Thursday 8 March 2012

A Scottish Castle Birthday...


I've had the most fabulous week and so I wanted to share it with you. You see, it was my birthday yesterday - and no, I'm not going to tell you which one - but I was spoilt rotton by my lovely friends at a dinner party last Saturday. We had lots of laughs, plenty of food, and the wine and whisky flowed freely. Sunday, as you can imagine, was a quiet day in comparison. Then, as if that wasn't enough, the lovely Mr JH whisked me away for the evening of my actual birthday - yesterday - to a Scottish Castle. It was so lovely that it could have come straight out of one of my own romance novels!

Barony Castle near Peebles in the Scottish Borders
Until we arrived at Barony Castle, I hadn't known which Scottish castle we were going to be staying at - as the lovely Mr JH had managed to keep our actual destination a secret from me. But our friends all knew, of course, and had naughtily suggested that I might just be staying over the hill from our cottage - at the ruined Morton Castle - in a tent (shudder) and for all I knew they could have been right!

The ruins of Morton Castle near Thornhill Dumfriesshire

To my relief, we set off yesterday morning with our overnight bags and headed north, and the sun was shining as we headed for Edinburgh and I presumed - quite wrongly as it turned out - The Highlands. Soon however, we were driving through a blizzard of sideways snow and then we got rain and hailstones before the sunshine returned again. They do say, if you don't like the weather in Scotland you should just wait a minute and it will change!

On the way to my suprise birthday castle, we stopped off at a fabulous restaurant in Eddleston, just outside Peebles, called The Horseshoe Inn for lunch. The setting and the food here really is outstanding - a real fine dining experience - and we got a warm welcome from owner Mr Alahakoon.

Then, on my return home today, I discovered dozens of birthday greetings on my Facebook page and a 'Sunshine Award' from my lovely friend Rosemary Gemmell who blogs over at Reading and Writing blog. I really do have lovely friends and I so appreciate all your messages.


To finish off what has been an amazing week, I was excited and delighted to received a FIVE out of FIVE STAR review from Carol at Dizzy C's Little Book Blog for my latest novel 'Reaching for the Stars'. You can read Carol's review by clicking the link below:


So, it's been a great week and with birthdays like this I really don't mind getting a year older!
Until next week...
Love, Janice xx