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Jun. 5th, 2003 11:25 amLast week my lovely man and I took a four day mini-vacation to Scotland. Objectives: To see fine and rare conifers, to see penguins, and to have A Nice Time.
Wednesday 28th May: Drove to the Scottish Borders. A nice short 3 hour drive, stopped for coffee and sandwiches and photo taking opportunities. Route: M6 and A74 to Moffat; A708 to St Mary's Loch; small diversion to Meggett Reservoir where they collect most the water for Edinburgh (lovely man likes dams);B709 to Innerleithen. Stayed at Caddon View Hotel - nice French-Scottish owner, hotel very comfortable and pretty, sheets of unfeasibly high thread count. We didn't take dinner first night (because I'd forgotten that there was an important football match on the television - feel free to shake your head at me if you're an I Don't Care About Sport type) - had a fish supper and ate it on a bench by the River Tweed, which was rather nice. I didn't eat the batter, by the way, I peeled it off and ate the fish inside, and half the chips. The first half of the football was good, and the second half was disappointing, by the way.
Thursday 29th May: After a good breakfast, drove to Glentress Forest for a walk. We took a four mile marked trail through the forest and up to a hill with a good viewpoint. Some of the trail was VERY steep, so I took it slowly, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well I took the walk. Forest mostly Sitka spruce and larches, with Noble firs, a few hemlocks and a very nice stand of Douglas firs.
We spent the afternoon at Dawyck botanical gardens. Dawyck has a fantastic collection of trees, including the first Douglas firs planted by David Douglas from seed collected in north America. We saw lovely specimens of Douglas Fir, Grand Fir, Noble Fir, Korean Fir, a rare Flaky Fir, Lawson Cypress, Nootka Cypress, Incense Cedar, Weeping Spruce, Macedonian Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Western Hemlock, Giant Redwood and all sorts of lovely trees that I can't remember the names of. The rhodedendrons and azaleas were out in full force, as were the garden's own variety of Himalayan Poppy (Meconopsis) in a fabulous bright blue.
In the evening we took dinner,which was well prepared and delicious. Grilled goat's cheese and red pepper, salmon with vegetables and beurre blanc, creme brulee. Unfortunately, three courses and wine is too much for my system to cope with these days, and I fell asleep after dinner.
To follow in the next post: what we did in Edinburgh, including penguins!
Wednesday 28th May: Drove to the Scottish Borders. A nice short 3 hour drive, stopped for coffee and sandwiches and photo taking opportunities. Route: M6 and A74 to Moffat; A708 to St Mary's Loch; small diversion to Meggett Reservoir where they collect most the water for Edinburgh (lovely man likes dams);B709 to Innerleithen. Stayed at Caddon View Hotel - nice French-Scottish owner, hotel very comfortable and pretty, sheets of unfeasibly high thread count. We didn't take dinner first night (because I'd forgotten that there was an important football match on the television - feel free to shake your head at me if you're an I Don't Care About Sport type) - had a fish supper and ate it on a bench by the River Tweed, which was rather nice. I didn't eat the batter, by the way, I peeled it off and ate the fish inside, and half the chips. The first half of the football was good, and the second half was disappointing, by the way.
Thursday 29th May: After a good breakfast, drove to Glentress Forest for a walk. We took a four mile marked trail through the forest and up to a hill with a good viewpoint. Some of the trail was VERY steep, so I took it slowly, but I was pleasantly surprised by how well I took the walk. Forest mostly Sitka spruce and larches, with Noble firs, a few hemlocks and a very nice stand of Douglas firs.
We spent the afternoon at Dawyck botanical gardens. Dawyck has a fantastic collection of trees, including the first Douglas firs planted by David Douglas from seed collected in north America. We saw lovely specimens of Douglas Fir, Grand Fir, Noble Fir, Korean Fir, a rare Flaky Fir, Lawson Cypress, Nootka Cypress, Incense Cedar, Weeping Spruce, Macedonian Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Western Hemlock, Giant Redwood and all sorts of lovely trees that I can't remember the names of. The rhodedendrons and azaleas were out in full force, as were the garden's own variety of Himalayan Poppy (Meconopsis) in a fabulous bright blue.
In the evening we took dinner,which was well prepared and delicious. Grilled goat's cheese and red pepper, salmon with vegetables and beurre blanc, creme brulee. Unfortunately, three courses and wine is too much for my system to cope with these days, and I fell asleep after dinner.
To follow in the next post: what we did in Edinburgh, including penguins!
