Melissa, Andy and the kids' Blog

Goodbye to Iain, Sarah will be guiding us through the day. Iain is the proudest, kindest and only Scot I know. He loves his country and with Melissa being a direct descendant of Robert the Bruce we are now good friends.   One of our very first stops in the country drive was... a vintage tractor plowing competition. I thought it was pretty neat. Then it was time for me to give driving on the opposite side of the road and car a try. Cousin Sarah was kind enough to let me practice in her Range Rover. Beautiful thatch roof home Seen better days? I wonder if it still works? One of many ancient and confusing stone groupings in Britain. Less famous than Stone Henge... but you can actually walk around and touch the stones.  Completing the circle of stones through our bodies. We haven't figured out what magical powers it gave us, but we're bound to discover something soon. It is a large site. I touched every stone in the circ...

My cousin Sarah loves horses.  She rides and jumps and fox hunts. She has a horse and donkey at the house (neither is trained for riding yet), but her riding horse lives at a nearby stable. Bonnie is in her late teens/early twenties and has a great attitude.  With Melissa having taken riding lessens recently at home, she couldn't pass up a chance to add another continent to her list of places she has ridden.   Cousin Sarah and Auntie Mon underestimated Melissa's long legs and had to let the stirrups out quite a bit. Sarah showing us how it is done. I actually learned to ride on an English saddle, but even with my experience... I still prefer the comfort of a Western saddle. This old pony just wanders the stable yard, he doesn't have a specific home stall. He wanders between stalls and buddies up with whomever has the tastiest food. After riding we went back to the house for the afternoon. Melissa and I decided to walk to the end of...