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| Oscar the cat on the bed this morning |
We’re one week through our three week stay at our lovely
housesit in Arbroath and we are absolutely loving it. The house is just
fabulous, Arbroath and surrounding areas brilliant and the two cats, Toby and
Oscar and dog Angus are an absolute delight. Angus in particular I have
absolutely fallen in love with, he is the most sweet natured dog I’ve come
across and we’re loving every moment with him and the others. We couldn’t have
found anywhere better. Colin and Louise, the house owners, if you are reading
this, we hope you’re having as great a time in Phoenix, Arizona as we are here!
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| RRS Discovery, Captain Scotts vessel |
Jackie has already spoken about the animals in her blog
entry and since then there have been many more enjoyable experiences with them
and the other wildlife nearby. The buzzards are still around in the trees and
in the garden, we can hear them calling most of the day and we often see them
sitting on the garden wall or in the trees looking out. Red squirrels we see
running through the trees and there are so many rabbits running around in the
garden and on the golf course through the garden gate along with lots of ducks
on the little lochan just out alongside the golf fairway, it’s an absolute
delight.
Not sure if Jackie mentioned the cinema room in the house or
not, but there is one here, a whole room devoted to it with a large screen,
projector and surround sound, it really does feel like we’re at the cinema!
There are many DVD’s for us to watch and, so far we’ve seen two, going in there
for the evening complete with a glass of wine and stopping halfway through for
an ice cream (can’t go to the cinema without an ice cream!), it’s brilliant!
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| This photo shows the thickness and types of wood used in the construction of RRS Discovery. 66cm total thickness! |
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| Dundee and the Tay from Dundee Law hill |
The only thing we haven’t done much of is walking and that’s
because of Jackie’s Achilles tendons which have been causing her a few problems
for quite a while now. We’ve walked 6 or 7km on relatively flat ground and we
went out for a bike ride together the other day, but each time she gets a lot
of pain from her ankles.
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| The WWII monument on Dundee Law |
Choosing less active outings we decided to drive into Dundee
earlier in the week to go and take a tour round the RRS Discovery (Captain
Scott’s ship that he went to the Antarctic to on his first trip) as it is
permanently there in a dry dock. See:
http://www.rrsdiscovery.com/index.php?pageID=129
On the way, in Dundee
we passed a Podiatrist and decided to go in and book an appointment for her.
She went back on Friday, was diagnosed as having Achilles tendinitis and now
has lots of stretching exercises to do to try and loosen it off. She is going
back on Monday week for a massage to loosen up her calf muscles and, as long as
she stretches before and after walking, she can build up safely to do longer
and longer walks. Good news, but perhaps she needs further consultations when
we’re back in Birmingham just to make sure before we head off to South America
in September.
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| Dundee and the Firth of Tay, looking out to the North Sea. The construction is an oil rig in for servicing. At the head of the darker peninsular of land on the left is Broughty Castle that we went to. Not visible in this photo (but we could see it through binoculars) is Bell Rock Lighthouse above Broughty Castle almost on the horizon, 11 miles out |
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| Broughty Castle looking back towards Dundee |
Anyway, back to the RRS Discovery visit, we spent over 2
hours there looking round the museum and touring the ship. It has had an
eventful history. It was one of the last, three masted, wooden hulled ships to
be built, in 1901 and was designed and constructed in Dundee specifically for
scientific research in the Antarctic. Dundee was chosen due to its experience
of building very strong whaling ships to operate in the frozen arctic waters
and wood was chosen because of its capability of resisting the huge compressive
forces on the hull when frozen in ice. Steel hulls are more likely to bend and
distort.
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| The drawbridge at Broughty Castle |
At the time the Antarctic was a relatively unknown continent
and Sir Clements Markham, president of the Royal Geographical Society conceived
the idea of scientific expedition to the area and appointed Scott to lead it.
Following that trip it had a chequered history including
having its engine and boilers ripped out during the Second World War as steel
was so scarce, it finally was bought and returned to its home port of Dundee
where it is today.
A very interesting day and we spent so long there that we
had no time left to see anything else of Dundee!
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| Dundee. See the road bridge over the Tay and, on the right Dundee Law hill |
However, we were due to come back on Friday for Jackie’s
foot appointment so we came a bit earlier to have another look round the city.
This time we went up to the top of Dundee Law, which is a hill in the city
centre that apparently is an old volcanic plug. The rest of the very old
volcano has worn away by ice ages, just leaving a hill which offers a great
view over the city.
From the top we could see the whole of the city, the river
Tay, the Firth of Tay (river mouth to the sea) and the headland out to St
Andrews and its famous golf course. We met a local couple at one of the
lookouts, had quite a long chat with them and they admitted that they had lived
there for well over twenty years and this was the first time they had been to
the top! Why is it that we all see things in far off places but never the
things on our doorstep?
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| The blue statue is an Oor Wullie. Over the summer Dundee council have located 55 of these round the city and you can download a map showing where they are and walk round to find them. We happened upon about 4 of them, this being one. |
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| The view from the balcony of the house |
Looking out to the Firth of Tay and the sea beyond, we could
see a peninsular of land stretching into the Tay with a small castle on it.
This is Broughty Castle, first built in 1454, but strengthened in 1846 due to
fears of possible Russian and French wars. It is in a very strategic position
at the entrance to the Tay for protection of Dundee, so we thought it worth a
visit.
Also just in view almost on the horizon (But not visible in
our photo due to the resolution) is the Bell Rock Lighthouse. It’s 11 miles out
and, in the photo it’s almost on the horizon beyond and above Broughty Castle
(but you can’t see it). Fortunately we had taken our binoculars and could just
pick it out in the sunshine. The Bell Rock Lighthouse is the world’s oldest
surviving sea washed lighthouse built between 1807 and 1810 by Robert Stevenson.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Rock_Lighthouse
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| Art? Seen on our walk today |
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| Oscar and Angus on our walk this evening |
Other things we’ve done is a 33km bike ride I did on my own
using one of Colin’s road bikes. The garage is full of bikes and he had said we
could use them if we want to but bear in mind they are very expensive, some of
them costing almost as much as a small family car! I didn’t take out the full
carbon fibre one as I was too scared, so instead took out one of the others,
probably still worth a small fortune! It was very easy to ride, but I still got
back pretty tired after 33km! Maybe I’ll try the full carbon fibre one next!
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| The two of them enjoying each others company |
Took Angus out for a 7.5km local walk today, which was
thoroughly enjoyable and certainly made him sleep this afternoon while I cooked
a cake (sultana cake) and then wrote this. Planning on more walks (don’t forget
your stretching Jackie), possibly venturing out to Glen Clova and other Glens
leading out towards the Cairngorms and the Highlands. Will Angus manage longer
walks or shall we leave him at home? More on that next time!
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| On the golf fairway together |
Anyway, the sun is still shining, Jackie’s taken Angus out
for a quick game of football and an early evening walk and dinner is not far
off. Better go and open the wine…..
Before posting this I have one more thing to add…I left this
for Jackie to read through and I took Angus out for his walk, Oscar the cat was
sitting outside in the sun and I stroked him as I went past, got to the gate
out onto the golf course and Oscar decided to join us. It’s the first time I’ve
taken a dog and a cat for a walk together and it was an absolute delight. They
were obviously enjoying each other’s company, staying together, sniffing things
together and touching noses every so often and following each other around,
each taking a turn to lead. For me it was hysterical and I couldn’t stop taking
photos. Proof that cats and dogs can get on and, more than that, be the best of
friends. For me it was a very special moment. Here’s some of my photos…
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| Angus the dog by the hedge and Oscar cat in the long grass |
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| Angus sniffing the grass alongside the fairway, Oscar cat not far behind |
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| Following each other on their walk together |
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| Where Angus leads Oscar follows |
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| Now its Oscar cats turn to lead and Angus dog follows |
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| Come on slowcoach! |
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| Trotting back together in the afternoon sunshine |
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| Nearly home. They left the house together and returned together! |
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