It will surprise no one that we awoke to grey skies and lashing rain which did not bode well for our plan to test Frank’s new boots with a hike – preferably a climb up Dumyat. Jesse was all set for her day out – it was the Edinburgh pride festival so she felt called to go wave rainbow flags with her peeps. We dropped her off at the train station to catch the 10:34 train with strict instructions to be on the 4:38 train at the latest as we were expecting the big family do to start around 5pm.
Then we tried to figure out where we might get a somewhat dry walk in. Watching the radar which showed a huge swath of rain cross the entire country (bar London), we decided it was better to head west where we might be able to find some clear skies after the rain moved through. So what destination should we aim for? We explored multiple museum options and other indoor activities but nothing really appealed. Then I accidentally searched for “hand dyed yarn” and found a farm nearby that spun and dyed their own wool. We had unknowingly driven past it on the way to Perth yesterday when the shop was actually open so it didn’t work as a destination for today. But there was a wool shop in Drymen that carried their stuff and Drymen was west so we had an initial destination!
Off we go in the rain, hiking boots in the back seat, to the village of Drymen to find the smallest yarn shop I have ever been in. It barely fit 3 people so the one customer that was there when we arrived had to leave before Frank and I could get in. But she had some great local stuff in addition to some of the standards and had loads of suggestions of designers and Ravelry patterns to check out. I got some of the Strathearn Fibre yarn I had been looking for – the blue is gorgeous in natural light which I found out by stepping out of the shop into the street as was recommended. I could have bought more but we are already hitting space constraints on our cases so I restrained myself.
Then it was time to find somewhere to have lunch. We made a quick detour to Balmaha, a lovely little village on the shores of Lock Lomond, and stopped into the tourist information center to get some ideas. It turns out that this was one of the stops on the West Highland way (a new item on my bucket list BTW). The skies had begun to clear a bit and we could have hiked a small section of the route but we saw the state of the through hikers (sodden, muddy messes albeit laughing and chatting) and Frank pointed out that we would be wearing our hiking boots on the plane tomorrow (since they wouldn’t fit it the cases) so we really didn’t want them to be wet and muddy. {sigh}
We decided to head toward Killearn where we thought we had had a lovely bar lunch several years ago when a phone call from Frank’s sister-in-law preempted that plan. Apparently, the family do had been arranged for 2:30 not 5:30 and we hadn’t gotten the text. We texted Jesse who had arranged to meet one of the Troon cousins for lunch at 2pm after the parade had finished and was bummed at the change of plans. We made a midcourse correction and headed straight to Bannockburn where several tables at McQs had been reserved for the afternoon. We were the first to arrive and eventually we had nearly the entire clan gathered (well 16 of us!), including one new boyfriend who was meeting nearly everyone for the first time. (Good luck son!) Unfortunately, grandma wasn’t doing very well. She had had several seizures during the night – including one that morning – and though she insisted on attending, she didn’t look well and didn’t last long. Frank and one of his brother’s ended up taking her back to the care home nearly straight away and she had another seizure upon arrival. The consensus seemed to be that all the running about had worn her out (OMG, I broke my mother-in-law!) but that she would be fine after some rest.
We ate, drank, laughed, and drank some more. Eventually we had to vacate the room we were in for a private party so off to the main lounge we went. The Peru-Denmark match was on and it was tough finding seats for the 11 of us that remained but we managed to take over and entire section of the pub. Jesse finally arrived from Edinburgh and joined the revelries. Several hours later, just a few remained and it was time to head back to the cottage to finish packing. We emerged into the screaming sunshine (figures!) but we still needed to eat still and at 9pm on a Saturday night, the choices are limited. Frank still had one box on his “must eat” list to check so we stopped at a local kebab shop for a donner kebab (think gyro but spicer) and then back to the chippy for me and Jesse. Fat and carbs consumed, cases were stuffed and an early night was had.
Data for today:
Steps: 4185 (2 miles)
Meters of wool purchased: 800
Pints of cider consumed by cider drinkers: approx 12
Different types of drinks consumed: 10
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