Prepare to give Fire!

Its that time of year when all the activities and events are on - and with the tremendously good weather, I've found myself wanting to do all of them! Today, my friend, Missy and I did the Prepare to give Fire! event at Dirleton Castle. Ironically, it wasn't that long ago I last visited this castle, but it seemed worth the trip as the other Historic Scotland events this weekend were at non-doggy castles.

Right from the start it was a scorching day and, sunscreen liberally applied, we arrived early and got a chance to chat with the reinactors - they're great people, and are always friendly. Missy stole cuddles off of a chap in a very dandy hat and enjoyed getting fussed over. They all checked if Missy would be alright with the noise and, after explaining that the only thing that upset her last year at the Seige on the Forth was the petard, they all agreed that it was the noisiest and reassured me that whilst it was on display, there wasn't any intention of setting it off.

There was the canon demonstration at midday, so we watched that before looking about the castle. With us both being into out photography, I'm ashamed to say that we took more photos of the flowers than the castle itself! It was a nice break getting into the cool castle and then it was back into the sun to meet the barber surgeon.

Lets put it this way, with or without medical help, chances were you weren't going to make it - getting help was probably a more painful way to go!

We found a nice cool spot under some trees and chilled out together until two when it was the musket demonstration. Whilst Missy was absolutely fine temperature wise, she had clearly had enough by that point. I'm not going to complain that its too hot (no one wants to be that person), but what it has been is simply too long and she's been getting tired easily. My friend suggested the beach and, with Yellowcraigs only a mile away, it seemed like a great idea.

We may make a beach dog out of her yet! Getting into some cool water is exactly what she needed and we all had fun splashing about in the shallows. The waves are still too daunting for her, but she certainly went deeper this time before playing with the other dogs about the beach.

A perfect end to the day!