Holiday!

I am writing this from the holiday cottage we're staying in, but I have no internet signal to send it with. In fact, I have no mobile reception at all!

It's Sunday and we got here yesterday. The journey went well with no one (ie, me) feeling ill and not too many arguments or grumpiness from anyone (ie, my dad) either. :) We didn't get lost, which is a small miracle too!

Sadly, it is very rainy, but we're going to make the most of things. Here's what's happened so far and I will add more as I go:

Saturday:

Saturday morning we had a hearty breakfast in a cafe nearish to where I live, it was very tasty and set us up nicely for the day! We'd prepared a picnic as well, but we didn't actually want it till the evening and had it for our main meal when we reached our new home for the week.

I took this from the car when we were travelling. It was the first glimpse of snow on the mountains, always a nice sight to see. :)

We stopped at a few sights along the way, seeing some things I'd forgotten about and some things I remembered and liked the first time. It's so nice to be able to show things to Martin as I've probably told him about them in the past... Who knew that one day we'd be seeing them in person together. :) It's certainly nice to be sharing with him parts of my past, making it memories for us both!

We are staying in a house on a loch, very close to the water. It has an absolutely stunning view here and it has a lovely big conservatory to sit in and see what is going on out there. The weather changes so quickly and the mist rolls in and out and the mountains in the background fade in and out of sight. It's quite magical!

Sunday:

Today my mum, who is the only driver among us, needed a bit of a rest, so we didn't go very far. We did manage our first venture onto Skye though and hope to be back very soon for a better look! Hopefully with less rain too so we can see it's beauty better!

We saw the otter in the loch when we were back at the cottage, and I got a few photos of it. Sadly my largest lens for my camera doesn't zoom nearly enough and he didn't turn out much more than a dark shape with not a lot of detail, but it was still really nice to see him. Hoping also to see porpoises, seals and other things that have been sighted here by others.

We had a nice walk with just the 2 of us in the early evening, but it really made me realise just how unfit I am! Really must get back to setting healthier eating habits and get more exercise.

Tomorrow we plan to visit a place called Plockton, though as of 11pm tonight, the weather is still bad. We've been soaked through a couple of times today already!

Monday:

We arrived at Plockton and the weather wasn't too bad, which was nice so we had a lovely walk around. It started raining just as we were leaving. We had planned to eat there but after another hearty breakfast (linked sausage rolls!) none of us were hungry.

After that we went to Coral Beach which was a little bit of a rainy trek but very enjoyable. The beach itself was very unusual and I loved it. I've brought some coral to take home for special Plockton edition Beach Bears! I hope someone reminds me that I've stored it in one of my gloves. ;)

Tuesday:

Martin made pancakes this morning for us all, but the poor thing didn't make enough mixture so had none left for himself. I felt so sorry for him and we would happily have given one each so he could have had them too, but we didn't know til after we'd all finished. Mum who is not usually one for anything sweet, slathered hers in jam! Dad, who's definitely the sweet tooth of the family waited very patiently for his. :)

After breakfast we set off for Gairloch to see if a cafe that we had visited before was still there, and it was! Dad and I had hot chocolate with all the trimmings, mum and I had the biggest herb and cheese scones ever and Martin and dad had cake.

Next we drove further on, to Aultbea, a place my parents and myself have been to 3 times before and love it there. There isn't a lot in the village, but some of the beaches in the area are gorgeous and after a bit of winging-it, my mum managed to find one that my dad had been talking about. The weather was lovely, the best day so far (and supposedly, the best it will be all week if we're to believe the forecast!) and we flew kites and I took lots of photos. :) It was a nice trip down memory lane and the sunshine really gave us all a boost.

On the way back home we stopped at another beautiful beach and had our picnic. The beach had some of the most pretty shells I have ever seen, a great size for bears and so I have gathered some up for more special edition beach bears! They are very fragile so I will have to be very careful with them, but the colours are fantastic, from white to peach to pink!

When we got home we put some of our leftover picnic food outside, and had a nice surprise when a Pine Marten came to eat some of it. :) He was very fast but I managed to get a few decent photos. Makes me wish I had a better camera with more lenses with a better range, and of course had some clue of how to use it. ;) I do my best with it, but I really can't figure out what it all means and any decent looking photo was usually a fluke or an automatic setting. :D Still, it's enjoyable and one day I might invest in some better kit and take a course in photography.

I'll be back with part 2 tomorrow as this post has a huge amount of photos! Hope you've enjoyed it so far. :) Stay tuned! Xxx