Stuart

A great day. A long day. Out and about doing stuff for hours.

Down to the rocks below the cottage for some photos in the morning, then just a few miles down the road to the Mount Stuart house and gardens for the bulk of the day. Had a really lovely time wandering around the forest trails and the wild flower-surrounded ponds. Me and my youngest did futher exploring in the great outdoors whilst the other two went on a guided tour of the house (big thumbs-up from both of them) and then we all had to have a bit of a tearoom stop for cake before taking the seashore route back to the visitor centre.

So, by the time we left it was well after five meaning time for a teatime beach trip, down to Kilchattan Bay at the south of the island. Tide was out and by the time I'd waded into the sea, out along the incredibly gradually-sloping sand, up to barely waist-height for a swim I could hardly see my family on the beach when I turned around. My youngest joined me, she's pretty gung-ho when it comes to water temperature and declared this 'quite warm'. She was nearly right.

A late tea out in Bute's only (it seems) 'country pub' at Kilgarth and home just before ten. Girls not tired in the slightest and made even more wide awake by what we think was an otter in the sea just off the rocks from us. The visitors' book in the cottage had mentioned otters and although we weren't 100% sure we're gonna take it and add it to our list of wildlife spotted. Along with the curlew from earlier tonight, nearly forgot that one, read up about him in my book too.

A bit of music before bedtime, a bit of Katie.