Menondering; Then The Relos

Dad's side of the family are all in the north. Alness, to be exact. After leaving Dornoch, I spent a night at Tain, by the shore, then mosied the 20 minutes south of there to get to my Uncle's place. In my precis piece a couple of weeks back, I mentioned that Aunty Mary had been in hospital almost the whole time since my last visit to them in March. She had gone to have one thing investigated, and it led to another and a rapid response to treatment and holding her in hospital. It was at Raigmore in Inverness for a long time, but the past few weeks have been closer to home, at the Invergordon Community Hospital. She has cancer in the spine. Suffice it to say she is a shadow to her former self and not in the best of fettles often. 

I stayed in The Grey and only used the bathroom facilities to minimise the impact on Uncle J. I prepared almost all the meals whilst there—mainly in the van but a couple in their kitchen. The weather was mostly kind to us, so much time was spent in the garden, which was good. I had some adjustments to make to the shelving under the hob (shifting the Aferiy battery up a level), and he was delighted when asked if he had some angle brackets with which to anchor the thing and not have it skiting all over the place when we were moving. He observed as I sorted it out and nodded approval! The afternoons and evenings were taken up with visiting Aunty. 

On Monday, June 24th, though, I collected my cousin's wife, Fiona, and their dog, Gabby, and we had a gal's day out. We headed up to Portmahomack. It was another glorious 27-degree day—truly, when this Bonny Land turns on the summer, few places can beat it!

The tide was in, so the beach was at its narrowest - not that this bothered Gabby, for she headed straight into the water. It could not be close enough for her! After she had dunked a few times, we wandered along to the harbour end to look at the ancient storehouses.

Then, back to the van and up the hill to visit the Tarbat Discovery Centre. This is another excellent little museum and gift shop. Portmahomack itself was established about 800 years ago, but there was a religious settlement first, and before that, there was an Iron Age and Viking residence right at this site. Some amazingly beautiful artefacts (referred to as the Viking Haul), which had been excavated from around the monastery in the 19th century, were displayed. Lots of Celtic carved stones, of course.

It was a full day, and by the time I dropped Fiona and Gabby back home, it was time to scoot through town to make Uncle's tea!

I stayed until the 26th, then I had to turn eastward for the next part of my journey...