This weekend away, I drove our guests to visit Falkland Palace in The Kingdom of Fife, about 20 miles away from St Andrews, so the perfect day trip.

A favourite place of Mary Queen of Scots, Falkland Palace is now run by The National Trust who are doing a very good job, though they don’t let you take any photos of the interior, which is great pity.

The interiors were magical.  The chapel had its own peaceful serene quality like nowhere I have ever been in but it was the gardens that captured our hearts.

We wandered everywhere and this is where I discovered Daisy’s new talent…..

She is quite good at taking photos with my third best camera (second best is in Germany having a hair removed from the lens)……

Especially butterflies….

I, on the other hand, am barely average at taking photos of butterflies and am also very jealous.  Butterflies are fairly rare up in Shetland or, if they live here, I don’t notice them or capture them on film so to see them fluttering about on flowers and shrubs that are not constantly moving in the wind, is very rare and special.  Daisy and I were both captivated.

We wandered about the gardens trying to out-do each other finding various plants to photograph.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and probably one of my best days ever.   This is my idea of happiness.

In the late afternoon, we met up and sat on the garden benches chatting to each other.  The smell of the rosa ragusa bushes were intoxicating.

We even saw a mouse who we named Ludwig as we misheard our German friends chatting and thought they had named him!

So, now I am considering whether to get Daisy a good camera of her own for her 21st birthday or would it be a waste?  Dammit, this is a fabulous photograph.  She is very talented.

not jealous, not jealous, not jealous, not jealous …..