Great Britain Travel Blog 12 - To Scotland!

May 17, 2019

Yet another beautiful, sunny day. How could we be so lucky? 😍 Aren't the British Isles notoriously foggy and rainy?

In the morning, we went "out training" as in the days before, and watched Derek and Ludi work dogs. Gloria worked Foss, and Claire worked Briar. Derek and I talked about my Cap; he told me to encourage Cap to push into his sheep.

Derek working Meg (and making her listen!) :-)

Meggie

In the afternoon, Gloria and I went by ourselves and took a driving loop up into Scotland. It is only about a 30 minute drive from Derek's to reach the Scottish border. We went on up to Moffat, Selkirk, Havrick and back down to Carlisle. It was the Scottish Borders loop. OMG, I loved it. Rugged hills. Statue of James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd. St. Mary's Loch. Border Cheviot and Scottish Blackface sheep, everywhere.  Exactly as wonderful as I had imagined all those places to be, and even better.

It was a lovely afternoon, with a little shopping at Moffat Woolen Mill. I picked up a few little prizes as gifts for family and sheep caretakers at home (tins of Scottish Shortbread cookies!), a lovely Stewart tartan plaid (we have Stewart in the family background) wool scarf for myself, and some more note cards.

Our driving loop complete, and the afternoon about gone, it had finally started to get cloudy and look like the rain that had been forecasted for the next day. We arrived back at Raise Lodge, where Derek and Ludi had been busy working all afternoon, vaccinating lambs.

Helen went out for delicious fish 'n' chips takeout dinner for all of us. Then, Ludi asked us to watch the "Away to Me" movie (about Soldier Hollow) with her and provide U.S. color commentary. LOL. A very fun day!