S is for Surprises, Selfies, and Silliness

Welcome to the A to Z blogging challenge where for the month of April we post everyday except Sundays, corresponding to each letter of the alphabet. I've chosen to blog about keeping the romance alive in a relationship along with ideas for married couple dates. Each post will also have a romantic song for you to listen to whilst you read.

Today's song is by Savage Garden (fellow Australians) - I Knew I Loved You. The words are so beautiful.

There's just no rhyme or reason

only this sense of completion

and in your eyes

I see the missing pieces

I'm searching for

I think I found my way home

Surprises are a great way to keep romance alive, as they show you care enough to put a little effort into your relationship. They can be big or small things, it doesn't really matter as it's the thought that goes into it that counts.

It doesn't have to cost very much to surprise your special person, like the time I came home and found these maltesers laid out on the bed for me.

Or when I surprised my beloved with chocolate covered strawberries.

They can also be big things, like a weekend away where Ken had arranged for flowers, chocolate, and dinner to be delivered to our beautiful room - I felt very cherished.

When you're out exploring the world together it's good to have a picture of the two of you as a memory of these places, hence the reason we take selfies. Our selfies definitely aren't perfect, and they never feature the pouted lips like young people tend to do. Here's a few to show you what I mean.

Cairngorm Mountains viewpoint

Bamburgh Northumberland

The Lecht with Bramble Jelly

Sometimes the selfies include the silliness that we're so fond of. This is us dressed up for a Halloween party - I'm a witch and Ken is my puppy dog.

One of my favourite silly things is my beloved getting in children's rides to make me laugh.

Today's quote:

Pamela & Ken

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Previous A to Z posts:

2017 = Skye

2016 = statues

Exploring Glenfiddich Whisky Distillery

Today we finally, after two years of living in the Highlands, went and did a tour of a whisky distillery. We'd been to Glenfiddich distillery before, just to wander around the grounds and have coffee and cake in their cafe so that was the distillery we chose.

The tour took roughly an hour and a half and was very interesting. The statue shows the founder William Grant with his wife.

William Grant built the first buildings of the distillery in 1887 with his sons and daughters and the original building is where the cafe now lives.

We got to see all the different stages of the distilling process and the buildings are very warm and there is a very strong smell in the air, varying depending which part of the process is going on.

These barrels are huge, and some are recycled as houses at Findhorn Eco Village (Previous Blog Post).

This is just the top bit of the barrel, you will see the rest shortly.

A bubbling cauldron of whisky in the making.

This is when we went downstairs and you can see the rest of one of the barrels with our very informative tour guide beside it.

These are the stills that complete the process of making whisky before it is put into casks.

Whisky selfie - we weren't allowed to take photos once we were down amongst the stills.

At the end of the tour there was a whisky tasting of three different aged whiskys. Ken doesn't drink so we got a mini bottle to replace his tasting, and despite really hating the taste I thought I would give it a go and see if my taste buds had changed since the last time I tried it. My first memory of trying whisky was when I was a nurse in Tasmania, and an elderly gentleman who was in hospital for Christmas wanted to share a drink with me - thankfully I got to pour, so mine was mainly water, rather than whisky. How times have changed, as I don't think that would be allowed these days. Even though it tasted awful, I'm glad I did it as it made him smile.

The whiskys were 10, 12, and 15 year old malts.

Guess what - I still really hate the taste of Scotland's national drink.

This is a picture of William Grant, his wife and some of their children.

The stag is the emblem of Glenfiddich and the word in Gaelic means valley of the deer.

Each year the distillery hosts Artists in Residence and some of the art they create is dotted around the site, whilst others are hidden away in private rooms.

This is the great fireplace in the cafe - we had to go in and have a drink and a piece of cake to get the awful taste of the whisky out of my mouth.

I loved these door handles going into the shop - very intricate and tactile.

The shop sells all sorts of things apart from whisky, and they also have a section where you can bottle your own.

A tiny little Bramble Jelly sitting in front off the stag antlers made out of waste wood by one of the past artists in residence.

Family selfie - it only took a few attempts to get us all almost looking in the right direction.

We hope you've enjoyed this visit to a whisky distillery, and until next time, I'll leave you with this really interesting fact - there are over 20 million casks of whisky maturing across Scotland.

Pamela & Ken
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A Snowy Birthday in the Cairngorms

I recently celebrated a birthday and my beloved took me to the Mountain Cafe in Aviemore for their breakfast which we'd wanted to try for a while. Thankfully they serve breakfast until 11:30am which meant I didn't have to get out of bed too early - Aviemore is 53 miles away so with the snow and ice on the roads it took us just over an hour to get there.

The first order of business was a much needed latte as our milk had gone off at home so I was running on no caffeine which is never a good thing for the people around me.

It was lovely and warm in the cafe with the wood fire burning brightly. We were very lucky to get a table as soon as we arrived as the cafe is very popular. After we were seated people were having to wait quite a while and the staff give the waiting customers buzzers so that they know when the table is ready.

Ken had porridge with vanilla poached oranges, blackberry compote & toasted smashed hazelnuts which looked fabulous and I loved the bowl it was served in.

Whereas I had the very scrummy Tropical French Toast with chunks of eggy ciabatta with brown sugar, cinnamon & coconut baked pineapple, stewed raspberries, banana, pomegranate, a drizzle of syrup, crushed candied pecans & toasted coconut.

It was a perfect birthday breakfast especially as I had this gorgeous man sitting opposite me.

After our wonderful breakfast interlude we drove towards Cairngorm mountain to take Bramble Jelly for a walk in the snow - she loved it and kept trying to eat it.

Such a cutie and she was loving running through the snow covered undergrowth.

More posing in the snow - Ken said I was mean making her sit down in the cold, but as she was lying down in it by choice I thought it was okay.

 We then drove further up into the mountains and took a few photos of the beautiful landscape.

For the first time ever we were able to get a selfie with Bramble actually looking at the camera. Such a shame that we can't get one with both the furbies in the picture.

Our next stop as we came down from the mountains was at Loch Morlich which was frozen. It's the first time I've seen such a large expanse of water frozen, and it was amazing.

Ken standing on the loch - I was freaking out a little bit and telling him to stop and come back as I had visions of him falling through the ice.

When we got home, my choice of evening meal was fish and chips - a perfect meal to end my birthday celebrations with.

Until next time, be good, stay safe, and have a really lovely week.

Pamela & Ken

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