A Feast of a Day

I was commenting to a blip friend only yesterday about how blipping can be a feast or a famine and today was certainly one of the former:-)  A beautiful summer's day from start to finish, with temperatures up to 25 degrees in the afternoon, but a gentle breeze to keep it cool, so we had to go out for the day.

We had intended to visit a garden near Braco that was new to us, but just couldn't find it as there were no signposts, so we carried on to Doune, where we had an al fresco lunch at the Antiques Centre.  I'm a sucker for vintage hand-cut crystal and I found a beautiful bowl at a very reasonable price.

We carried on driving with a tour of the Trossachs in glorious sunshine.  It doesn't get much better than that, as it's such a beautiful part of the country.  A short stop on the banks of Loch Venachar, viewed in the main photo looking over to Ben Ledi.  I was so tempted to have a paddle, but the water was still icy so I resisted!

We passed the beautiful An Taigh Mor Trossachs Hotel ( see extra photos) as we headed for the Dukes Pass, allegedly one of the most scenic drives in Scotland.  A quick photo stop at the top of the pass allowed me to take a photo of the amusingly named Loch Drunkie before dropping down to the pretty town of Aberfoyle for a wander around.

Somewhere along the route today we passed the entrance and lodge house of a huge estate, but have no idea what it's called as there were no name signs to be seen!

Then it was home to our first barbecue of the summer in the garden.  So glad we are retired now and were able to take advantage of the lovely weather and the quiet mid-week roads:-)  More like this please!