Still being spoilt rotten

Saturday morning we enjoyed a much needed lazy morning. We have been going at a fair pace so it was really nice to just stop and do nothing much. Anna and I did take Molly the dog for a walk in the rain, but apart from that we were very lazy. The weather cleared after lunch so we all went for a tour around the area. Malcolm took Matt, Jo and Hannah in his car – he is enjoying having a boy around the place! Anna, Marilynne and I had Grace as our tour guide. Our first stop was Fyvie Castle. It was completely different from Edinburgh castle as it had been a private home – still very grand, but quite liveable at the same time. Sadly they didn’t allow photos inside, although I did sneak one on the stair case where there was no guide. After touring the castle we had tea and cake (or icecream for Matt) in the old castle kitchen. The Scots just love their food and especially their cakes, biscuits and puddings. We are being incredibly well fed – Andy may think his family have turned into Teletubbies when he meets us on Friday!

We introduced the family to geocaching in the castle grounds and Marilynne was very excited to find her first cache. After the castle, we headed to the North Aberdeenshire coast to explore the tiny fishing villages. We visited Pennan, Crovie and Gardenstown. Grace did a wonderful job of negotiating the narrow steep roads to reach the villages, although she did have a rather nervous passenger (her Mum!). The villages were amazing, like stepping back in time. We were lucky enough to get perfect conditions – sunshine, almost no wind and beautiful light. We are quite far north here so even in April it gets light about 4:30am and dark about 9:30pm. The funniest thing about all the villages is the washing they hang out the front of the houses. We found a few more geocaches around the villages, although we couldn’t find the one in the Crovie phone box – there are a series of caches around here all hidden in phone boxes , called “It’s good to talk”. The closest one is just 800m from the farm house, we have found that one.

We all went to The Station Hotel in Portsoy for dinner. It was a great meal with lovely food and lots of laughs. After dinner we checked out the 14th century harbour. The kids loved walking on the harbour walls, with sheer drops down either side. It was still beautifully clear but it chilled down pretty quickly. By the time we drove back to the farm just on nightfall it was down to 1.5 degrees!