Day 19,

up early and we were away,

 going across the Queensferry Crossing bridge, we were traveling to Meikleour, it is a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland, about four miles south of Blairgowrie, and we were going there to see the oldest friends that I know, Peter and Wendy Thomson, Steve very kindly dropped us off in the morning, 

 so it was time for Diana to make friends with Rosie,

Diana was a little unsure at first, 

 but with Peters encouragement, 

 Diana and Rosie soon became friends,

 and it was soon smiles all round,

and here is something really nice, a open fire, I should say that Peter and myself first meet in the mid 1960's, my Mum and Dad were having some building work done in their home and Peter was one of the builders, we were similar in age and interests, that is cars and we hit it of as friends and have been so ever since, we were chatting about cars when I mentioned that I used to have a Austin 7 sports,

 and dug up these pictures of it,

the pictures were taken at the 750 Motor Club Festival in August 2010 at Silverstone, 

so at least it was still around 8 years ago! notice the number plate VGP 750 = Very Good Performance 750 (the c.c. of the engine), then I had a huge motorcycle accident, so it had to go,

 well Peter mentioned that he too had a Austin 7 racer in one of his garages, and here it is, and if you can see it a sporty number it is,

 one of the many adventures we had was when I broke my right leg in a motorcycle accident, I was in a plaster cast for nearly a year, lots of complications, but anyway one of us had the idea to jump into Peters 2.4 Jaguar and drive to Devon, which we did some time in the late 1970's, and here is the very Jaguar we did it in,

 and speaking of Jaguars here is one that Peter has in another of his garages, which many will never of heard of, the Grocott Jaguar, a very eccentric-looking drophead coupe, based on Jaguar Mk VII M, made by Byatts of Fenton, 

 a Jaguar dealer, one of their leaflets above dated October 1958, they made the car for Stoke-on-Trent surgeon John Grocott who designed the car in 1953 and it was finally road-registered in 1959, the reason for the delay was that having fabricated panels for the body of the car Dr. Grocott would then make a number of changes to almost each and every panel,

 time for lunch,

 so we took a walk through the village,

 copper beech hedges are famous around here, as an aside the Meikleour Beech Hedge, is the biggest and longest in the world,

 and this is where we are going for lunch, 

 the Meikleour Arms with Peter and Wendy, 

 Diana made friends with one of the sheep,

 and even fed it,

 and here we all are, 

 'Cheers!', 

 having finished our excellent main courses it was on to desserts,

 along with cheese and biscuits, after our coffees, 

 we walked back to Peter and Wendy's home when we went past this tron, 

 the tron, to which jougs are still attached, stands in what most probably was the old centre of Meikleour, T Hunter in 1883 wrote, 'The tron is a rusticated obelisk with a hole near its pointed top, surmounted by a tall spike with a weather vane. The jougs are attached to its S face' in case you are wondering, ne'er-do-wells were attached to the tron as punishment of crimes committed locally,

 arriving back Peter and myself continued regaling each other with long forgotten stories of our mostly misspent youth,

 and indulged in one of our favorite hobbies at the time, which neither of us has given up!

 Rosie not sure about the camera, 

 but no problems now with Diana, 

 Rosie is so friendly, 

 when Steve and Kai arrived all she wanted to do was have a fuss made of her, 

 I was lost in thought with so many memories flooding back, then it was alas time to say our goodbyes, what a stunningly enjoyable day, 

 for the evening Steve had made reservations at the Bridge of Cally Hotel,

 which is fairly near to the ski slopes,

 inside the rooms were nicely laid out,

 with bay windows and arm chairs for a nice view and read,

the dinning room,

  on to our evening meal,

salmon seemed to be the favorite for starters,  

 but there were also mussels,  

 beef rib,

 and chicken cordon bleu,

and here we all are, after a few nightcaps we were all off to bed.