Acclimatizing

So we can slowly see that winter is peeking at us from around a corner. The days are getting shorter and the temperature is slowly dropping. Even though Tim and I are no where near ready for winter, we are enjoying acclimatizing to the Scottish! We supported the local Collin vs Torthorwald cricket game, and can see why SA usually beats Scotland! But it was a lovely warm sunny day, soaked up by the South Africans while Scots looked for shade.
We had a great day out with Brain, Megs and Kendra when we went to see the Grey Mare's Tail Waterfall, the 5th highest waterfall in Scotland. We walked up to a fantastic viewpoint and really enjoyed the scenery. The Roaming Linn which forms the 60m drop winds it's way through the purple heather filled hills, just for my mommy!!!
After visiting the waterfall we made our way to St Mary's Loch where we had a picnic lunch in the sun, on the bank of the Loch. Such a picturesque, beautiful place and exactly what you imagine when you think of Scotland. ♡♡♡
We also stopped at a dairy that Brian collects milk from. The have 2 robotic milking machines which are incredible so see in action, especially for a farmer's daughter. The cows stay in a shed all day and are trained to walk through the robot 4 times a day to be milked automatically. Very very cool - suddenly only 2 people are needed to run a farm that milks 220 cows. Luckily I had Megan there to interpret for me because I only understood every 4th word from the farmer in his thick accent.

We have also been able to see how the country locals do it by going to the Moniaive Gala where we watched traditional dancing with bagpipes and swords, sheepdogs working and even alpacas! Kendra and I went to 2 other country shows in England last week to help with the shetland pony showing. I was expecting to just sit back, enjoy it and watch but was thrown into the deep end and actually had to show a couple of miniatures! The ponies are very cute and full of attitude. It was great fun, and my pony and I even won a 3rd place :-) My favourite was a tiny 11 week old foal, much smaller than our ridgeback, Max! He was so good and won foal of the show. I really enjoyed walking round the show, there was everything from vintage tractors to ducks, sheep and vegetables. The second show even had some carriage driving events which were awesome to watch. So I have officially decided to sell my car when we get back and replace it with horse and carriage.

Apart from the rural life, we had a quick introduction to the city on Saturday when we took Kendra to Edinburgh and then helped Megan move flats in Glasgow. Both cities are beautiful and we definitely need to go back to do some proper site-seeing!

Other exciting news: heading to London on Wednesday for 4 nights, yay! Going to be a culture shock for us small-time third world Africans but looking forward to it. Super excited to be seeing Kirst for her birthday and keen to explore the city a little bit! So loads of news coming after our visit.

Huge hugs to everyone and lots of love! Enjoy the pictures. XH♥