Falconry, Shortbread, and Sheepdogs!

Friday was a beautiful day here in Scotland.  We started the day at the Falconry where they did a demonstration with a few different birds. I have a ton of pictures... here are a few.  :-)  

We went to Deans Shortbread factory for lunch.  You can watch them make shortbread through the windows.  Parking was next to a crashed car lot but their sign looked like it was pointing to that lot...lol. 

We went out to a sheep farm where we were given a great demonstration with the shepherd's dogs.  He had 18 dogs total but not all 18 were in the demonstration.  Each dog had a different whistle!  How crazy is that?  He said he'd been doing this all his life.  We asked how long his family had been doing it and he said BC...lol.  which actually is probably true.  :-)  He even sheared a sheep and let others try it.  He had baby lambs for us to feed and puppies that were only 18 days old.  So sweet and cute!  :-)   

I'm in Scotland!

Its beautiful here!  I arrived on Monday to Amanda and Jason's amazing place they are staying.

On Tuesday, we went to the Cullerlie Stone Circle,

Crathes Castle, 

and Pitmedden Gardens.  They were still planting the gardens, so it was green but not a lot of flowers yet.  Also it started down pouring on us so we had to leave... although I think Clara would have been fine staying in the rain to look at the few beautiful flowers that were there.  :-)

On Wednesday, Mirta and I went to the Gordon Highlanders Museum. It tells the story of the Gordon Highlanders which were active from 1794 to 1994. It contains uniforms, medals and weapons along with media exhibits such as film and photography. It is located in the former home of Scottish artist, Sir George Reid.  I failed to take any pictures but we got a guided tour and it was very interesting. Then we walked through the park and went to meet everyone at Mary and Leah's riding lessons... where I got a few pictures.  :-) 

On Thursday, we found our way to Tyrebagger Stone Circle.  There are a lot of stone circles around here.  This one is fairly big and in a beautiful spot... until the highway is finished.  The kids and Ginger had fun too.  :-)  

Then we went over to the Chapel of St. Fergus.  Theres some old pictish stones in the old church.  And a beautiful river that had 2 swans swimming through.