Jill’s Travel Adventures

After a full punting excursion we drove about an hour back home, unpacked the car and you guessed it… it was time for high tea!  I love this! Shortly after tea it is happy hour and we decided at that point the best way to see Glastonbury is watching it live on Cleo’s cell phone in Cleo and Antos garden enjoying a gin and tonic. After a nice light dinner we retired to their living room to watch Elton John’s last performance in the UK -he was the last act at Glastonbury.  Cleo and I are both huge fans so we were crying and then laughing and a bit of dancing and better drink some water and more wine.  The whole time Jemima was sending us video clips and photos as she was actually in the crowd at Glastonbury.  What a fun way to end an absolutely wonderful visit.   A view at breakfast into the back garden - so lovely. Both Cleo and I were in tears again at the underground station saying goodbye.  I think we must inherit the cry-easy gene from Gramma Beryl, our i...

 Oh my gosh what a fun day this was!  Cleo and Anto packed up a beautiful picnic lunch w all sorts of refreshment choices lol and off we went to rent our boat near Oxford.  The boat rental spot right beside the Dragon prep school. We weren’t on the water for 30 minutes when we arrived at this nice pub …it would have been silly not to stop for a pint of sommerset cider! Ok as we left Victoria Arms Anto thought it would be nice to give me a go at being captain - bad decision 😂. I collided w 3 boats at least - one of them I broadsided and turned them right around- and we also hit the bushes at least twice.  This is much more difficult than it looks!  Quite a serious face I had on😂.  Anto kindly took over as captain again within a very long 15 minutes…and I was all back to smiles and relaxation again see below. Pickle just loves punting and bites at the water every chance he gets. We stopped for a picnic  and enjoyed a lovely lunch and a choice of wine, ...

 I arrived in London last night and made my way to Stamford Brook station where Cleo collected me to take me to their home on Rylett Road.  So lovely to see her!  It has been 16 years since Cleo, Anto and the girls visited us in Canada. We will absolutely not let that happen again.  Serena is 24 this year and Jemima is 25.  Serena just dropped in for a visit and she is so absolutely stunning and full of fun and energy.  Unfortunately (not for her), Jemima is at Glastonbury Festival this weekend so I will miss her but from her instagram posts - she’s having a ball…it looks to me like Merritt Mountain Music festival on steroids. Katie and Tom joined us for dinner here last night and it was so lovely to meet Tom and for Cleo and Anto to meet them both.  Unfortunately I was way too relaxed and enjoying the evening and my phone was in my room and so I missed taking a photo. Serena and I and Cleo. Serena after working all week took on a very lucrative nanny ...

 The week here has just flown by.  Tues boys went golfing and we took dogs for a hike, read a bit, worked a bit and that was our day….lovely slow pace. In the morning Shane gave me some intro casting and line trying instruction on the front lawn.  My casting has a long way to go but I’m looking fwd to getting on the river.  Shane was pleased as we had a good hard rain today to bring water up in river.  Wed we visited the falls just upstream from Kroick and then after lunch Shane took Max and I fly fishing until 830 pm.  (It actually is quite addictive…I was surprised 😮) My first Atlantic salmon caught on a fly - we put it back in just above the falls.  Just a young one so Shane thought it was a sea trout at first until we netted it. A view from above the falls. The pool below Max is where I caught mine and Max caught a sea trout and hooked a larger salmon but it got off before the net.  Shane caught a nice Salmon from his hole at about 8:15 this ...

 We toured Melanie and Shane’s new property shortly after arrival.  It is a beautifully wooded pasture land near the town of Tain and alongside the river Carron, which of course is one of Shane’s fav fishing rivers.  There are 4 other rivers within 4 miles of here that Shane loves to fish on: the Oykel, the Cassely, the Shin, and the Evelix. Last night Shane gave me some casting theory 101 in the living room by the fire…hopefully I can turn this theory into practice very soon. It rained on and off today, June 19 so we decided to go scotch tasting…great decision.  We then walked to the neighbors for pre-dinner drinks.  I clocked a total of 2.5 km today and it was entirely from walking around the distilleries and then over to the neighbors for drinks.  Tomorrow I must go for an actual hike lol. The above photos and video are on their new property. Morning at Croick A slow paced rainy morning at Croick Manse. The movie was shot at this distillery. The above ph...