Haggis

This weekend I travelled up to Scotland to join Chip for his 30th birthday celebrations. He'd got hold of a house, a very big house, in the country, somwhere west of Dumfries. I visited Dumfries briefly on the way home and found it to be a very wet place. Constant heavy rain. I'm told that it's like that the whole time. I pity the poor inhabitants of that sorry town.

The place we stayed in was named Shennaton House and it was a fantastic building. Huge living rooms, massive bedrooms, a snooker room, a cellar and plenty of places to hang out with the others or just to go and find a bit of peace and quiet. Big gardens too, and I'm sure I saw a red squirrel at one point.



The main feeling I had at the house (on the first night at least) was that someone was going to die. This is because it was the type of house where murders always happen on televsion. This feeling was not allayed when after I'd set 20 places for dinner, only 19 people made it to the table. Had the 20th been mysteriously strangled? Poisoned? Lead piped? Or had I just laid an extra place "just in case"? It was indeed a mystery. I think they probably died and the body was quickly buried somewhere in the grounds. I'm sure I also saw footprints in the rose garden.

On the Sunday it was misty. And windy. A fine time to go walking in the hills then! Climb a big huge hill and what can you see at the top? Mist! Cloud! Wind! A brief glimpse of a loch as the wind briefly blows the mist and cloud away. Not much of a view then, but it was at least better than the "Wells O' The Rees" that we encountered later. Just go left at the sign to get there.



The wells themselves are less interesting than the sign. Small mounds of stones with a mossy puddle at one end. A promise of instant death were one to sup from them. It wasn't too surprising that we were the only people visiting them, what with it being so misty windy and with the wells themselves being rubbish. I tried searching for them on Google to see if I was missing something. I only found one reference. At least we found them!

But even though the landmarks were a bit on the rubbish side it was a fun little walk. And it was great to see some real Scottish haggis in their natural habitat (though they seem quite shy!).

I've got a mild cold now though. It had been coming on for a few days, and then got a bit worse. Bit sniffy. I'll live :-)