Craigmillar Castle

We went to Craigmillar Castle at the weekend. We were quite lucky because it was another lovely day - little cloud still to burn off by the time we got there but very warm. We were lucky because on the way home the heavens opened and we had an hour or so of thunder storms. But that's all academic because it was lovely enough when we were out to enjoy a while exploring an amazing castle after a superb picnic lunch in the castle garden.

Craigmillar Castle is brilliant. It's a ruin but still quite intact with lots of stairs and rooms to explore. You can get all the way up to the ramparts (and the castle toilets - the holes at the side - don't smell of wee like St Andrews did).

Daddy and I had the necessary sword-fight at the top of one of the towers. As you can see from the slideshow below, he won this time...


It really is an excellent castle though. It's got two trees growing just inside the castle doors. I doubt they're original features but they do help add to the majesty of it all now. And they're very climbable!

Check this out too (below). It's near the prison and I said it was the prisoners' telly. Daddy says it's a bread oven but I'm not so sure he's right. What do you think?

Well done Mummy!

Mummy did the Cancer Research Race For Life today at Hopetoun House in South Queensferry. She did very well and we're very proud of her. She's off to have a well-deserved bath now and is already saying she wants to do another one!

For those of you who haven't sponsored her yet, please do it here now.

The West Sands

After the castle in St. Andrews we went to the West Sands beach there. Mummy and Daddy were a bit worried about how I would react going there as the last time we went a nasty wave took me by surprise. It's a story worth telling so I'll tell it now...

We arrived in St. Andrews specifically to spend a bit of time on the beach. It was November so it was pretty cold but it was a nice enough day with quite a wind so we would have thrown the kite up for a bit too. Anyway, soon as we arrived we headed for the water. I had wellies on so Daddy encouraged me to get into the surf a bit. But then the evil wave came. It wasn't even a particularly big wave, it was just long. It kept coming so I had to back away from it and the more I backed away, the more it came. Eventually I fell over and it still kept coming. I turned over and struggled to get out of the water on all fours. Mummy and Daddy were being pushed away from me by the continuing wave and I was getting pretty frightened. Eventually, after what felt like about 10 minutes, Daddy waded in to get me out. No one could believe how that wave had just kept coming. Mummy and Daddy, unsurprisingly had nothing with them to dry me off or change me into so we just had to get back in the car, dry off with the picnic rug that lives in the car and head home again.

But that terrible experience didn't bother me this time. It was a lovely day and we all got our socks and shoes off pretty quickly and headed for the water. The water was freezing and Daddy stayed out taking photos of Mummy and me while we paddled and threw shells in the water. It's a really good beach - miles of great sand and very clean, loads of parking and right next to a great little town. It might be my favourite beach and I know it's very special to Mummy and Daddy. I was enjoying myself so much I had to be literally dragged off the sand. It was a really great day and I slept all the way home - it had been a long day and I'd walked loads. Mummy and Daddy said they were very proud.

Hummer Limos

Coming back from St. Andrews recently we passed this. A few miles later we passed this going in the opposite direction. I like to think that they're actually going to the same place and the passengers will all meet, fall in love, have kids and grow an environmental conscience. What do you think?

Update: I've just discovered that some of my readers didn't realise you can click on those orange links if you want. However, in the case of this entry, it doesn't make a lot of sense unless you do click on those links...

St. Andrews Castle

We went to St. Andrews at the weekend. We visited the castle there which is in pretty poor condition but didn't stop us having a great time. Mummy invested in some more photogenic swords that are a bit more fun and definitely easier to see in the pictures on the web than the Playmobil swords we were using. Daddy did feel a little guilty to not be using the Playmobil swords though.

Mummy and Daddy said St. Andrews is a really nice place and although we parked at the opposite end from the castle and had to walk all the way to it we didn't spend any time looking around St. Andrews on this visit. We were in the castle for quite a while, which was surprising to us because it really doesn't have much left to explore. But it does have a very long tunnel that was dug during a siege in 1546 when Mummy was just a little girl. It's dug completely out of the stone underneath the castle and I don't envy the men that had to do it. I was at least able to stand up in it but Daddy was bent right over and really struggled.

There were also a lot of people dressed strangely and playing with swords. We watched them for a little while which probably explains how we stayed in the castle for so long. After the castle we went to the beach, but you'll have to wait for the blog about that...

Ediana Jones

One of the birthday gifts I received from a friend was a dinosaur excavation kit. I've been itching to get into it for ages and recently Mummy said I could.

It's a hard(ish) egg-shaped rock that you have a little tool to scrape away at until you begin to expose the dinosaur beneath. Once you've exposed it, there's a little brush to continue to excavate without causing damage to your fossil. It was great fun and rather messier than anyone was really expecting!

My dinosaur was rather naughty once fully excavated. It attacked the Playmobil Knights! But they fought back and after a scuffle, the dinosaur lost the battle. And a leg.

I ate a Dragon!

Daddy and I found the most amazing fruit in Asda recently. It's called a dragon fruit and it's one of the coolest fruits I've ever seen.

We had a dragon fruit tasting event after dinner one night. Daddy carefully cut it open to reveal the white fruit with black seeds, a lot like a kiwi (except it's a lot bigger - it's about the size of a mango).

Daddy offered me the first taste but I said he could have it. I then allowed Mummy to go next. And I was quite happy for them both to finish it off since they seemed so pleased with it but they insisted I try it. Which was a shame because I had been really impressed up to that point. But I didn't like the taste of the fruit. And I didn't like the seeds. Mummy and Daddy both said it didn't taste of much at all but was quite refreshing and very nice so tried to get me to have more but I was having none of it. I think they were relieved, actually, as they each cleaned a half out in no time flat.