New Lanark

Whilst not technically a dog friendly attraction, we had a great day at New Lanark. This is one of those funny places for me - I have a childhood nostalgia of New Lanark, and just assumed it was one of those places everyone had done a million times, and for nostalgic sake was never too worried about going back just in case it wasn't as good as I remembered. Well, turns out it's not the place everyone in Scotland has been, perhaps in the central belt, but the hubby who grew up in Dundee had never heard of it until recently and, every time we drive south and pass it, he points it out and states we should go sometime.

Well, sometime was eventually this weekend! The weather has cooled, making a day trip out with Missy a bit more feasible, but it's still nice enough for shorts and t-shirts, meaning that it's still pleasant for us humans to walk about all day. A quick Google trawled up some old TripAdvisor posts stating that dog were allowed in the village, but not the buildings. I can confirm that that is still the case! Dogs are also not allowed on the tours (which was a pity, but fair enough) and apart from that, so long as you follow the usual dog-about-town rules, you're all good for a lovely day!

New Lanark itself is a marvellous little cotton-mill village nestled against the Clyde and is historically important more for the way it was run than the actual buildings (which are now listed and protected). As a quick overview, Robert Owen (the owner of the mill) encouraged the idea that a happy workforce was the best workforce - he had a school and insisted all children until 10 (preferably 12) remain in full time education, and held classes in the evenings for the adults to also learn to read and write. It holds the title of having the worlds first workplace nursery and a workplace sick-fund, so therefore free healthcare. Very forward thinking for 1817!

Missy with 'Annie'

In order to demonstrate what life was like at the mill, they have a 'ride' where you meet Annie Macleod, a little girl who lived at the mill, and she explains how it was different to other mills before getting to walk through part of the working mill. They have restored the schoolhouse, Robert Owens house, the village shop and mocked up some of the tenements so that you can see how life changed from the 1800s to the 1900s. As Missy wasn't allowed inside each of these areas, the hubby and I took turns going in whilst the other walked her. A word to the wise, organise meeting points, the phone signal is pretty non-existent and we wasted a lot of time at the beginning walking about in circles trying to find one another!

With both a race and a wedding on, it got very busy after lunch. There is access to the Clyde Falls (via a lovely woodland walk), so after we had seen everything, we let Missy stretch her paws along the river and all went looking for dipper birds and herons together. A perfect way to end our little impromptu day out!

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!

A Busy Weekend!

Well, it's been a busy weekend! The hubby and his friend were going to a wrestling show in Manchester on the Sunday, so politely asked to gatecrash at my sisters, at which point I decided to gatecrash the weekend too and get a chance to hang out with family. We had planned a doggy beer festival and the Dogs Trust Doggy Fun Day down in Manchester whilst visiting my sister, but the weather has worked against us! I think we all love the notion of an endless Indian Summer, but the reality is that at 30C all day every day, life in our temperate little county ceases.

We arrived Saturday morning and were told that the beer festival was quite far away and it wouldn't be fair to put dogs and small children into the car for so long, which we all agreed was a sensible thought (especially after driving so long anyway!) so we did the local festival (or gala day as we call them back home). It was a good shout, the weather had hit high 20s so we stuck to the shade and mooched about the stalls taking our time.  I paid for my niece to play in the bouncy castle and my sister bought a crepe for me and we enjoyed them together watching her play whilst the hubby and brother-in-law had burgers. Missy was more interested in the burger, as was my nephew who is a true one year old carnivore.

The highlight of the festival was a Punch and Judy show. I haven't seen one since I was a kid and had thought the PC brigade had banned them completely (killjoys) so was more excited about it than the kids. It wasn't PC in the slightest, although Judy hit Punch more than he hit her and the puppeteer, realising we were totally game, basically trolled the hubby all the way through the show, calling him out, getting him to say hello to all the characters and even sing with the crocodile - he took it in his stride (the hubby, not the crocodile) and we had a great laugh.

A private meeting between cat and dog?

Sunday we had the sensible, but unfortunate news that the dog fun day had been cancelled - with at least 29C forecast, it was deemed unsafe for the dogs and was going to be rescheduled. Whilst we agreed it was for the better to cancel, and appreciated that the welfare of the dogs came first, we had hammed up the idea of a day with lots of dogs and that we'd enter Missy into the waggiest tail competition to my niece and, no matter how sensible the logic, when you are four, if you've been promised a waggiest tail competition no reason is good enough for it to get cancelled. A hunt on Google using all the different key words we could think of didn't throw up anything indoors that Missy could come along to, and eventually I found a beach themed dog cafe called Central Bark - the day was saved!

It was basically a doggy day care/dog friendly cafe rolled into one and had a lengthy list of milkshakes and a varied menu that catered to everyone in the group. We skipped on the doggy day care and enjoyed the indoors beach theme and met lots of other dogs. The BIL has the very common phobia of dogs after being nipped as a child by a German Shepherd, so it was good to see him actually enjoying the canine company and that the phobia wasn't going to be passed on as both niece and nephew patted and hugged the dogs and gave them all popcorn. So the niece got the doggy day she wanted and my sister got to top up on doggy cuddles!

We then went onto the local park and let the kids play for a bit before getting back to the house before the heat of the day struck. It was ice creams and a dip in the paddling pool after that, rounding off a very good day (although Missy skipped the paddling pool and alternated between sunbathing and chilling out indoors on the sofa). With it being so hot, what we all needed was a more chilled out day, so it was absolutely perfect. My hubby and his friend went to the wresting and I played board games with my sister and BIL - we beat Pandemic and just had a really nice time hanging out together.

My sister had work today and the kids had nursery, so it was a quick morning and lots of cheerios and goodbyes before waiting for the traffic to pass and catching up with the BIL. We went back to Central Bark this morning for breakfast before going on the road again and opted for an hours 'soft play' for Missy so that the grownups could catch up. The location is convienent enough that, on our next visit down, we'll probably use the full day doggy day care so that we can do a non-doggy day - an option that's very useful as trying to get something to suit a young family and a dog can be difficult!
Although, with the BIL deeming a pug we nicknamed 'Haggis' as his spirit animal, I suspect they will be back before us!

A really good weekend, even though it completely failed to go to plan!

Fun in the Sun

With the thermometer set to hit 22C at the weekend, we decided we had to go out for a day at the beach...and at the same time tick off a few more on our Historic Scotland to-do list.

We started by going up to Arbroath and getting the Abbey ticked off. It was apparent from the start though that it was going to be one of those days: we were late setting off and then we lost Missys lead on the walk before going into the Abbey. We literally think someone lifted it as we'd left it on a large stone whilst getting bags sorted and it wasn't there when we ran back to get it. Fortunately I had packed a spare lead, but seeing as it was a really nice good quality bungee we'd lost I wasn't very happy. Well, it will teach us for next time not to rush about.

The Abbey itself is a beautiful ruin, it's a distinctive red sandstone that had weathered eerily. I prefer my castles to abbeys and cathedrals (more back stabbing and bloodshed) but we still managed to fill in a few hours wandering about the grounds and having lunch in the sunshine.

Highlights were the lego exhibition (bizarrely enough!) - the underwater scene was my favourite one but there was loads of little cityscapes and monuments made from lego. We also found a tower with some incredible acoustics where they kept the lunatics, and Missy only got one question wrong on her quiz sheet, so we were pleased to walk away with a sticker.

An ocean of Lego

It was about half one by this point and we weren't sure what to do as we were both tired and it was very warm. Very glad we did push on with the day!

Initially it looked like another disaster - we were going to do St Andrews Castle, only to discover it wasn't dog friendly. It didn't have a roof (the usual telling point that it is dog friendly) and the website hadn't specifically stated no dogs (although further inspection shows they do have the symbol there, it just wasn't that obvious when your in a hurry, although, again, they normally explicitly say). 

At the Cathedral

Nonetheless, a quick search and we discovered St Marys was dog friendly and we decided to have a gander about that. Then it came to the Cathedral - talk about conflicting information! The sign said no dogs, but it was full of dogs. Even the website says dogs must be on a lead, followed by no dogs allowed. We took it to mean that she was allowed on the grounds (where all the other dogs were) but not into the visitors centre or up the remaining tower which was ticketed. No one seemed to mind and we felt a sense of achievement at another site getting ticked off the list. Then off to the beach!

Missy is funny about water. She's getting braver in her old age and will sometimes step into it, but she's never shown any inclination to wanting to swim and play in water. Because of that, we'd never done a 'proper' beach with her before (mud flats and rocky shorelines don't count as proper beaches!) so we were curious to see what she would make of us wading in the water. The end result was hilarious - she kept running away from the waves and kept trying to coax the other dogs onto the sand flats to play instead of in the water.

A woodland dog, through and through, our Missy, although she did have fun and the water was a good idea to help her keep cool. We finished the day with fish and chips by the band stand watching people play and swim in the sea, and the aquarium was kind enough to refill Missys water bottle with tap water for us, so I picked up some ice creams from the gift shop and we had another wonder down the beach.

So, despite not going to plan, we did have a wonderful day. Missy was shattered and happily spent the rest of the evening having cuddles on the sofa and, though we wouldn't do an entirely beach holiday with her, we're more confident about adding beaches into our future staycation plans. We may make a water dog of her yet!

Arthurs Ambles

A lot to talk about this weekend! Firstly, with storm Hector in full swing on Saturday, Missy and I spent a ridiculous amount if the day drying off in our dressing gowns. We managed to avoid the worst of the rain, but still managed to get soaked through twice. With the weather insisting we have a chilled out day together, I decided to get the sewing machine out (see bottom of post).

Sunday I'd organised with a friend to do the Arthur's Amble - Historic Scotland do free walks about Arthur's Seat and occasionally do one that is specifically for dogs too. So we turned up and were surprised to discover that everyone else booked on the tour had cancelled that morning owing to the poor weather the day before. But it was OK, we were quickly informed, there was the longer walk - Arthur's Adventure, and they would just check if everyone on it was happy to have a dog join. Lo and behold, three other dogs were already on the walk, the owners had booked not realising that it wasn't meant to be dog friendly, so we were more than welcome to join in.

It was a good group, everyone was really chatty and the dogs were soon off the lead to get to run and play, clearly ignoring their history lessons! The walk covered the geographical history of Arthurs Seat, as well as the human history from what we know of the early settlers 3000 years ago to the Kings and Queens of the 1800s. And of course everyone's favourite unsolved mystery of the landmark, the tiny coffins.

Getting home, I had a surprise. The caterpillar we adopted back in August (and I have just realised now I never wrote about) and had overwintered as a pupae, finally hatched! Quick back track, my youngest niece was keeping a caterpillar and my oldest niece decided to join in and, after finding this chap, I had too join in as well. The youngest niece ended up putting hers outside as the cats wouldn't leave it be, and I don't know whats happened to the other one...

So, firstly, Absolem as a caterpillar:

We knew Absolem was an elephant hawk moth when he was a caterpillar owing to those magnificent 'eyes' he had, but even so, the hubby and I were stunned at the colours of the pretty little moth. I immediately took him outside for a little photo-shoot and then left him be, he is after-all a wild moth, and I would love to have more in my garden. Although I won't be keeping them in the house again, he ate a phenomenal amount as a caterpillar!

Lastly, I finished my sewing project and I am a terrible person.

A truly terrible person.

Meet my tricera-dog!

I'd make it slightly differently next time, the hood is designed for a toy dog so is a bit too upright for her, so next time I'd change it to the more hound shaped hood I used for her bathrobe. However, I like the fit on the body, so will merge the two patterns. It will certainly make her next Halloween costume easier to make!

And of course I need to stress that she had tons of treats for sitting nicely in the costume, and had it on for about five minutes. Quick and easy, fun and stress free, the most important elements of a photo shoot!

Meet the Cousin!

Just a short post, but I can guarantee lots of cuteness! This weekend we went to Liverpool to meet up with some good friends and Missys new cousin, Ren. A Shiba Inu at four months old, he's a wee bundle of fluffy squish!

Missy is great with puppies, something I've seen first hand and I've had reported to me from the dog walkers who use her with the new puppies who haven't learned play etiquette. She's happy to put other dogs in their place with a growl and, when her temper wears thin, a warning shunt and a bark, but wont bite. It was quite interesting to see Ren learn his manners, on Friday he was essentially trying to climb on her face or hump her every nano second (which is totally normal with puppies) and by this morning he had figured out his play bow and was goading her to play by patting at her feet and generally being a little goofball beside her.

A big improvement! 

Thick as Thieves!

Whilst the dogs hung out and played, we did much the same, playing board games and generally catching up. Since he's so little, we kept things local and tried a dog friendly vegan/vegetarian cafe, which was surprisingly nice (especially as the hubby is the sort who expects a piece of an animal with every meal!). The staff were enamoured with both dogs and we got chatting with the other customers. It was an interesting experience to see as Missy was rather overlooked for Ren, but she took it in her stride and put her attention into befriending the table beside us with her doleful eyes and good manners. The hard effort didn't pay off as they didn't share their doughnuts with her, but she did get plenty of pats and lots of compliments.

No squirrels harmed!....This time....

There's a few nice parks in the area, so Missy was not short on squirrels to chase and got plenty of opportunity to play and run. Shiba Inu's aren't allowed off the lead at any age owing to the fact that they just have no recall ability, so Missy got to play her favourite game of 'Maypole' whereby she has a dog chase and we all get wrapped up in the lead! With the weather being great we mostly spent time in the garden and it's been really good for both dogs. Both are absolutely knackered, which I always take to be a great success on a visit! It was brief but good fun, and I rather think that Ren was sorry to see us leave!

Revisiting Castles

We've previously done Tantallon and Dirleton Castle before, and revisited them this weekend as part of my brothers birthday celebration. He purchased a Historic Scotland pass last year and is now working on getting all the castles in the central belt ticked off the list, so doing these two together seemed like a great idea.

The har almost hid Bass Rock from us

We had a panic about the weather as there had been lightning storms forecast for the weekend and then heavy rain was predicted for the day, so had made a back up option for the Seabird Centre (which I have only discovered now is dog friendly, so expect to see that in the future!) but thankfully the weather pulled through for us. We had some stunning har when we first arrived but it blew over in about 20 minutes to reveal a beautiful day.

Lunch was called for whilst in Tantallon, which was the first castle we did, and we enjoyed a picnic in a lovely sunny spot in the courtyard before moving onto Dirleton where we managed to catch the bulk of a 'Men at Arms' talk about medieval weaponry and life which was incredibly interesting (even though the thought of hurling burning piglet carcasses at the enemy was a bit revolting!). The chap running the show was great and did photos afterwards, my mum wanted a shot with him and, upon my request to pretend he was stabbing her, we got a terrific photo. Good times!

And then back to my mums for cake and take away - a very good ending for the day!

The weekend was finished with visiting friends in town. I had a moment of panic about whether Missy would be allowed on the replacement bus, but there was no problem at all. I popped over to the Meadows Festival as I had time to kill and we saw popped over to the Edinburgh Dog and Cat home stall and chatted away to the staff. Missy also found the fire brigade stand and decided that she was going to go and have cuddles there, so I had to make small talk in order to keep the dog happy!

I met up with my friends at the Holyrood 9a and their twins, now 4, are at that fantastic age where they can actually talk, and it's all sweet ramblings. Both are enamoured with Missy who, as I've said before, is very good with small kids. We then managed a walk around the 'mountain' (Arthurs Seat) and went looking for trolls in the hedges. After that we went back to theirs and the hubby joined us for dinner after work and we all stayed up far too late.

Tired today, but absolutely worth it!