Perth, Berwick-Upon-Tweed

The weather in Scotland has been 4 seasons in one day, every day. Sunshine, cold wind, torrential rain, we have had it all. Temperature has ranged from 5 to 14 degrees, from what the locals have said, this is normal but they are thankful after 6 weeks of unseasonably dry weather.
Neil went with Hamish around the farm that he and JJ manage which we will detail in another post.
Hamish took us for a drive to Pitlochry, a picturesque town at the start to the Scottish Highlands. The landscape does not change much through the districts, green fields with hedges or stone fences along the roads and lots of stands of trees.
JJ, Christine and Norman arrived home from Norway after lunch, the last time we saw Christine and Norman they were about 6 & 4 years, now Norman is nearly as tall as Neil at 14 years.
Where ever we have been so far there is a lot of native trees and hedges and they are not allowed to remove them without permission. They also cannot trim the hedges until the birds have stopped nesting and the flowers have finished so they don’t upset the bees pollination. The forestry blocks also have to have a belt of approx 30m planted in native trees alongside the roads. NZ could learn a few things from this policy I think. Hamish lives up twisting lanes out in the country which would be gravel in NZ but all roads are tar sealed here.
Thursday 5 June we headed off down to Hamish & JJ’s farm that they own beside Stirling, Jim & Fiona, Hamish’s parents live on the farm and help look after it. We had an interesting visit to the Stirling lamb market. All lambs are sold through the market which is held each week. It is all computerised through a tag on the lamb, they are all weighed and that comes up on a screen as they come into the pen. Farmers pick out their best lambs to bring each week. The organisation was impressive.
We said goodbye to Hamish & JJ and headed to the William Wallace memorial. Anyone who has watched the movie Braveheart will know what William Wallace achieved in driving out the English from Scotland only to meet a grizzly end when captured. Wonderful views of Stirling Castle & Stirling Bridge where they trapped the English
Then we headed off to Berwick-Upon-Tweed in torrential rain at times. Made for interesting driving on the motorway when visibility was limited. We have mastered the GPS, not sure how we got around in 1991 with no cell phones or google maps.Read more