Old Cars & Coffee in a National Park

Today was a lazy day out with the purpose of picking up our lovely painted plates from last weekends day of fun (Coffee & Creativity) which I'll show you later in the post. It's a really lovely drive to Grantown as it sits in the Cairngorms national park.

We went back to the cafe we discovered last week, The High Street Merchant Cafe and had a lovely lunch and of course an even lovelier latte.

The farmers market was on which was a lovely surprise, and there were some wonderful stalls including one with knitted hats. The Shivering Sheep Beanies lady had some lovely hats and amazingly she can knit two a day!! I bought a lovely tassled baggy beanie in, surprise, surprise, purple wool.

This van amused us because of what is written below the business information; 'Listen oot for the Toot Toot!'

Unsurprisingly Ken managed to find a couple of cars to look at - total projects. When we win the lottery we'll have to have at least a four car garage and a shed for him to store his projects in - he does love to tinker. These two are staying where we found them.

On the way home we stopped for a little wander at a scenic spot and I loved this old fence post that is all by itself in the middle of the woods - it's rustiness appealed to me.

Selfie of the two of us in the woods.

We found some very interesting fungi in amongst the trees - I tried to find out what sort they were for you, but couldn't decide which ones they were from the fungi identification website.

View across the moor on the way home - beautiful big sky.

This is a rock that we drive past every time we come back from Grantown, and it's always interesting to see what is painted on it. For months when we first moved up to the highlands, this is what was on it, but every now and then someone will paint something else on it. We've seen birthday wishes to people and declarations of love, but then Jesus Saves reappears after a while.

Now to reveal our plates after they've been glazed. First Ken's beautiful plate and then my bowl.

A short day out but still interesting things to be found. Until next time, be good, stay safe, and have a fabulous week.

Pamela & Ken
xxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S: This week I bought Princess Cookie Cat a new bed as I thought as she ages she might like something a bit softer. Usually when we've bought beds for the brats in the past it usually takes them a day or so to really like them. Not this time, Cookie has hardly left her new bed she loves it so much.

Coffee & Creativity in Grantown on Spey

Sometimes we need to have a day that is all about fun and self care - our solution, to go and do something creative. We headed to Grantown on Spey and of course before we could do anything else we had to have a coffee and cake break at the lovely Elephants in the Pantry. It's such a nice shop with lots of lovely food related things to buy, and coffee served in beautiful cups.

The reason we chose Grantown is that they have a ceramic painting studio called Smarty Art where we could spend some time getting lost in painting.

The staff are so helpful and on the wall are these great ceramic paint splatters to help you see what the colours you choose will look like once they are glazed and fired in the kiln.

As you can see from above, there was a huge selection of colours and each table had a carousel of paints on it like this one with different sized brushes.

Here's my beloved getting very engrossed in his painting and then showing off his pretty plate - if you're wondering why he's so red in the face it's because he's got a thermal top on and the studio was lovely and warm.

I can't wait to see what our creations look like once they're glazed and fired - we pick them up next weekend. Here's what they looked like once we'd finished painting them.

One of the ladies that run the studio said that she was really impressed that we'd come in as most adults think it's just for children, and we were the only table without children at it. I'm hoping they get Christmas themed things in to paint soon as I'd love to do some personal decorations.

We spent nearly two hours doing our creative bit so when we finished it was time to go for another coffee, this time in a cafe we hadn't tried before and it was really lovely. Great decor and perfect ambience to enjoy our drinks and some icecream.

The two of us - love this man so much (sorry, I couldn't help myself).

So there you have our creative day out. Have you ever tried ceramic painting? If not, give it a go some time as it's really therapeutic.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and do something creative this week.

Pamela & Ken
xxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S: This is how Cookie Cat often sits in the evening - on her bed with her back to the room, staring at the wall. I suggested to Ken that maybe we should get a picture to put on the wall of some fish so that she has something interesting to look at.

Cars Galore at Grantown on Spey's Motormania

Last weekend was a visit to Thunder in the Glens and the enjoyment of Harley Davidsons. This weekend it was vehicles of the four wheeled variety at Grantown on Spey Motormania. Thankfully it was a lovely day so we headed out and of course we stopped at a coffeeshop on the way - the Dava Schoolhouse where they have a Cairngorm Leaf and Bean cafe with speciality coffees and scrummy cakes.

Ken had Russian Earl Grey and there were very interesting things floating around in the tea mix.

For Motormania they shut down the town of Grantown with the cars lining the main street through the town. It was crazy busy this year with loads of cars for my beloved to enjoy and people enjoying the atmosphere. To get from the carpark (in a paddock) to the main street you can walk, or you can take a journey on a vintage Macbraynes bus - of course we took the bus so that we can tell Ken's bus mad brother that we were on one of his favourite buses.

 The day is a mixture of vintage and the more modern cars - here's a selection of cars that caught my attention (the mini because of the awful colour it is).

Amongst all the cars there was also a few campervans with this one being the nicest - I could just picture the two of us heading off for a weekend in this.

I have been reliably informed by my motor expert (Ken) that the below car is a Subaru, but what is most important is that the engine has been accessorised with pink!! Plus there are also parts that have been covered with day of the dead artwork - it's so fabulous.

Continuing on the pink/purple theme, here is a lovely Morris Minor in lilac.

And then there was this escort with the engine accessorised in purple.

Another selection of the cars that were there - my favourite of these was the little red bubble car whilst Ken's was the one in the top righthand corner (I don't know what it is, just that it's old).

Lots of dogs had been dragged out into the mayhem (we left Bramble Jelly at home) and there were all shapes and sizes. One of the stalls was for Husky Rescue and it was lovely meeting the Huskies - this one had the most beautiful blue eyes. The Golden Retriever was on the back of one of the trucks and looked like he'd be lovely to cuddle.

Interesting sticker on one of the old cars - I've always thought my beloved had a strange obsession with vintage cars so maybe this explains it.

This a Trabant, a car manufactured in East Germany and another of Ken's favourites - the photo below this one is Ken sitting in one when we were in Budapest a few years ago.

After that very old car that is probably held together with gaffa tape, here's a couple of very modern creations - the first one looks like something out of a science fiction film.

Part way down the street we made a slight detour to Inverallan Church which is set back behind the main street. It's a beautiful church and I really loved the window as sometimes seeing nature through the glass is just as lovely as stained glass. It reminds me of an episode of the Vicar of Dibley where their church window was broken in a storm and in the end they replaced it with plain glass.

Amongst all the cars there were also a few motorbikes, both vintage and modern. This bike and sidecar look like they should be travelling across a desert somewhere on some huge adventure.

This is a vintage AA Road Assist bike and sidecar with all the bits in the sidecar that were needed to help broken down cars.

Very sleek bike with a beautiful paint job - if you look closely you can see a horse painted on the fuel tank.

 My beloved drooling over a Ford Anglia (at this point he's rattling off more details about the car but it all sounds like a foreign language to me).

This was the entertainment area that had several different bands/choirs throughout the day - this was a jazz band.

Two of the trucks that were there - Ken would like the blue one and I can see it's benefits, we could drive off somewhere romantic and sleep in the back under the stars.

I'm going to say that this is a Citroen 2CV and check with Ken when he comes back in the room (he's back and I was correct which is slightly worrying as I'm obviously absorbing car information by osmosis).

On the backseat was this beautiful greyhound - I'd spotted her earlier in the day and she is grace personified. Before you worry about her, the roof on the car was open so she wouldn't get too hot and she was sound asleep until I started talking to her.

One of the only negatives of going to a vintage car festival is that if you leave too late in the day you are bound to get stuck behind a car that can only go about 30 miles an hour (please ignore our dirty windscreen).

Hope you've enjoyed this visit to Motormania and if you're a petrol head then it's definitely worth a visit.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and do something nice for yourself this week.

Pamela & Ken
xxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S: Recent pictures of the brats as they haven't featured in our posts lately.