New view

Hard to get up this morning, but after some tea and toast I packed up and we dropped A at the garage to collect her car then set off on our drive north. Boring cloud cover all the way but we managed to cross the bridge before the rain arrived around Edinburgh and it stayed mostly dry all the way. We stopped at a packed House of Bruar on the way and had the traditional steak pie for lunch, then headed onto the Black Isle via a brief stop at a supermarket near Inverness.
We arrived in Cromarty and found the cottage up a little lane by the sea and started to explore the house and unpack. This was the view from my bedroom in the eaves…very sweet cosy place.
We were surprised at the sight of drilling platforms and what looked like an oil refinery across the water, so not quite the picturesque fishing village style, but we’ll explore the town and surroundings more and get our bearings from tomorrow. For this evening it was enough to have cups of tea and relax with a pile of local information booklets, a bit of tennis and then a new detective series set in Australia. Felt very tired but couldn’t get to sleep once I got into bed…..still, a week of relaxation ahead and the weather forecast even looked a bit hopeful this evening so fingers crossed!