Wolvercote an Olde English Village

A last minute booking brought us to Wolvercote near Oxford. This is a new area for us and we were pleasantly surprised to find a little village tucked away from the busy main roads that surrounded it. The village is on the edge of Port Meadow, a large piece of common land, which stretches for miles, and has the Oxford canal running through it. This was very handy as the dog we were looking after had so much energy.

Tracy getting her daily exercise. This dog had endless energy.

He was only a young pup and so sweet, although we were only with him for a few days, he really stole our hearts, and we had great fun throwing the ball for him. We also helped harvest the owners' allotment whilst they were away which was laden with produce.

Sitting in Scotland

June saw us travel from the South Eastern tip of the UK to the North Eastern tip, to Aberdeen for our next sit. We travelled the whole distance in one day, feeling the temperature drop the further north we went.

We do not know Scotland very well, Della only having been there once before, and Tracy never having been. We were looking forward to exploring this part of our country.

Aberdeen is by the seaside, and we were lucky to pick two lovely weeks of calm, sunny weather, although a tad cold for us Southerners. The North Sea was like a mill pond, and the scenery was breathtaking. We loved the beaches which were vast, empty spaces of clean white sand, with colonies of seals and Eider ducks. Very unspoilt and pristine countryside and coastline for miles around.
Slains Castle Cruden bay

We were looking after two very low maintenance cats, who enabled us to go out on walks and explore the local area. We found a small general stores in Auchnagatt, the only store in the small village, as we wanted some matches. The shop was something out of 'The league of Gentlemen' very Local. There were a few items on the shelves, such as the odd tin of beans and a bottle of sauce. The window display was ancient, with bars of soap with 'sell by dates' from 1999!

The old part of Aberdeen was interesting. It is called Footdee There are a number of fisherman's cottages which are built into the harbour walls. They face inwards with their gardens in quadrangles so that the people are sheltered from the weather coming in from the sea.

When this sit finished we had a few days before we had to be at our next sit in Oxford, so we took advantage of the lovely weather and made our way back down South via Inverness and the Highlands. We called in on Nessy on the way passed and enjoyed the scenery of the mountains and lochs. We had lunch in a lovely loch-side restaurant in Fort Augustus called The Boathouse which gave us views back up the loch where we had driven down.