Wild Wednesday ...

... Look what we found!!!

We had a very busy but productive day as you can see.  And we even spent some time in Scotland ... which is only a stones throw away from where we were today.

The day started with an earlier wake up than previous days as we were going to be looking for red squirrels ... and knew they are more active in the early part of the day.  Richard had read there was a place in Wooler, UK that has red squirrels but seeing them isn't always easy.  There is only a small population of reds due to the proliferation of the gray squirrels ... which you know I also love.  

The park we went to ... Wooler Common ... has a lot of walking trails with both bird and squirrel feeders scattered throughout.  We started by walking the short pond trail whilst scanning the surrounding areas for squirrels.  At one point Richard saw one and quickly pointed it out to me.  I got one terrible, blurry picture!  Darn!

But then after walking around the ponds once we settled onto a bench in the area that we first saw the red squirrel.  And waited.  It took a while (good thing we are both patient) but we finally saw another red ... and then another one!  Now ... I know how lucky I am to see these beautiful squirrels as there are some people who have lived here their entire lives and have never seen a red.  I've added into Extras another shot of the first squirrel we saw.  Aren't they adorable!?!  Better viewed full screen.

After getting lots of shots we walked back the car to grab the picnic lunch we had packed.  There was a nice picnic table nearby that we were able to use to eat our lunch on.  

And that was only the beginning of our day!  After leaving Wooler Common park we drove to Etal Castle ... which is a 14th century castle ruins.  I love the history that can be found in this great country.

Then it was on to Scotland!  Here we visited Paxton House before driving back to our cottage in Lucker, UK.  

And the day wasn't done as after supper we went back out to the North Sea beach near Bamburgh Castle.  But now we are finally settled into the cottage for the night.  I've done a load of laundry and packed up a few things as we were leaving tomorrow to spend a couple of nights in Newcastle before heading home on Saturday.  

Thank you all for the love given to my puffin picture yesterday.  I feel so blessed.