Dull but definitely not boring

As part of my prize weekend, we also got taken on an off-road landrover safari in the Perthshire hills. It was fantastic! The guide was excellent - really very knowledgeable about pretty much every aspect: the wildlife, landscape, local industry and local history.

It was a beautiful day, though cold, and the views of the surrounding hills were really clear. Schiehallion really stood out, but we had great, clear views in every direction.

Highland Safaris provided binoculars and had a spotting scope too, which made all the difference to being able to get great close-up views of the wildlife.

We were lucky enough to see the red deer rut. You could hear the roar of the stage from a fair distance away, and we saw several large groups of deer and 3 stags. We didn't witness any real fighting though, as one of the stags seemed to see off another by just taking a few steps towards it.

We also saw several mountain hares, just starting to get their winter coats.

Our lunch was provided as part of the prize too, and we had it up in the hills in a small sort of bothy/hut. Lunch was excellent - hot soup, sandwiches, biscuits, fruit, crisps and a wee dram to wash it down with and give us some central heating, which was much appreciated as it was cold to be standing still outside for long periods watching the wildlife, and even when we were driving we had all of the windows open to make wildlife spotting and photography easier.

When we got back to the safari centre, we would happily have spent time looking around as they had a small deer herd, wildlife garden, cafe, gift shop and more, but we had to head off as it was already almost 5pm and we still had a long drive home.

Several hours driving in the dark on narrow, potentially icy roads was well worth it though to have spent such a nice weekend in Perthshire. Roll on the next one!

Prize weekend

I was lucky enough to win a weekend in Perthshire in a magazine competition, and we had a lovely weekend in Pitlochry in the autumn.

The B&B was fantastic and we definitely plan to stay there again - great rooms, friendly hosts and a fantastic breakfast.

The conservatory and garden were beautiful too and, although it was the end of October, the weather was nice enough to sit outside for a while after breakfast.

 

 The view from our room was looking down towards the forest, with the trees all starting to change colour, just beautiful.

 

We spent a relaxing day meandering around, nice and restful and just what was needed as I'd just been given notice to quit my flat at very short notice and was worrying about becoming homeless!

 

 

Loch Faskally

 Pitlochry Dam and Fish Ladder

 

 

Queen's View, Loch Tummel

 

 

The autumn colours everywhere were beautiful, and we would be seeing more of them the next day too...



Autumn colours

Yes, I know it's totally the wrong time of year for this, but I've been sorting out some photos I took in the October holidays.

I had a lovely trip "sooth" to visit family & friends, and also spent a few days just touring about taking in the scenery.

Killin

Red squirrel, Speyside

I had a very cold night camping at Grandtully!

Slalom kayakers, Grandtully

It was a great holiday, and makes me realise (yet again) just how many stunningly beautiful parts of Scotland there are. Maybe when I'm living on the mainland I'll have more opportunities for weekend trips to explore more.

Autumn theme

We had great fun today with our autumn theme. The sensory bag of clothes went down well, with many of the children challenging each other to guess what was in the bag without looking - "Close your eyes, put your hand in the bag" and then discussing what weather you would wear it in. And the autumn box was good for using other senses - looking, touching and smelling. There was lots of investigating the objects, comparing them - and scrunching the leaves!

We got our display up - that's the result of the past 2 days work on collage and handprint leaves. I'm pleased with how bright and colourful it is - with lots of lovely autumn colours. I'm especially pleased with it as I'm definitely not artistic and creative - so this was a big challenge for me. I'm just hoping that the children like it when they see it up tomorrow - I was there till 5pm putting it up!


I did the story today as well - a rhyming one (Monkey Puzzle) which the children listened too well and also joined in with well, and we also used the rhyming tubs which are a great thing.

We're making rainsticks over the next 2 days - so we'll have to sing something about the rain so we can use them as percussion.

It's raining, it's pouring ...

Well today it rained, and it rained, and it rained ... until the playground was so flooded that the parents couldn't get to the nursery door!

It's been a very busy day - I've worked with almost 40 children (in ones and twos) on handprint leaves, and we also talked about autumn trees, conkers, etc - and opened a huge bag full of conkers which Clair & I collected at the weekend. Great fun was had by all - and the wonder displayed by some of the children who hadn't ever opened conkers before was just great to see.

I was also using the hidden pictures in the sand today - I was initially a bit disappointed because nobody seemed to find them - or if they did, they just ignored them as too boring to be worthy of mention. Then suddenly someone shouted out that they had found a picture - and immediately another 2 children were searching in the sand to see what they could find. They started showing me pictures, telling me what weather they were showing, and counting them - perfect :-)

I did together time at the end of each session too (no wonder I'm tired now!) and it went well too - and we sang a very appropriate song: It's raining, it's pouring ...

Now off to read Monkey Puzzle as I'm doing story time tomorrow as well as introducing the autumn display table, autumn box and sensory bag - oh, and continuing work on my autumn wall display of course! I think it'll be another busy day ...