En Route in the car

Today I went for lunch with my best friend Laura.  It's the first day I've had to properly attempt to enjoy the weather we've been getting since the end of last week.  I think it's safe to say, we're both far too Scottish to enjoy this heat in real life.  I say "real life" because we'd discussed how it seems so much more bearable when you're on holiday, especially as it's often even hotter depending on where you go.  We supposed that not having a pool to lie around to dip into when you need to cool off is a massive issue, as well as our houses not having air conditioning...oh well, we'll have to grin and bear it because it doesn't seem like it's going to let up any time soon.

Any way, we headed out to Ardardan Estate, which is fairly local to us in terms of looking for somewhere with a good alfresco lunch.  I went for mac and cheese with salad, it's almost safe to say that 9 times out of 10 if I'm eating out and they have mac and cheese that's what I get.  Plus the one at Ardardan is amazing, although all the food is amazing because it's all freshly made with produce from the farm - double yum!  Laura got a massive baked potato with tuna and salad, I'm not a fish fan but it did look amazing.  They do amazing salad dressings, which genuinely makes me happy to eat salad (poppy seed being our flavour of choice) and I have managed to find their website, I'd highly recommend.  You can check them out here.  I bought my own in the farm along with some brie stuffed peppers, and gluten and wheat free granola. Unfortunately, true to form I didn't take a photo of the food.  I'm afraid that when someone sits a plate of food in front of me the thought of taking a photo goes straight from my mind.  I did however manage to remember to take a picture of my ice cream when it came (mint choc chip, it was delish!).

Stewart Tower Dairy, sourced to Ardardan from Perthshire.
Once our tummies were satisfied and we were starting to get a little too hot (the temperature was 24C - see photographic evidence) we decided to go and take a look at the Highland cows.  Now I don't know about you, but I think Highland cows are far more stylish than normal cows with those hairdos.  There were also little ones that had obviously been born in the spring...aww.


Hubert

We headed home and took Laura's dog Toby a walk down to the castle at the end of the street.  That looks a lot more impressive written down, but really it's just a big rock with some battlements from a squillion (actual accurate time scale) years ago.  It's a lot less impressive than the proper Scottish castles; such as Edinburgh or Stirling castle.  It's also not something you get excited about when it's been there all your life.  Anywhoo, it's on the water so it was a bit of a relief to get a bit of a breeze.  Scotland with no breeze (aka gale force winds) is not something I'm used to.  Once we were too hot, sticky, too tired to string a sentence together and a bit pink around the edges we headed home.  I went straight for a shower and have been sitting in the firing line of a desk fan since.  I'm so not cut out for this!  The gym should be an interesting experience tomorrow, as apparently this weather isn't going to let up any time soon...