nice to meet ewe !

We went off to the Haddington Agricultural Show today which was a great opportunity to meet up with friends and farm animals .

East Lothian is proud of its farming heritage and it was great to see so much of it celebrated with competitions for junior gymkhana, pony & trap, family dog training and the serious judging of sheep, goats, cows and shire horses.

I made friends with lots of sheep, met a farmer who keeps Shetland sheep (which surprised me as I thought the the sheep round here were reared for meat rather than for the quality of their wool,) and met Jean who is involved with the Poldrate Mill craft group and who told me all about a spinning group held there. I was chuffed to bits.

I want to learn to spin, but need a guiding hand to get me started and all the classes that I could find where at least an hours drive away. This will be a 5 minutes drive! I can't wait until September when the group starts up again.

My only disappointment was not seeing the alpacas (alpacas in East Lothian? who knew?), but I later found out that a friend of a friend keeps them and she sells the yarn that she spins. Woohoo!!

J2 had fun too, she met up with her galpals , won a coconut and a giant inflatable hammer and was pretty happy too. We also bought some delicious organic chocolate from The Chocolate Tree and some handmade soaps from Country at Heart . There was tons of other stuff that I could have splashed my cash on too, but I had to be sensible (for once) as we will be going away soon.

We had to leave the show early as we were taking J2 to TeenRanch near Dundee where she is going to have a week of riding, kayaking, archery and mad fun with 60 other kids. The ranch house is styled with a western theme, Native American artifacts and cowboy posters on the walls, and the groups are named Redskins, Broncos etc. When we pick her up next weekend there will be a gymkhana and BBQ before we leave. (I wish that I could have done this sort of thing when I was a kid, there should be something called middle-aged ranch for peeps like me!)

Rather than just driving back down the A90, D and I decided to cross the Tay Bridge and drive the scenic route round Fife and visited St Andrews, which was lovely on a warm summers evening in July, and very quiet as the students have graduated and left.


I've lived in Scotland for 14 years but there are still parts of this country that I haven't visited (much to my deep shame), but at least I've seen St Andrews now. I still have to visit Aberdeen, the Shetlands, the Hebrides, Orkney, Perth & Stirling and numerous small towns and villages too.


We enjoyed some fish and chips and then continued down the road through traditional places such as Pittenweem and Anstruther. It was fascinating looking across the Firth of Forth from the northern side and seeing a different view of Bass Rock and Berwick Law (which are so much a part of the landscape in East Lothian) through the sea mist. (and I did wave to Beth as we drove through Leven! Yoohoo Scattie!).


It was great having this time together, just enjoying a drive, no kids to worry about and chatting about the wonderful scenery around us. I can understand why Fifers are so proud of their corner of Scotland- it was looking at its best in the sunshine.