Twa Days Oot

Slow down! Week 2 of the summer holidays is almost over already...

 At the weekend we visited Linlithgow Palace, birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots.

 Fountain detail.

Stair wall graffiti.

A peek out the window to the setting of the main event later in the day.

Not a lot happening yet, there'll be jousting later...

In the meantime we explore more of the palace. It involves lots of spiral staircases which the children got a little fed up of, suprisingly. I was keen to reach the highest point - you can see it here, straight ahead. It's known as Queen Margaret's Bower and is said to be where Queen Margaret waited in vain for her husband King James IV to return from England - he was killed in the Battle of Flodden in 1513. To get to the bower
I have to go right back down the stair I'm on and climb another one.

 Made it!

 I keep away from the edge though, it does feel very high up and I worry about dropping my camera!

 View from the bower window.

 Back down to earth, there is some horsey action now happening if you look closely. We'd found a spot with a good view to have our picnic in, but as soon as the jousting started people stood up for a better view so we couldn't see anything at all and had to move further away, grrr.

We still enjoyed it though. The best bit was going round the stalls afterwards. The weapons guy was particularly good, but here's a photo of one of the food ladies - I like her collection of wooden bowls and pottery jugs.

A very impressive building. I'd like to go back another day without the crowds. We probably will as there are lots of places we want to visit near here that we've not been to yet, such as the Falkirk Wheel and the Kelpies.

The palace is right in the centre of Linlithgow and we had a quick wander round the town centre, I found a charity shop where I bought yet more pottery...

This little vase was £1.99

I also got the pot on the left, I liked the bird and the wildflowers, not so keen on the bunnies but for 99p I didn't really mind. I still visit charity shops when I get the chance but it's a bit hit and miss these days. Over the past few months I found some other nice pottery items though - the bowl (I think was £2); the other 2 items were together in the same shop where the volunteers obviously don't think much of them as they were 25p and 20p - bargain!

Also in the same shop was this handblown glass bauble, mine for 10p. It now hangs at the kitchen window.

We've been having a run of lovely weather - warm and sunny. Yesterday we visited a farm park with some friends.

 It was hot!