Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Late summer bloom

A late warm day brought out a large number of butterflies; since this is Scotland in late September I guess they won't last long. The back yard is littered with fallen leaves every morning and there will be frosts sooner rather than later.

This butterfly, I've no idea what variety it is, landed in the echinops flowerbed outside my bedroom window.

25 Sept and I've looked up my butterfly guide; it is a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Haggis and Yachts

Yesterday we ventured into Edinburgh on one of our infrequent visits. This time we had a purpose; to have Anna's glasses fixed and take her on a tour of The Royal Yacht Britannia which is berthed at Ocean Terminal in Leith.

First things first so we headed for a suitable restaurant. Baxter's "Forth View" seemed to be in this category and we settled in around a big table with, yes you guessed it, a view of the Forth. I didn't have a tripod with me but I did take a few photographs to try out on my panorama making software and you can see the result above. Not bad for hand held. The ship on the left is not Britannia; she is berthed just out of sight on the right hand side of the photograph. Although you probably will not be able to make it out on this web picture the Forth Bridge is visible in the background just to the left of the ship.
My choice for lunch; Haggis, Neeps, and Tatties - delicious but seriously overpriced even allowing for the
view.

After lunch, and after collecting Anna's now fixed glasses, it was off to the tour of Britannia.
Poor Little Ted thought he really wanted to go look at the "boat" - until he got there. Both children managed to have a good time even if it was a tad boring for them; at least there were lots of opportunities for them to get up to mischief and then there was the fudge shop! We bought pink fudge for Eddy and chocolate fudge for Little Ted. Pictures from our visit may be viewed at Tartanted.com