We went back to Aberfeldy for a few lazy days. The weather was lovely, sun was shining, it was warm. We walked over to Homer’s, a shop with all sorts of nice things for the home. We bought a few things for the kitchen wall and a dustpan+brush set. Bill calls it my dustpan. Early the following morning we walked to a bakery for a loaf of sourdough. They had won the gold award in Best in Scotland for their white sourdough making them the Scottish Bakery of the year 2022/2023. Well, all we can say is not all sourdough bakeries participated. The sourdough we bought in Mallaig comes from a completely different planet. The sourdough planet. There is a nice little park in Aberfeldy, the Lower Birks Park. It is covered in wild garlic. The previous time we were here the garlic was just beginning to flower. This time it was well past its best but as we walked into the park a delicious waft of garlic came towards us. On Wednesday we walked into town to check on a colourful dish we saw in a shop window the day before. The dish was made in the Raku technique and cost £170. We bought two house plants and green pots made out of bamboo. Karelia House has been on our, my, ticklist for some time. It is a heaven of sorts for sewing and knitting. They do a lot of things for patch working which appears to be popular here. We both fell for Rowans Felted Tweed yarns, the feel and the colours. We were going to buy yarn for a cardigan for Bill but they didn’t have any patterns for men, apart from a few for skinny twentysomethings. I don’t like to buy yarn “blind” so we didn’t buy anything. We were hoping to have a light lunch there but they only did coffee, tea and cakes so we had coffee and cakes. Driving back to Aberfeldy we had lunch in The Three Lemons. It’s located in what used to be a tweed shop. We had a burger with chargrilled chicked marinated in lemon and thyme. – With the pandemic, restaurants and cafes started using sprays for cleaning tables in between customers. As a result the surfaces are sticky. Not very pleasant. This is a picture I borrowed from their facebook page. Had it not been raining I would have taken the same picture myself. On Thursday 9 June we drove to Tarland in Aberdeenshire via home. We watered the garden and cooked some food to take with us. Cooking in a campervan is something we don’t want to spend much time on. It’s easy to heat up ready-made meals. The campsite on Tarland is a nice one, very peaceful. According to reviews the wifi is pathetic but Bill checked his provider’s coverage in the area and we should have been fine. We weren’t. That particular area was not covered. There is a wifi on site but it just doesn’t work. Next to the office building you may get lucky. I couldn’t even get roaming. A couple staying in a tent next to us very kindly offered us the use of their wifi. Of course they wouldn’t be there all the time. As a thank you we gave them some Tobermory smoked trout we had with us. It’s weird; not that we hang online the whole day and not that we couldn’t do something else like go for a walk or read a book. The internet just happens to be a source of information on how to get from A to B, on the history of places you visit, on finding out what you can do in the area. It can’t be that difficult to get it fixed, now can it? There a lots of castles and gardens in Aberdeenshire. 10 June we went to visit the Craigievar Castle. We went on a guided tour but no photographs were allowed. Narrow, spiralling staircases. The banquet room was on the top floor. The staircase was so narrow ladies couldn’t go up in their ball gowns. They went up in something taking less space and the servants brought the gowns up separately. Behind a curtain the ladies changes into their fineries. There was a room where the walls were made of pine but treated with ox blood to make the colour darker. As a consequence, they’ve had no trouble with wood worm in the walls. They’ve had plenty of wood worm on the furniture. The estate was owned by the Mortimer family since at least 1376. The building of the castle dates to 1575 – 1595. In 1610 they sold to the Forbes family. The castle is pink and is said to have been the inspiration for Walt Disney’s castles. It was completed in 1626 by the Aberdonian merchant William Forbes and remained to home of the Forbes family for 350 years. In 1963 it was give to the National Trust of Scotland. Our campsite neighbour popped over. “How big is your fridge? Would it fit two wine bottles? They need to be chilled.” Later he came back with two glasses of wine for us. 11 June we went to Crathes Castle in Banchory. On our way we drove through Aboyne and just happened to be there when the farmers market had opened. Lovely market. We bought focaccia and sourdough buns. We bought meat and onion pies and got a meat and veggie pie for free because they were doing a tasting. We also bought some honey and a fruit cake. During the pandemic high streets in many cities and towns suffered badly. Not so in Banchory, where it seem to be flourishing. No empty shops. Crathes Castle sits on land that was given as a gift to the Burnetts of Ley by King Robert the Bruce in 1323. Apparently, the family’s origins can be traced back to the arrival of the Normans in England in 1066. They first built a wooden fortress on an island in the middle of a bog known as a crannog. The building of the current house was begun in 1553 and completed in 1596. It was given to the National Trust of Scotland in 1951. The castle has a beautiful garden which could do with more benches. There was only one way in and out. As we didn’t fancy walking all the way back to gate, we climbed over a wall to get out. 12 June we went to Balmoral Castle. It doesn’t look like a castle, not like castles of Blair, Duart, Craigievar and Crathes. It looks like a big house. By this time were feeling a bit castled-out so we just walked in the grounds. And Lizzie wasn’t home so what would have been the point. We had thought of having afternoon tea in Balmoral. However, as it would have been served in a coffee shop and not in an elegant lounge we thought £40 per person seemed a bit too much. We left Tarland on 13 June. Someone had told us about an interesting church nearby, or what was once a church. We decided to check that out. Migvie Kirk is a very ordinary looking looking grey box made of stone. The windows are blacked out. It is very easy to not notice. It is actually a deconsecrated church which has been restored by the current laird of the estate in memory of his parents. You enter the building through beautifully carved doors which are always unlocked. You step inside into a dark space and the movement detectors switch on the lights and reveal the beauty. Totally unexpected. All work has been done by local artists, as listed in one of the pictures. Further along on our drive was Leith Hall and its garden. Leith Hall dates back to the 1650’s although the final parts were built in the late 19th century. Ten generations of the Leith-Hay family lived there until just after World War II when they donated the house and everything in it to the National Trust of Scotland. Still feeling castled-out we just wandered around in the garden. A beautiful garden. We aren’t going on any trips now until the end of August. Trying to stay away from tourists and midges.
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AuthorI'm Piisa and I will be sharing with you my thoughts on this and that, maybe even on whatever. Archives
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