Scone Castle and more golf

It turns out we got more than mild indigestion at the Lebanese-Scottish diner outside Cawdor Castle. On our way out we grabbed some brochures and ended up setting the next weekend's agenda - an orchid festival at Scone Castle. Fiona and Roger had spent some time during the week doling out some TLC to our resident orchids and buying some new, fragrant varieties, so an orchid festival seemed the thing to do. It was cool that we could combine it with a trip to Scone (pronounced Scoon) Castle, a place we've been wanting to go for sometime. Scone was the ancient crowning place for Scottish kings. They would sit upon the Stone of Scone to be crowned. The stone was stolen by Edward I and brought to Westminster Abbey where it sat until it was stolen by some university students in the 60's (all covered very nicely in the movie "Stone of Destiny"). They brought it back to Scotland and it now sits in Edinburgh Castle, "on loan" from the monarchy.

It was an easy 2 hour drive down to Scone and the grounds were already quite busy when we arrived. They had a live cover band (well, I say band, but it was actually just a piano player and singer) playing in the courtyard. As we had Casey with us, we took turns seeing the sights. They had a tent full of orchids brought in by growers all over the country. We were tempted to buy another one, but decided we had enough work with the ones already in the house. We toured an ancient graveyard and marveled at the sequoias and giant Douglas firs in the pinetum. They actually had one planted from seed brought back by David Douglas himself, who was a local. We even made our way through the hedge maze. The castle itself was a real highlight, with lots of porcelain and portraiture. The portraits were especially eye-catching because the Murrays were a good-looking family. They had orchids in every room which really added another touch of class. We spent some time talking to the Artist-in-Residence who was working on some spectacular watercolours of, you guessed it, orchids. She and Fiona talked shop for a while and Fiona came away with some good tips for her new watercolour project.

Later that week Fiona took Roger and Cathy to her new favourite golf course, just outside Aberdeen in a little place called Kemnay. Even with the thunderclouds rolling in and filling up the background, you can see what a beautiful place it is go for a walk, even if you have to stop and hit (or curse at) a small white ball every so often.