Travelling the world in Scotland.
By scotsgran
30 comments
Hi Everybody,
Sorry I’ve not been around for a while but between the weather and rushing around with grandchildren, here on holiday, I was taking time out to look at the world through their eyes. At 4 and 6 they never stop. From 6.30am until 8pm they go like mad. We arranged some days out for them to take the pressure off us. A trip to the Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie to look at the new polar bears was first on the agenda. We needed some food to take along for a picnic. I cashed in my birthday present from them. It was for me to take part in a three hour cup cake decorating course. It was great fun meeting fellow students and learning about new equipment available to make lovely butterflies and gerbera? I did point out to the tutor that the centre of this flower is not black. Well nobody knows everything do they.
The Highland Wildlife Park is full of animals from all over the world and we saw lots of babies.
The Scottish Wildcat is an endangered species because they do breed with domestic pets or feral cats. There is a good breeding programme here. In the wild they do climb trees so they have a series of cages with connecting overhead runways which gives them lots of scope. An adult
and kittens.
There are bird breeding programmes too. Here are two of the owls which were very interesting to the children.
The Wildlife Park is owned and run by Edinburgh Zoo. It allows the animals to live in more spacious surroundings than can be provided in the city. Here are a few more animals which we saw in our drive and walk around the park.
We did see red squirrels but they were too fast to photograph. If you have ever wondered how they find the food they store for the winter here is the answer.
Hills and lochs can be viewed in all their glory
And of course the polar bears
We got a day off when they went to Edinburgh Zoo. Because they are members of Bristol Zoo visits to these two locations is free. They went to see the Pandas. They were much smaller than expected.
The male
and the female
We managed to go to North Berwick beach on a couple of days, where we met up with my sister and her grandchildren. The kids had a great time in the salt water pool which is replenished twice a day when the tide comes in. My OH and I were the source of much amusement to other beach goers when we had a hard job erecting our beach shelter in a stiff breeze but we had the laugh on them when a heavy shower forced us to take shelter in our little hideaway while they all had to pack up and leave. You can see it here in this first photo. In the second one the kids found a crab. Unfortuneately it was dead but they had a great time taking it around to show others what they had found.
Visits to Pittencrief Park in Dunfermline and Beecraigs Park near Linlithgow helped sop up some of the excess energy.
On very rainy mornings they painted stones and made magnetic tiles to stick on the fridge. We played ludo, scrabble and snakes and ladders. Out of doors they used chalk to decorate the drive and my granddaughter finally learned how to ride her bike. Grandad had taken the stabilisers off last year and she kind of lost interest in it, but now she loves it. I’m back on air but still recovering. Sorry if I missed anything exciting.
31 Aug, 2012
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Comments
I don't think YOU missed anything exciting - I think WE missed all the excitement YOU were having!
31 Aug, 2012
love the animals but i like those cup cakes even better!!
31 Aug, 2012
Don't worry ... you didn't miss anything worth bothering about ...
Nice to know you've been busy entertaining your family, and I'm glad to hear how you and they all enjoyed :o)
31 Aug, 2012
Lovely family/holiday snaps Sheila....loved your pictures of the animals. I've never been up to the Highland Wildlife park - those views are stunning.
Pleased to see all the kids and the adults of course enjoying themselves. I have no doubt you will be missing the day to day hustle and bustle yet enjoying the peace and quite at the same time :))
Need I say that my favourite picture is the tiger - stunning beast! Haven't managed to get to the zoo to see the Pandas yet - one day lol!!
31 Aug, 2012
What a wonderful blog and pics,Scotsgran..love Edinburgh zoo..I didn't realise it was so big,and great to see the animals have the space to roam around...your grandchildren sound as though they had a lovely time with you..time to relax now..school looms ! :o)
31 Aug, 2012
Love the cupcakes, and the wildcats, and the owls, and the polar bears, and the pandas, and well, all of it - looks like you and the grandchildren had a great time :o)))
31 Aug, 2012
Lovely Pictures.Looks as though you had as much fun as the children.
31 Aug, 2012
Lovely blog Scotsgran....enjoyed all the animals and your lovely family...:>)
31 Aug, 2012
Really enjoyed those pics - than you for the zoo outing!
those baby bison (?) were very sweet. And what about those corkscrew horns? Those little humans weren't bad either...
31 Aug, 2012
Thanks everyone. We did have a lovely time with the children. They have always enjoyed going to Bristol Zoo and they get family membership from us, as a lazy gift really, but it does mean that they can go to other zoos around the country as well. The Highland wildlife park is just over 100 miles away from us but we stopped off to see the Beatrix Potter Museum garden in Birnam on the way up. On the way back we stopped off at Dunkeld for tea. Edinburgh Zoo is on the western outskirts of the city and I dropped them off and picked them up later.
The baby animals were delightful and I don't think I'd venture too near those horns Steragram. Six of the cakes ended up in the freezer as they were very sweet and we have all been cultivating non sweet teeth for so long that we found them a bit rich but they came in handy for unexpected visitors yesterday.
31 Aug, 2012
Thank you for a most interesting blog.
1 Sep, 2012
Great, Scotsgran. I had to laugh about the gerberas - I wonder if cookery group leaders dread gardeners on their courses!!! The salt water pool is such fun. There was one on Margate beach where I went on holidays as a small child. They are a really good idea - I'm surprised more places don't have one. I agree about the sweetness of cupcakes - so much icing! (But rather a treat...)
1 Sep, 2012
Mel, the tutor did say have much less icing than cake or you will be disappointed and I was careful to use a minimum of icing but the cakes, which we did not make, were very sweet. I did enjoy the class a lot as it was not something I would have considered. I was surprised that they use butter icing made with caster sugar which according to the tutor is much less sweet than using icing sugar. He did give out a recipe for it but I have mislaid it.
I agree the salt water pool is great fun. It is an ideal choice for families looking for a safe area for young children. Parents of older children were there too and their kids had inflatables which again was safe because of the pool being separate from the sea until high tide. I noticed the parents of those children were walking round the wall constantly checking that the children were safe. I have not come across one anywhere else.
1 Sep, 2012
Icing with caster sugar sounds interesting. I have to say I rarely make iced cakes these days - OH has diabetes, so I tend to make no-added-sugar fruit cakes. Cup cakes always look so appealing. I had a very rich and indulgent one last week at Kimble's in Glasgow!
1 Sep, 2012
The less sugar you eat the less you want it - its a nightmare trying to find sugar free breakfast cereals - muesli, specailist corn flakes and shredded wheat and that's about it.
1 Sep, 2012
I make my own "muesli" with porridge oats, nuts, fruit and cinnamon. If I ever have a commercial one - say, at a motorway stop on our travels - I can't believe how sweet it is!
2 Sep, 2012
Yes, that's the best way, and you can get just the mix you like best.
2 Sep, 2012
Yum :-) !
2 Sep, 2012
We eat Muesli every morning but I always buy the no added salt and sugar ones. Neither of us has a problem in eating sugar but we eat a lot of fruit and don't feel the need to add extra sugar. I enjoy things like millionaires shortbread now and again.
3 Sep, 2012
I don't have much of a sweet tooth at all (OH says it's because of the red wine!) but the occasional piece of millionaire's shortbread, now...
3 Sep, 2012
Or flapjack - or fudge - or chocolate---
But I bought a jar of KungPo sauce a while ago feeling very lazy, and it was Horrible. I looked on the ingredients and it had more glucose syrup than anything else!!!
3 Sep, 2012
What is KungPo sauce? (Sweet, obviously!)
3 Sep, 2012
I had never heard of it either Mel and Steragram so I googled it. There is a nice recipe for sweet and sour chicken with peanuts and cashew nuts on the following link. It sounds lovely so I may give it a try. http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/chinatown/2004/04/14/kung_po.shtml
Are you a fan of Chinese food Stera?
3 Sep, 2012
That looks good, Scotsgran!
3 Sep, 2012
enjoyed your blog scotsgran :-)) you were a lot luckier than us with your panda visit ,all we saw was the back end of one asleep on a perch LOL
9 Sep, 2012
Not really a fan Scotsgran - but we used to live near a Chinese takeaway and just occasionally bought a meal if we were very busy - which is where I discovered that Kung Po was the one I preferred. Just bought the bottle of sauce on impulse in case one day I should be feeling idle (for a change??). But no Sharwoods ever again!
9 Sep, 2012
Helen I dropped them off at 9am and they went to see the Pandas first. They were being very active according to the keeper and he said they sleep about 17 hours a day. If you go again he said first thing in the morning is the best time to see them being active. Being active equals eating, so not very active at all.
Stera that is a brand we never buy. None of their sauces are to our taste. We had a Chinese Banquet in an Edinburgh restaurant for my older daughters 18th. It was fun and the food was excellent but we never buy Chinese carry out.
9 Sep, 2012
that explains the inactivity lol .It was so disappointing so yes next time an early trip it will be :-))
11 Sep, 2012
I think they get more active when the female is ready for mating but that is only for a few days.
11 Sep, 2012
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Lovely blog Scot.g. great photos too. i love the scottish view as I love Scotland very much, its beautiful. Glad you had fun with the littlies and your cakes are just fab, bet they were eaten up!
31 Aug, 2012