While on my recent trip up to Scotland, I celebrated my birthday. The timing of the trip was a coincidence, as it just happened to be when the Cat's parents were visiting from abroad for a conference, but I was all too happy to be up there for the occasion. Considering the hectic pace of my life recently, it was lovely to have a relaxing birthday up in the Scottish countryside. And here are some snippets from the day.
We started off at Luss, on the shores of Loch Lomond.
Then went for a little stroll, taking in the local churchyard.
We then carried on to Dunstaffnage Castle and its chapel in the woods.
It had been sunny earlier in the day but we had a bit of rain on this stop. That suited me fine though, because I love the rain, particularly in atmospheric ruins, and it gave me the opportunity for an umbrella shot.
We then had a slight mishap with the car, which entailed waiting for road assistance and then an anxious mission to find a place to stay for the evening, but a lovely lady saved us with some spare rooms at her B&B very late in the day.
We were also lucky to find an Indian restaurant open late. I'm used to the slightly generic Indian food which is prolific throughout London, but this place served up proper, yummy Indian cuisine. And our meal was finished with an improvised birthday cake in the form of carrot halwa. I'd forgotten, but I used to be obsessed with Indian sweets in my late teens/early 20s, so that taste ended up being up wonderfully nostalgic and appropriate for my birthday!
We started off at Luss, on the shores of Loch Lomond.
We hopped onboard a boat for a peaceful birthday cruise.
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| Perfect opportunity to use my recently purchased gloves (as written about in this post). My dress is Beyond Retro (as is the sneak peek of petticoat), jacket is my old faithful Rokit one, boots are from Clarks and the pashmina is a birthday gift from the Cat's parents. |
Then went for a little stroll, taking in the local churchyard.
We then carried on to Dunstaffnage Castle and its chapel in the woods.
It had been sunny earlier in the day but we had a bit of rain on this stop. That suited me fine though, because I love the rain, particularly in atmospheric ruins, and it gave me the opportunity for an umbrella shot.
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| Umbrella purchased through fabulous Brollies Galore website. It was a replacement for a dear one I absent-mindedly left at Nottingham station after a rough day of unproductive archival research... |
We then had a slight mishap with the car, which entailed waiting for road assistance and then an anxious mission to find a place to stay for the evening, but a lovely lady saved us with some spare rooms at her B&B very late in the day.
We were also lucky to find an Indian restaurant open late. I'm used to the slightly generic Indian food which is prolific throughout London, but this place served up proper, yummy Indian cuisine. And our meal was finished with an improvised birthday cake in the form of carrot halwa. I'd forgotten, but I used to be obsessed with Indian sweets in my late teens/early 20s, so that taste ended up being up wonderfully nostalgic and appropriate for my birthday!
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| Image source |
Happy birthday! It's clear you had a nice one. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Heidi!
ReplyDeleteYou look so pretty in this outfit. I love the colors on you! These cemetery photos are so beautiful too. So lush and green.
ReplyDeleteXOXO
Aww, thanks, AnnaBanana! So nice of you to say!
ReplyDeleteSome lovely scenes that you have captured beautifully! Happy Birthday again :-) Love the umbrella shot. Noticed Belle & Sebastian too. I'm glad that you took the care to include the climbing flower in the first graveyard photo. Graveyards offer so much. The church graveyard in Newtown, Sydney is wonderful. Also, here in Gippsland, Walhalla's extremely steep one is remarkable.
ReplyDeleteWell spotted with the Belle & Sebastian tote - in their native country! I remember visiting the cemetery at Walhalla - that really was pretty special.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful way to spend a your Birthday beautiful settings and lovely cottage.
ReplyDeleteThe outfit is perfect, the dress is gorgeous and looks so good with the jacket and boots.
I love your photographs they are all so interesting, and they all say so much.
Andy.
You look beautiful, love the jacket!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely beautiful photos!
ReplyDeleteYou look like the heroine in some romantic comedy. Some awesome, feminist heroine in a not incredibly cheesy/bad romantic comedy. (that may be my projection. ;))
Wow, it looks gorgeous! Great photos!
ReplyDelete