The Waverley comes to Gairloch

 The last sea going paddle steamer cruised into Gairloch yesterday from Kyle of Lochalsh.

 She normally cruises around the Clyde, southern Scotland & southern England

 She's been cruising the west coast for a week or so & doing trips around some of the islands.

 She docked at Gairloch before taking a tour of the loch itself.

What an end to a perfect day

 Easter Monday - sunny & bright, we took off to enjoy it, visited Attadale Gardens, drove over the bridge to Skye, chippy tea at Broadford & took the scenic way home to check out Duncraig garden centre (on the road to Plokton) to be visited at a later date.

 Didn't expect to see a llama around these parts so had to get out to see what was catching his interest.

Down below us was the sound of calling peacocks, which seemed to be the reason for his attention. What a handsome beast - love the dreadlocks. He has a fine view over Upper Loch torridon too.

Attadale Gardens

 Meconopsis, flowering early. These are a feature at our local Inverewe Gardens too.

 The DIY tearoom. What a lovely coffee stop, make your own & chuck the money in an honesty box!

Same goes for paying your entry fee (£4-50), just hand it to one of the gardeners on your way round. Highly recommended by ourselves, a beautiful situation, lots of different styles of garden, sculptures, water features & no-one's trying to sell you anything else, not too big either.

Attadale Gardens

 A beautiful location on the road to Skye, been meaning to visit for years but never got around to it until today. A sunny Easter Monday & both of us off work, had to do something different so off we went.

 One of the many sculptures around the garden.

 & another,

close up.

Attadale Gardens

 Beautiful bark of a Sequoia -Giant Redwood

 Wood anemones

 What the heck..........

One of the garden's many sculptures

Easter Monday trip to Attadale Gardens

 Attadale House on the road to Skye

 Andy checking the time at the giant sundial

 One of the sculptures with a bamboo background

Part of the Japanese Garden

Up in the hills

 Carole & Clive having a snowball fight

 Looking back to Stob Corrie an t-Sneachda

On the way up to Cairn Lochan

A walk up Cairngorm & beyond

 Just below the Ptarmigan restaurant where we had a very welcome coffee before the last ascent of Cairngorm mountain

 Lunch on the top

 A frozen lochan in the distance, beyond Glen Avon

Clive & Andy enjoying the snowfield

A walk up to Lurcher's crag, below Cairngorm

 Cairngorm mountain

 Approaching the Chalamaine Gap

 Atop Lurcher's crag

The last ski slope still open on Cairngorm

Nethy Bridge trip

 Tree Hugger

 Enterprising sheep outside our cottage window.

Wood ants.

Weather

 Low cloud this morning but it's mild up Flowerdale

 It's beginning to lift

Soon after, more is revealed. We're off to Nethy Bridge for a week so there will hopefully be some interesting pics when we return.

Odds & sods

 Chilli helping with the gorse removal

 Heron taking off from the ice pond

Moxy enjoying a swim