Still enjoying the novelty of not having the Smalls about, I went for a walk all by myself and discovered a bit of woodland I have never been in before not too far from my house!

Still loving this lack of small people thing…

Caius and I headed off to Edinburgh this evening – Caius headed to his office for a few days and me headed for adventures and discovery.

I had a busy day today and visited the National Museum of Scotland, National Library of Scotland and then wandered round Edinburgh visiting Greyfriars Bobby and the Castle on my meandering. And also visiting Primark and Lush, because I can never resist the lure…

Today was completely stunning. In the morning I visited National Gallery of Scotland (in a vain attempt to be cultured – it was mostly lost on me aside from a rather fine portrait of a dog called Callum) and then in the afternoon I simply lay in the park you can see there at the foot of the Castle and read my book, watched a tiny pug puppy chase leaves and dozed in the sunshine.

I spent most of today at Edinburgh Zoo which was brilliant. A fantastic day but I must have walked for miles and it’s on a very big hill!! As I left the heavens opened so I bolted back to the hotel and spent the rest of the day reading, watching naff TV and cross-stitching.

We drove home today and on the way we stopped off at my favourite of all bookshops for lunch and a quick leg stretch, Barter’s Books in Alnwick. Another perk of the drive was XH588 (the Vulcan) flying over as we pulled into Tesco carpark in Leeds for a loo break!