Driving in Britain

My camera is still away (hopefully being fixed) so I don't have any recent pictures. But I wanted to do a post for Bradley who misses driving in Britain. These are some clips from our holiday where we drove from Edinburgh north to Inverness, over to the Isle of Skye, around the Lake District, through a bit of Wales, Dartmoor, then ended up in London. I miss it too!

sheep in the road

cows in the road

through the hills

into Wales

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I love Scotland

It's been over a month since our holiday and we're feeling nostalgic so even though it's kind of old news I thought I'd finally post some pictures.

First of all, I love Scotland. We flew to Glasgow, but our main plan was to visit Edinburgh where I lived for a year when I was 9 years old. My dad (a math professor) was on sabbatical for the year and we loved it in Edinburgh. It's hard to believe I haven't managed to get back for a visit until this year.

Edinburgh is the most beautiful city ever. It's as if it's secretly in the country because it's surrounded by hills and forests and farms and when you climb the hills the views are stunning. But it still has all the beautiful old architecture and fun shopping of a big city.

But my favourite spot is in our old neighbourhood where we lived almost directly below Blackford Hill. So naturally Blackford Hill was the first place I had to go and it was every bit as wonderful as I remembered it. If not better. Luckily Bradley loves it too now, so hopefully we can go back soon!

This is the duck pond below Blackford Hill. I used to walk around this pond with my doll in a doll pram lent to me by the girl who had lived in our apartment that we sublet for the year. It's hard to see in the picture but there's a large oval path around the pond. It sits just below the forested area at the bottom of the hill.

This is a view of our apartment (see the white arrow on the right) - in one of a set of 3 matching buildings.

This is typical scenery on the hill with mossy grass, gorse bushes, and farms in the distance behind the hill.

Grassy paths and big rocky patches on the hill top.Surrounding the hill is a forest with walking paths

A view of Arthur's Seat. A larger hill we didn't have time to climb. Next time for sure! In the summer the grass is much taller - high enough to make forts and be hidden from sight.
More of the view - rows of houses and some hills in the distance

My brother was asking if the allotments are still there, so here's a picture. This is also the spot where we saw some rabbits... good spot to live - near the lettuces and carrots!

view of Edinburgh castle in the distance

My pictures don't do it justice! Well I tried. I'll show more of Edinburgh in another post...

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Holiday

I'm back! We just had a really long holiday traveling all around Britain for the past two and a half weeks. Our first stop was Glasgow, then Edinburgh for 3 days and then we drove up north and over to the Isle of Skye. After that we visited the Lake District, a quick stop in Wales, then back to Dartmoor and finally London. Whew! I'm tired. It was a lot of driving and several places we had to find somewhere to stay for the night after driving all day. I don't drive, but I did do a lot of navigating and helped at the roundabouts and in mazes of small country roads.

My favourite aspects of the trip:
1. the scenery: so beautiful everywhere especially on the A and B roads
2. finally visiting Hill Top and seeing Beatrix Potter's lovely cottage and artwork
3. all the animals we saw: rabbits, birds, deer, cows, sheep, horses & ponies, peacocks, geese, hens and even miniature and wild ponies!
4. shopping: flea markets, Liberty, stylish clothing shops, Scottish welly and woolens shops.
5. lovely things to eat: Scottish porridge, cream teas and chocolates... why don't we have toffee yogurt here??
6. spending every day together (awww...)

I couldn't wait and ordered the "single girl" quilt pattern online. I've spent the day cutting out pieces... I'll show you my new purple prints from Liberty next!

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