An Absolutely Gorgeous Day

Today was gorgeous from the very start. We had deep blue skies, lots of white puffy clouds, very little wind, and moderate temperatures (in the upper 40s).

While Don was playing 18 holes this morning, I was solving an acrostic puzzle from the Saturday Washington Post of a few weeks ago (thanks to Pat Kay). The puzzle revealed a delightful quote from someone named Guilfoile, which Don loved:

The big difference between golf and almost every other human endeavor is that it's impossible to play the piano four hours every Saturday or Sunday for thirty-five years and never get any better at it.

I made another 5 blocks for the wall quilt I'm working on and, after rearranging them, have decided I need just one more. While I was hard at work, so were the brickies who put in a soakaway drain to lead water from the old drain near our garage where water has been puddling when it's rained very hard or very long. They managed to get the whole job done between 8:30 this morning and about 2:30 this afternoon. Mr Jack hooked up our hose and flooded the area with water to test the efficacy of the new drain. It worked splendidly, so it seems that problem has been solved. Not a moment too soon, either, for when it rained quite a bit on Thursday, the water was standing back there and had reached almost to the foundation of the studio. It is hoped this will solve the problem we had back in November. (By the way, the musty smell did finally disappear.)

We had delicious lunch of a tossed salad and sirloin burgers. Don had his on a bun with onions and cheese and ketchup while I had mine plain with a knife and fork! Afterward, we had a Skype session with Molly and Iris and then talked about how we could best enjoy the rest of this gorgeous day.


We decided upon a walk in the Monzievaird area (pronounced "Mahneevaird") which lies between Comrie and Crieff. We had walked there 6 or so months ago, that time up to the Baird Monument. This time, we wanted to follow a path that leads off to the left from the Baird Monument pathway and goes around the outside of a big hill. Once we got past the boggy bits nearer the start of the walk and past the area where trees have been felled, the pathway was dry and wide enough for us to walk side by side. To our left was the valley, the A85 east-west road that connects Comrie and Crieff and essentially links the west coast of Scotland near Glasgow with Tayside near Perth. Beyond that road and the cottages and farms on the hillside, the northern hills rise, some with bits of snow still clinging to the corries (hollows where the sun doesn't reach). As it was getting on toward late afternoon, the sun bathed everything in a golden light. (See the photo of the birches above.)


At the first real bend in the path where we turned from northward to eastward, Don was taking a photo of the valley as I walked further along the path. Suddenly on the hill above us I spied a herd of Roe deer (one of two deer species native to the British Isles, the other being red deer). Don took a lot of photos, the best of which is at the top of this blog. The little bit of wind was blowing toward the east and so didn't blow much of our scent up the hill above us. The deer knew we were there but without getting our scent, they mostly stood still and watched us. We did the same, barely speaking or breathing for fear they would gallop away. We stood and watched them for quite some time and while they appeared alert to us and guarded, they didn't move on. In fact, they were still watching us as we moved on down the path.

Half an hour to three-quarters of an hour later when we returned, they were still in the area. By this time it was within 30 minutes of sunset. Three of the deer had crossed the path and were grazing in the field below us. The remaining 5 or so deer were still up the hill among the trees where we had seen them previously. We stood and watched them again but they appeared much more skittish this time so we didn't stay long.


We had a great time just being together out of doors enjoying the beautiful day. Don's knee has been very good today. In fact, he told me he actually ran on the golf course today and he did just fine. (And here I thought golf was a slow game.) Tomorrow night we return to Perth for another dinner out and a concert. We're going to try Hamish's Restaurant in Methvin which is a village about two-thirds of the way between Crieff and Perth. We've heard great things about it from numerous people for about a year now and so will finally give it a go. Restaurant and theatre review tomorrow.