A walk in the Balmoral estate

After our late night it was a slow start for us all. A and L’s daughter C arrived before breakfast to leave her car with her parents as she and her husband are off on an 8 week trip to north and South America on Monday.

Breakfast was a relaxed affair of cereal, toast and the most delicious scrambled eggs topped with truffle salt.

There was a break in the weather just after 1 so we headed off to the Balmoral estate (literally just across the river from the house) to blow away the cobwebs. Well we certainly did that as it rained horizontally, vertically and every which way. The wind was brutal and we were all rather damp by the time we stopped for a welcome hot drink and a homemade raspberry flapjack at the BBQ hut used by the Royal family during their holidays. We managed a respectable 5 miles. The rivers and streams were in full spate.

Back at the house we played a card game which was new to us but was great fun which L pulled dinner together. A feta, olive and caramelised onion tart followed by smoked fish on a bed of creamy green lentils and spinach. Poor A had been struggling with what sounded like the onset of a cold after the walk and retired to bed after dinner. He kindly stoked up the wood fired hot tub and we spent a lovely hour immersed in the water looking up at the stars as the skies had cleared. It was a tad windy and a little spooky hearing the tree branches above us creaking and whipping about.

We finished the evening with a baileys on ice and headed for bed around 1 again. I’m getting too old for two nights in a row!

Thanks to ApolloFly for hosting SillySaturday. My entry is the five of us being daft enough to be out in a storm (found out on Sunday that the Cairngorms had seen gusts of 70+mph.).