Hallowe'en 2013

Beh!

Culross

Even though Dad's a Fifer, he'd never been to the famous Fife historical village of Culross. So on a slightly dull and fairly cold day we decided to pop along and see what all the fuss is about.

It's a cool wee village. Very pretty and old and on a rather steep hill.

And it has an anchor!

Dad thought he was being very funny stealing this picture and sending it to his mates. He's such a wag.

And we found a ruined castle to explore!

One O'clock Gun

We took a break from Camera Obscura to nip up to the castle (easy to do when you're a member of Historic Scotland!) and watch the gun fire at one o'clock. Edinburgh Castle is amazing but for a wee boy, I much prefer ruins. The gun is great though!

And we got to meet the guy that fired the gun with the remains of the shell afterwards! Mum says it's the shortest soldier she'd ever met!

Camera Obscura

One of my friends was at the Camera Obscura in Edinburgh recently and raved about it so much I've been trying to get Mum and Dad to take me. Today they finally obliged. So into Edinburgh on the train we went and up to Camera Obscura. It was approaching lunch time so obviously Dad was hungry but although they don't have a cafe, your ticket lets you in and out of the place all day so we had an hour or so in there, taking in the point of it all and some of the exhibits.

It's situated in a great place with views all over Edinburgh:

And there are amazing illusions, like this cool perspective room!

And then I totally lost my head:

Since we were so close the castle and we could return to the Obscura on the same ticket, we popped up to hear the one o'clock gun. Edinburgh Castle's not the greatest for kids, not even big kids like Dad but since we're members of Historic Scotland, it's a fine way to spend an hour or so when it's free!

I'm not sure this is allowed but we're such rebels...

The gun was great but disappointingly it didn't surprise the tourists (and us) as much as it has done in the past. It's always fun to see hundreds of people expecting a loud bang at a known time get the shock of their lives when it happens!

We did get to go and meet the guy who fires the gun though and get our picture taken with him. He's the smallest soldier ever.

We then finished up in Camera Obscura. The last floor we did was the most fun. It had a maze of mirrors that you wore gloves in to stop the mirrors getting dirty - it was really amazing (excuse the pun!) and although it was quite short, we went in multiple times and enjoyed it the same every time. But the real star of the show was the walk-in kaleidoscope. A tunnel of brightly coloured light spinning around a fixed, metal walkway; just looking inside it makes you nearly fall over, but when you step on the walkway, you almost throw yourself off the side trying to stay upright. It's impossible to describe but even though it almost made Dad sick, he couldn't help going in again and again!

Standing Stones

Did you know there were ancient standing stones in Newbridge? Not many people do. Dad drove past them for years when he was at university and had no idea. Typically, it was geocaching that brought them to his attention. He found a cache there with friends a few years ago and didn't claim it at the time because he knew it was somewhere Mum and me would like to come.

However, it's taken him so long to bring us, the cache no longer exists - unsurprisingly, the stones still do though!

It's a single burial mound with three large stones around it. Experts think there used to be a dozen or so stones circling it. It made for a nice walk on a lovely day and I hope it wasn't disrespectful that I did some acrobatics on the burial mound - it wasn't meant to be.

Star jumps:

Cartwheels (you may need to zoom in):

And a cartwheel off the side (into some nettles - serves me right!):