Reasons to be Cheerful

The beauty of not going viral with a blog like this is that chances are, nobody but YOU know that I painted a dull picture of Aberdeen yesterday. But it means we won't get thrown out of O'Neills tonight when we go there for a late dinner.

So it's not all bad here. Our hotel is nice. The shower pressure is great, the showers are hot, the food is good - we went to a wonderful Italian restaurant last night, Rustico, that had amazing, really fresh home-cooked food! The night before was the Wild Boar pub, which also had great food.

And we went to Drum Castle today! Me roots, yeh? The weather was not too bad when we arrived, even a bit of sun . . .

Fortunately and unfortunately, the castle is undergoing renovations, so the oldest part, this wonderful tower from the early 1300's, is covered in scaffolding and blue tarp. Sigh! But the parts we could visit were great. For good pictures of the castle, here's a good place to visit: http://www.nts.org.uk/Property/Drum-Castle-Garden-Estate/. And then it started to rain. And then it really started to rain! But hey, it's just water, right? So we donned our rain gear and went out to see the family chapel, a stone's throw away from the castle.

Still raining as we left the charming chapel . . .

But again, it's just rain!

Mom had told me that Drum Castle had a cemetery for their dogs, which made me sure that we were descended from them. Here lies Dougal, and Vickie, Pu Pu and Duffy. Thank you, Lord, for the creatures you give us to love, and to be loved by.

 But let's take a closer look at this one:

Apparently, according to one of the castle guides, there was a tortoise as well, who meandered the grounds for a good long time. I love this family who made room on their land, and in their hearts, for their loved animals. These are my peeps (however far removed we are, in fact).