Do Not Snurgle the Painted Hunting Dogs.

So, on the 2nd, we went to the zoo.

Painted Hunting Dogs are very dangerous. If you drop anything into the enclosure, staff will not go and get it for you. Do not lean over the fence. Do not climb into the enclosure. Do not skritch the Painted Hunting Dogs. Do not try to snurgle their fluffy tummies. Do not wuzz their soft ears. They will eat you.

Zeph looks thoughtful here - somewhat like an academic gesturing with his pipe whilst expounding on a theory. Or maybe I'm mad.

Stop. Lunchtime!

Penguins with chick.

Swimming penguin.

Bendy-necked penguins.

Nettie with penguins (one of them may be the famous Nils Olav. Not Nettie, though. She's Nettie. Also, she's the one who's wearing trousers, in case anyone was in doubt).

Rockhopper penguin.

Snuggly rhinos.

Odd wee sculpture things.



Piss-drinking pigs (with baby piss-drinking pigs)! (No piss-drinking occurred this visit, thankfully.)

Actually, there were quite a lot of young animals at the zoo this time around. Observe:
1)

2)

3)

Awww, the sleepy tiger!

Herd!


These ravens allegedly solve puzzles.

Rowenna, Nettie and I had a go on a raised assault course thing. I, being scared of heights, was pretty nervous.


Nettie's hand is not as big as a sun bear's paw.


Potoroos!

Matt, as ever, is king of the jungle.

Rounding off the day with a bit of inappropriate touching of a giant stuffed penguin. Good times!

Aussies in Linlithgow (Or: How Nettie Got to Visit a Real Castle).

Since Cawdor Castle was so incredibly rubbish, we took Nettie and Christian to see Linlithgow Palace, which is more castley than Cawdor could ever be.

A boat on the canal.

We went for lunch at my parents' house, and were all instantly smitten with Belle, my brother's puppy. We tried to swap her for Zeph...


LOVE this picture. It's the expression on Zeph's face that makes it for me.

And then we headed down to the Palace.


You know, I'm sure the upper of the two faces on the fountain was something from Labyrinth. Or the Muppet Show.



The Peel and the Loch.

Matt in the fireplace of the Great Hall.


A lot of the Palace is no longer roofed.


There are still lots of stairs, though.

Ok, yes, we did spend quite a lot of time in fireplaces.

A face?



I was hiding in yet another fireplace, spying on the others, to take this one...

I love how the window acts as two frames - one with the 'picture' of sky, and the other with the 'picture' of hills.

Most of us went up Queen Margaret's Bower, which is the highest point of the Palace. It was very very scary, but there were some awesome views! It was ominously cloudy, which really gave us some dramatic contrast.

The spire of St Michael's church is allegedly supposed to look like a crown of thorns. I'm not convinced.



After being all that way up, we visited one of the cellars.


Nettie is a bat.

Kind of like the Brady Bunch. A bit.

Matt, tired after all the stair climbing.



Be still my heart...

And then we went for cakes and a sit-down, before setting off back to Edinburgh. The End.