A little break

Hello! We've been away for a little break - it was the schools' October break so we headed up north to see my mum and dad. Last time we were there it was July and blazing sunshine (or as blazing as it gets in the Highlands) so poor Miss Mouse, with her as yet limited sense of the passage of time, was hoping for paddling-pool weather. Alas no..

We did get out a bit - that picture was taken at the Highland Folk Museum, one of our favourite places, looking back along Newtonmore to Creag Dhubh.

It was a cold blowy day but the nice thing about the museum is that although it's an outdoor kind of place you can go in the buildings and warm up. Like the hens did:


You can even sit round the fire in some of the houses. I like the teasels on the windowsill - I must grow teasels again.


Down at the croft we looked at the butter-making stuff..



I love the way that pictures I take at the museum always turn out nicer than I expect. I think it's something to do with the muted colours and natural light.

The next day we went to the Highland Wildlife Park - it was even colder and was snowing lightly once or twice, but we all had a good time. I think it was the first time we'd been there that it hasn't been cut short due to excessive whinging. The trick is to keep the little horrors apart - at one point the Boy, my mum and I went off to see what Walker the polar bear was up to and to have a look at the new wolf enclosure (fairly new anyway, we hadn't been to the Wildlife Park for over a year). Walker has a thing about hard hats but wasn't playing with one when we saw him.

We all went to see the camels at feeding time.


They don't really get fed much at that time of day - just a few green things. I think it's more of a chance for the keepers to check on the animals and talk to visitors about them. The staff are really enthusiastic which is lovely to see. Having worked in a visitor attraction myself I know the enthusiasm can wane sometimes so I'm always very aware of staff when I visit places.

I wasn't well for most of our trip - I thought I had an allergic reaction to something but it may actually have been a cold. It can be hard to tell sometimes. So I'm glad to look back at my pictures and see that we did do stuff, and that it wasn't just me sneezing or sleeping.

I love this last picture - it sums up our trip, a combination of wintery cold and autumn colour.