From the purple dyeshed...

Alternatively, for those of you who don't have the Gaelic, "Welcome to the Country of the Gael". We decided to take a mini-holiday this weekend. On Saturday morning we piled a few belongings in the car, as well as Peggy and Lexie, and headed north west of the Borders towards Crianlarich and then onwards to Ballachulish, over the Ballachulish Bridge, with the aim of reaching the Corran Ferry which takes you from Lochaber to the Morven Peninsula. Mungo the Land Rover had to don his sea bands for the crossing:



Close to Strontian (which Stevan very cleverly remembered from gaelic class meant "nose of the fairy") we found a little beach where Peggy and Lexie had a lovely run in amongst the seaweed. It is very rare to get a photograph of Peggy when she's not moving at full tilt. It was only when I looked at the photographs once we'd returned home that I spotted the face, complete with "hair", on the rock nearby!



Alongside the seaweed there was still some heather in bloom, and although the photo isn't great, it shows the collection of colours that you often find in Scotland, and which I find quite inspiring - purple, bracken and green. I really want to find a way of incorporating these three colours into some of my knitting:



Leaving Loch Sunart we headed north towards the Ardnamurchan Peninsula. We were stunned by the beauty we found looking towards the island of Eigg from the small town of Glenuig. I subtitled this photograph "A study in Blue" - the mountains really were this colour.



Before heading towards our home for the night, we stopped off at the Glenfinnan Monument which we've not visited for many years.

While the Memorial is impressive:



It is the view from the statue towards the loch that is stunning. For some reason the Bonny Prince is looking in the opposite direction. He's missing a great view!



After a long, long day, and despite wishing to stop off at so many more spots but being continuously pushed on by passing time, we found ourselves at our home for the night. Our small, but very comfortable and extremely dog-friendly home was here, part of The Macdonald Hotel at the head of Loch Leven.



After a lovely pub meal, and watching Scotland thump Italy in the rugby on one of the biggest tv screens I've ever had the misfortune to see, we headed off to bed.

More travel adventures tomorrow .....