A Rannoch Trio

Three of our four Rannoch grandchildren paid a visit to the Dower House this morning to check it out.
Daughter #2 and I had to have eyes on the back of our heads to keep 2 year old Theo in our sights, given the new unsullied interior of the Dower House, but Imogen and Phoebe were model visitors.

We had a picnic lunch in the sun on the patio where there was easy access to lots of grass for playing on.

All the while we were entertained by the bands, flutes, brass and heavy drums, of an Orange march wending its way up Middle Meadow Walk.
The flags carried aloft indicated it was celebrating the 450 year anniversary of the Protestant reformation in Scotland.

It was a huge March and held either by design or co-incidence unfortunately close to the Papal visit to Scotland next week.
When I evinced surprise that there were that many orange men and women in Edinburgh, my daughter wryly pointed out that very many of them had probably made the trip east from the west where such marches are de rigeur.

Provocation or religious intolerance aside, it was street theatre on a huge scale right on our back doorstep, and had it not been for the posing of the grandchildren I would have blipped it. I'm sure somebody will.

His Lordship and I have a interval of a few hours before we go out to supper with cycling friends.
I'm really looking forward to our first social get together for what seems like ages.