Royal Highland Show

Had the day out at the Highland Show. It was a bit of a laugh but I'm not sure how much Ciaran enjoyed it.
There was arts and crafts, livestock, live haggis, a trade show of mostly Scottish food producers, machinery and tools, tree climbing, and the competition entries for the Young Farmers competition.
This is a photo of a domesticated haggis. Naturally its much larger than the wild haggis found in the Highlands. For those people who don't know what a haggis is:
Wild haggis (Haggis scoticus) is a fictional creature said to be native to the Scottish Highlands.It is comically claimed to be the source of haggis, a traditional Scottish dish that is in fact made from the innards of sheep (including heart, lungs, and liver). According to some sources, the wild haggis's left and right legs are of different lengths (cf. Sidehill gouger or Dahu), allowing it to run quickly around the steep mountains and hillsides which make up its natural habitat, but only in one direction. It is further claimed that there are two varieties of haggis, one with longer left legs and the other with longer right legs. The former variety can run clockwise around a mountain (as seen from above) while the latter can run anticlockwise.The two varieties coexist peacefully but are unable to interbreed in the wild because in order for the male of one variety to mate with a female of the other, he must turn to face in the same direction as his intended mate, causing him to lose his balance before he can mount her. As a result of this difficulty, differences in leg length among the haggis population are accentuated. from Wikipedia

This is a Highland cow and calf. They come is a variety of colours though this brown seems to be the most common. For some reason this image is particularly associated with toffee

The Queen had some cattle entered into the livestock show. She even managed to win a  prize for her highland cattle, albeit fourth place. Is this a testament to the cattle or to the judges ensuring they don't get invited to the Tower?

Wandering around was good fun but I had the misfortune of spilling some sample curry on my shirt. Of course it was commented on by everyone. And then for the rest of the day whenever the wind would blow just right, that is when there was no smell of cow sh*te in the air, I could smell curry coming form my shirt.

Scrubs up well

Got Ciaran a new toy - a patio cleaner.
He loves spraying the hose and was itching to get his hands onto the pressure washer a few years ago when I last cleaned the slabs.
Of course, he now almost a  teenager and developing his 'Kevin the teenager' persona so he wasn't that impressed with it. I suspect if 'patio cleaner' was available on the x-box he'd be a huge fan.
In all honesty, he did  a really good job of it and the cleaner itself is a great time saver - using the jet nozzle used to take most of the day, but now he can clean it all in under 2 hours.
Guess it will be a regular job from now on!

Gala Day

Today was the Loans Gala. The Scout pack have a couple of stalls to help with our fundraising.
The Beavers, well the Beaver Leader, sells popcorn, the Cubs leaders, Dave, Shirley and me, sell ice cream, while Iain and Colin, the Explorer and Scout leaders man the smash the plates with a golf ball stall.

We had a mixed day. After some initial problems with the electricity supply (the amp they plugged into our extension cable was dodgy) we got the popcorn machine on and the fridge running. Naturally the ice cream tubs were too big to fit in, so only 2 could get in and that was with the door ajar. We did account for this and decided not to have cones, just tubs as it then becomes easier to serve when the ice cream gets softer and melts.
 Weather wise it was dry and clear but a bit cool, but still hot enough for ice cream. There was a good turnout as ever and we did brisk business. It stayed dry all afternoon and we sold out again this year. Literally 10 minutes after we sold our last 'flake' it started to rain, and within 10 minutes it was a complete downpour which ended the gala about 30-45 minutes early.
We tidies up as best we could but it was just too wet to bring the marquees down so we agreed to leave them till later. Lucky for us it did dry up a few hours later and we managed to get the gear packed away. However because I had to go back I really couldn't cook could I? So dinner in town as a treat!

Last night of Cubs

That's Cubs finished for another year.
We took them out on the Smuggler's Trail from Loans to Dondonald.

It was a bit muddy but not that bad considering the weather we've had recently. In fact the only one who got dirty as me because I slipped on one of the steeper bits. The worst bit was that it was seen by a few people and there was no way to pass it off as intended. Anyway it's hard to explain a muddy bum and still try to be cool.
 4 of our 10 cubs are going up to Scouts when we resume in August, and I'm not sure how many Beavers are coming up to us.
It was also my last night out as an Adult helper. I have been convinced to 'go uniformed' and should hopefully get my own neckie by the start of the new session.