I wish that I had taken a photo of these last week before we went away, while they were at their best.  Fortunately they had not blown down like several of the plants in the garden had.  Our time away was thwarted by the weather preventing us from doing long walks but it was good to visit several castles, stately houses, gardens and museums.  The journey home yesterday included a drive past some famous large distilleries and some small distilleries in Glenrinnes that we had never heard of and then a stop at Braemar with its tiny ruined KIndrochit Castle which was described as the fifth largest castle in Scotland at one time.  Apparently it was destroyed by cannon with its inhabitants still inside to prevent the Plague from spreading further. Our final visit was to Stanley Mills near Perth mainly to see the exhibition on ancient stone carvings but were very disappointed in the mills and they were not a patch on the comparative New Lanark and Styal Mills.