Amber came up in her car for a few days and we had some great times. As always, our children have the power to bring us the greatest happiness, and time with them is precious.
Amber loves wild swimming and was anxious to try out some new places. Glen Rosa on Arran is doable in a day and truly is one of the most atmospheric glen/valley places we've been to. We headed off out and got an earlier ferry than the last visit to this lovely island. Stopping on the way, to see some seals basking in the sun on the rocks, we were soon at Brodick and a single track road getting us a way up the glen. It's about a 45 minute walk up the glen from the last place you can dump the car and although we didn't have the place to ourselves it was far from heaving. Amber was first to fully immerse in the water, with an accidental slippage, and after some faffing around Liz was in as well - it was pretty cold and fresh due to being a mountain stream in full flow. John couldn't go in due to medical pump and feeling pins and needles with cold exposure, but even without that he would have wimped out. Back up the coast road for a quick 'nudge-me-on' at the Sandwich Shop, having dumped the car in the queue for the ferry - 5 spice roast pork with siracha mayo was tender and delicious! We then called in at Fyne Raja curry house for Amber's birthday (23!) meal - a perfect end to the day!
On the way up, Amber had noticed a sign for Loch Lomond/Helensburgh Highland Games the next day and as it was going to be
a: good weather
b: relatively close by
c: one of the smaller/less hectic games
so we went for it. Helensburgh is a nice town so it was quite a civilised event and we were at the gates by 10:00am. Some great traditional 'heavy athletics' including tossing the caber - something that just seems impossible, Scottish dancing, athletics track events including fell running and, of course, bagpipes! Great times and the weather, if anything, was too hot!
After we headed off at about 3pm we called in at St Peter's Seminary, an abandoned Catholic college originally built in the 60s with a 'brutalist concrete' design (translated: looks like a car park). Walking across a field, Amber and Liz quickly discovered we could have simply just driven up to it in the car! There were plenty of other people investigating the site, which was cool and impressive, but pretty ugly and almost completely lost to nature, despite it being category A listed. So, if you like urban exploring, graffiti or brutalist architecture, then check out these pics...
The next day was Amber's birthday so we had a lie in, chill out day with a swim (Amber and Liz) at the beach under moody sky and slight drizzle, but it meant that the beach was lovely and quiet. We had a sneaky ice cream at the beach bothy on the walk back to the car. We played some board games John in the evening.
Amber's thirst for outdoor swimming continued and John and her headed out to the Falls of Falloch off the top of Loch Lomond. Conveniently located literally next to the main road is a glorious waterfall with bathing pool which Amber loved and stayed in for ages. The weather was blue skies all round and we stopped for a few photo opportunities on the way home at one of the Loch Lomond view points.
Sadly Tuesday spelt Amber's departure day and by 10.30am she was gone, leaving the house quiet and a bit flat. It hit John hard and he spent the rest of the day feeling very sorry for himself. We can't wait to head down to Leamington to see them very soon.
But within days of Amber leaving us, Chris and Jess from John's work were up with us for a couple of days and they are great fun. They'd driven up to Glasgow on Friday so were with us mid morning Saturday. The weather was good and allowed us to show off some of the lovely places we have on our doorstep - Kilbride Bay and Pucks Glen. We enjoyed a lovely lunch of Waitrose tapas that they kindly brought for us, and played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity and Bananagrams. When they decided to stay for a second night, we even managed to sneak in a meal in at Kames Hotel - venison steaks, slow cooked beef and lamb all went down a treat. It's great to welcome friends to our little piece of heaven - we love sharing it!
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