Things didn’t go quite according to plan today. We booked the nearest car-club car this morning but it had a flat battery. We’ve been members of the car club for two years now and this is only the second time this has happened. Fortunately there was another car-club car nearby and so they switched our booking for us and we took that one instead. This is one the best things about the car club – all the maintenance and the inevitable mechanical issues that crop up are not our problem to sort out. We book a car on average about twice per month and it has been terrific. Very rarely is the car I want not available and even then there’s usually another one I can book instead.
We planned to have a picnic lunch at Pitmeddon Gardens which is about 18 miles north-west of Aberdeen. However when we got there we discovered it too had a flat battery (= closed) but fortunately there was another castle/stately home/garden just down the road: Haddo House. So we went there instead. It’s handy living in the most densely castled corner of the UK. I’m not sure why this is. Perhaps the Scots used to fight a lot?
I am an active travel person. I walk and cycle pretty much everywhere I want to go in Aberdeen and I do it by choice. Giving up the car was very liberating and I never want to own another, not unless it has pedals. When I get in a car-club car now I find it a bit confining. How can people sit there and not move their bodies for such long periods of time? I want pedals or something to keep myself physically active. It’s just not right to sit on our bums doing nothing. You might wonder how I survive with an IT job but I have a standing desk and I am permanently standing at it. I never sit down, not even at 6:30 in the morning when I start work. It makes no sense to me why people want to sit in cars in traffic when they could walk or cycle instead. Cars needs pedals to allow the occupants to get some exercise while they’re inside them. Who’s with me on this? I Tweeted my request to Elon Musk.
Anyway, I digress. Three paragraphs and still no photos of Haddo House and park. Here they are.
Picnic.
Lots of daffodils.
There’s a squirrel hide but we’ve never seen any red squirrels there.
We did see a bear though.
Elizabeth is like me and doesn’t like the heat. It got up to 17C today and she complained endlessly about being hot.
rachel.blog 
Lovely photos! It looks so clean and fresh up there.
I had to laugh at Elizabeth complaining of the heat – at 17C! 🙂
btw I find I am unable to comment on your post (and others) in the WP Reader. There is simply no comment box. Which is why I’m here at your blog, so no worries.
This is a recent occurrence and I don’t know if it’s just me, or WP. I’ve added a footnote to my post today to see if other bloggers are finding the same problem.