Thursday already ! Only two full days left staying in this fabulous house….

Ben and I are the early risers of the household, meeting in the kitchen usually as the boys have their bedroom up the stairs and we are down at the far end of the house. Always have a look out the kitchen window to check on the wildlife as sometimes we see a deer at the other end of the deer fence in the early morning. Red squirrels are usually around too having breakfast. Nice.

I prepared a picnic for eating at Loch Mallachie, as the plan was to cycle there, from the house – just a little part on the main road and the rest through the Abernethy forest tracks. My bike is a hybrid so I am happy on the road – less bumps)!! Loch Mallachie was as stunning as it was last year and we stopped in the same part to have out rolls and chocolate. Usual climbing of trees for the boys as we sat overlooking the loch. Home and I followed a different path to them and came across an artic taking up the whole road, stopped as he realised that his sat nav had taken him down a small country road and had to reverse back a good way to get back on the main road.

It's a shame that the Café 1417 has shut the coffee and cake area and is now all Gallery! It had fabulous coffee and home made cake and we usually stopped in after a long cycle for refreshment. No matter, we have a coffee machine in the house to get our fix.

Afternoon we decided to head up the A9 to Clava Cairns, four ancient burial cairns over 4,000 years old! What a wonderful place with standing stones and also the magnificent Cairns. Of course the fact there was dead underneath the Cairns fascinated Ben so there was lots of questions. When we arrived it was quite busy as it was the inspiration for scenes in Outlander.

Home we stopped at Carrbridge to take a picture of the ancient pack horse bridge.

Every Thursday the chippy van comes to the green at Boat of Garten so that was tea taken care of. Then the board games were out again.