Royal Highland Show 2018! Highlands and Shetlands Ahoy!

Visiting the stables is always my favourite part of the show as it's really the only time you get to physically interact with the horses, and as I don't have any other horse time these days, it's a precious resource!

Royal Highland Show 2018! - A Parade of Ponies (and Clydesdales :P)

By this time in the day we were both getting pretty hungry, and once Magda spotted a stand selling pizzas made to order, our fate was sealed. There was a really interesting selection to choose from (I was very tempted with the black pudding and apple!) but we decided to share a venison pepperoni one as, at a whopping £9 per tiny pizza, it was already pretty pricey! It was delicious, but half as small and twice as expensive as I'd have liked!

Portmahomack Holiday - Part 8 - Cliffs, Crafts and Caves!

Our last couple of days went by pretty quickly or so it seemed. We left my aunt and uncle's house, then headed to Rothes to meet up with my mum's cousin Bill and his wife Lynn. Bill had a new dog so we spent a few minutes getting introduced to the very gorgeous Hazel!

Portmahomack Holiday Part 7 - Picts, Seals and Shells

 Sorry for all the holiday spam, I usually breeze through them all pretty quickly but my motivation has been somewhat lacking recently! There's only a couple more posts to go though!

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Portmahomack Holiday - Part 6 - Birthdays, Picts and Fine Dining!

The last full day of our time in Portmahomack was also my mum's birthday. I don't think the prospect of ending the holiday was the best present she could have asked for though! As she's got herself hopelessly addicted to the antics of Flipper, Neptune, Moby, Coral and Koi - the 'Under the Sea' litter of the Kitten Cuddle Room, I decided to get her a kitten of her own.

A post shared by Christine Sutcliffe (@lynkhart) on Sep 22, 2017 at 2:33am PDT

(click right to go through all the images)

Portmahomack Holiday Part 5 - Astrophotography!

One of the things I hate most about living where I do is the light pollution. Even on a dark, clear night, the sky is still tainted by a faint orange glow, and the plethora of streetlights makes shooting the stars difficult.

At Portmahomack however, there were no such issues, and provided I turned my camera away from the handful of lights which lit the lane behind the cottage, I was in almost perfect darkness.

 

Royal Highland Show 2017 - #9 Ponies, Ponies, Ponies! (and Clydesdales)

After the coos, we moved on to the big stable block at the back where all the Highlands and Shetlands are housed during the show. Unfortunately the Welshies and other pony breeds seem to be kept away from public view which is a real shame.

On the way there we spotted a few decidedly un-ponylike creatures as some of the Clydesdales were readied for the harness turnout classes later on.

Royal Highland Show 2017 - #1 Ridden Highlands and Broken Cameras

 As I said in my previous post, I travelled to the RHS this year with two companions, my friends, Tomás and Rory who had come up specially!

We rose early (well, for me anyway!) on Friday to go to the show. The bus into town was a little late, but the Edinburgh ones leaving the depot were very regular and after missing one as the baguette I'd chosen to buy for lunch later apparently had to be toasted first, another arrived a few minutes later.

The forecast was for rain until midday, then cloud and sunny spells for the rest of the day.

The rain showed itself within a few minutes of setting off but we hoped it'd pass over quickly.