Looking Back...February & March

February is usually a quiet month for us - hence choosing it for "Frugal February" (Well, that and the fact that had we chosen another month calling it anything "February" would have been a bit odd...) - all so often it's cold, and damp, and snowy and icy, and there is little incentive to go running off around the countryside doing things. So our entertainment was taken at a more steady pace, and locally too - we had a lovely walk at the local RSPB Reserve...

...and there were one or two rugby matches as well, when the pitches weren't frozen solid, that is...

and then before we knew it we were into March and it was time to start thinking about our first proper adventure of the year - our long awaited trip up to Orkney to see Fay and the Flowers clan. The journey was half the fun on this one I think - first going up, from meeting a friend in the pub at Euston for drinks, before going to get on the Scotrail Sleeper up to Aberdeen, then another train through the north of Scotland to Thurso. When we arrived the weather wasn't the greatest...in fact our first 20 minutes there was spent in the station, sheltering from this...

...thankfully it dried up, and the sun emerged in time for us to explore the town before heading through to Scrabster to get the ferry. We've visited Thurso before, but not for some years, and strangely enough had never found our way onto the beach there before.

Orkney itself I have posted on before - we absolutely loved it and had a fantastic few days, from exploring the Ring of Brodgar to cosy nights snuggled in front of the fire chattering, with dogs curled up on laps. The journey back was adventure-ful too - our first flight in a small plane - 27 seats I think it had - from Kirkwall back to Aberdeen again, and with British Airways too - all our previous "above ground" travel has been with budget airlines so the novelty of being offered a cup of tea at 30,000* feet was quite good!

By the time we got home it was April...which I'll look at another time!

Robyn


*Altitudes are approximate ;-)