Far Away

All is quiet at the cottage just now as I am up in Scotland enjoying a holiday while visiting with my Mum and Dad. First I travelled up to Dumfries and Galloway, staying in their lovely old stone farmhouse near the borders. The weather was quite warm so Dad was able to give me a tour of the garden which was great to see as I haven't seen it in the summer for ages. It is thriving despite the best attempts of the local wild rabbits!

We visited the little market town of Castle Douglas which has a lovely shop and cafe called Designs. They serve really nice meals with delicious salads and have a very good chocolate cake! Castle Douglas is also home to one of our favourite antique shops Country House Interiors and its sister shop Antiques & Homes. Quite a few bits of our furniture, including our old chunky pine dining table, pretty corner cabinets and really unusual pot cupboard came from here. Mhairi (the owner of these lovely shops) has a really good eye for beautiful pieces and everything is arranged so artfully that, as I can very well attest for, it is very difficult to leave either of these shops without purchasing something!

Now I am practically as far north as you can go on the west coast without falling into the sea! The Scottish Highland scenery is stunning, but the weather is less so; rainy and rather chilly for August! I snapped these photos from the car as we were driving along a single track road in the pouring rain! The local sheep are very inquisitive and seem to have a death-wish (most of them think nothing to sitting in the middle of the road despite on-coming traffic). It all feels very far away from my London cottage indeed!