Road Trip Yipee. Love a little run down the road with Mr Orkwoodturner and what a fantastic day it was too. After a slightly rocky trip across the water, during which I had a little bout of sea sickness, a new experience and hopefully a one off, we made our way to Ardersier. The sun was shining so I got a few good pics on the way down of some of the landmarks.
Now Grieg Mackintosh, his wife Donna and a couple of their excellent staff were here for the shows (they won best stand at Dounby 👍) and dropped by the gallery. Greig deals in timber!!!!!!! GM Forestry Ltd, so we went to have a look – amazing – very happy Mr Orkwoodturner.
After a good look round guided by our new pal Ollie the sawmill dog we purchased 3 trees and Grieg cut a log of oak into 3 to fit in the pick-up. With help from Connor we loaded up. It took a while longer to actually leave, would have been quicker if we had been allowed to take Ollie with us.
Thanks Grieg we had a great time and we hope the collection of the trees goes smoothly. We will be back very soon.
Just outside Ardesier is The Cheese Pantry, recommended by Grieg so we thought we would have a look. So glad we did, excellent lunch and a few purchases to take back with us. These little out of the way businesses are such gems. Their own cheese is fantastic and they also stock many cheeses from around the UK and Europe. The little shop also has a selection of cheese biscuits and chutneys, paradise.
Fuelled up and very satisfied we made our way north taking a more scenic route over The Struie to make the most of the beautiful weather.
Further north we encountered a few showers but only enough to create the occasional rainbow. Most of the drive along the north of the A9 was my opportunity to photograph wind farms, all be it from a moving car. I just managed to catch The new Beatrice offshore Windfarm as the light was right. The wind farm just outside Thurso is being greatly extended. I have mixed emotions about windfarms, not keen on the landscape being dotted with lots of individual little turbines, but I think there is a beauty in the groups of large turbines (windfarms) both on land and out to sea. Having said that, and just my view, I don’t have one on my backdoor step.
A nice return trip on the ferry when we chatted about our day and relaxed with a coffee and home to a well spoilt little dog who had been pampered by our neighbour.