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Our wonderful B&B, The Woodland Inn in Longniddry, is so comfortable and hospitable. This is the way bed and breakfast places should be! We’ve gotten to know Anita and RIchard and their two well-behaved spaniels, loved the views of their many gardens, and eaten well at  breakfast in their lovely garden room. Sorry to say goodbye tomorrow, but we will be moving on.

Today, started off cold. Sorry to say, I was an embarrassment at breakfast, wearing by thick vest, a jacket over and a woolly hat. Anita took mercy on me and told me about the virtues and necessities of cashmere in Scotland. Then she loaned me a lovely cashmere poncho for the morning which warmed me right up! Thank you, Anita.

Our first stop in town was to an art supply story in North Berwick. The featured photos for this post is of the Gullane clubhouse, which makes a nice backdrop for the day even though we’re not playing the course this trip. North Berwick, the town next door, is a darling town built around North Berwick Golf Club, one of the top 100 in the world. You can see why we love this area so much. Five minutes this way and that way and you have these beautiful, world class courses. Neither of these were our our golf course for the day so we started off negotiating the new parking rules on the High Street so that we could walk through cold and wind to the Rock and Bird Art Shop. Small, but perfect, it had what I was looking for, UK brushes that I haven’t been able to describe properly or find anywhere in the US. I now have a new handful for a very reasonable price!

John is very patient with my meanderings and since we had hours to kill, we looked in at two charity shops that sell donated items at discounted prices, all for the benefit of medical research. This one was Cancer UK where I have shopped before. Last year, I wanted to buy all the hand knitted tea cozies in the window, but was told that would leave them without any stock. This year, I resisted and only bought two. Two lucky readers will have a very cozy Christmas! Even better, at reasonable prices, I found a cashmere turtle neck and a poncho to keep me warm for the remaining days in Scotland. As the volunteers were struggling with the credit card marching, I took one more look around and saw a watercolor of the Scottish coast, looking north from Siccar Point, a scene that both John and I love. Now, taking a framed piece of art home is a challenge, but I was up for it and John didn’t stop me. We both liked it, especially when the young man struggling with the card machine offered to bubble wrap it for us. Very nice!

After a stop for tea and scones at the Buttercup Cafe, we headed for our course of the day, Kilspindie, a links course right on the sound, not too long but famous for being very windy. We putted and chipped and bought a few things in the pro shop while waiting for Juliet and Keith to arrive. Then it was out into the wind, up fairway and down the other side. What a gorgeous day, and what a fight against the stiff breeze. 

Bragging points: Juliet and Keith scored many pars, John had two pars and a birdie, I scored a steady stream of boggies and made a par putt on the last hole. A delightful day, edpecially considering the wind snd cold we were fighting all day. After golf, we all met at the famous Old Clubhouse, where the menu has really improved!

We were all exhausted from fighting the wind, but it was so nice to see these local friends again! Good night!