovely, tranquil views of small waterfalls along the way.

Near a bank of trees introduced to Dawyck by Douglas stands what appears to be a statue of a First Nations Figure.  It is actually a carving made from a beech tree that had fallen near this spot.  In 2013, a local chainsaw carver from the village of Moffit, performed his handiwork that resulted in this spectacular figure that is 8 foot high. 

Before leaving, I took one last photo of a grouping of blue poppies standing in front of a rhododendron waiting to bloom.  

After all, who knows when I'll have the opportunity to see another?

We headed into Peebles, just for a short walk, 

and our last cream tea of the visit.

Let me just mention that is REAL clotted cream and REAL homemade strawberry jam.  It was the perfect ending to the trip!  Marty mentioned to Julie, the owner, how much he enjoyed the scone, and she started rambling off the recipe to him.  She then asked me for my email, and told me that she'd be happy to send it to me!  Now, how lucky is that? 

I just checked, and sure enough, she has done just that!  

We've been through Peebles several times over the years.  It has to be one of the most picturesque villages sitting along the river Tweed, don't you think?

We headed to South Queensferry where we are tucked into a ground floor room on the back of Hawes Inn.  No bridge view this time, but that's OK.  We head out early in the morning for our flight, and watching the trains go past might be a bit distracting.

We'll just have to be satisfied with hearing them instead.

Our fabulous trip is coming to an end.  I do hope that you enjoyed following along.  

Until next time.....