If you kept up with the storyline, we had a bit of a blip with our plans to stay in Edinburgh at the same rental for a month. What saved the end of the trip, honestly, was finding a pet sitting gig about 10 miles outside of Edinburgh.
As a quick recap – Trev and I signed up with an online service that matches travelers with people needing house and pet sitters. The gig we found was for two weeks in a town about 10 miles outside of Edinburgh on the bus line. It turned out to be such a gift in so many ways.
The task was to take care of a two-year old dog, two young hens inside (too young to join the group yet), chickens and peacocks in a pen, and a few fish. The way it worked out, I had a tapestry workshop on the weekend we started the sit. Trev had the task of greeting the couple and learning the ropes.
As it happened, I also had a sashiko embroidery class the next weekend which meant two hours of bus travel in, a four-hour class, and a two hour trip back out. I mention this because that first week we fell so easily into a nice rhythm being out in the rural area which made the trek back into the ‘big city’ require some effort.
Enough about that – let’s talk about how wonderful this experience was. At the top of the list was their dear dog. She is amazing. The sweetest, most loving pup with lots of personality. We needed to walk her twice a day. Their house is more or less detached in a reclaimed group of historical buildings. Through a fantastic, old metal gate requiring a skeleton key to open, we had access to farmers fields where she likes to go. Mostly wheat fields in various states of growing, harvesting and tilling, with paths across and around, as well as an area the farmer mows paths into (think green grass) for further pet exercise. Absolutely fabulous.
The access path also linked into a loop walk around the town. Along that loop, are little pathways out to nearby fields. We found out Scotland has a Right to Walk law (or something to that effect) that means you can walk anywhere as long as you are respectful and keep to the edges. Turns out we were at a bit of a highpoint in the area. We took those paths frequently which provided, astoundingly, sweeping views of everything from Arthur’s Seat all the way to Edinburgh and west/southwest to the Pentland Hills. I’ll let the photos do the talking. Truly gorgeous countryside, made all the better with the company of their dear dog.
It was clear that we still felt the void with the loss of Mia. Getting to have the companionship of their dog was wonderful in a way we couldn’t have predicted. The first night, we think she tried to sleep where she normally did in their room, but in a few hours was hopping up in bed with us. That continued the rest of our stay and was great for all three of us.
Mornings meant checking off a few chores. I took on mucking out the chicken coop while Trev tended the two birds inside. I’ve always wanted to have chickens so this was an excellent chance to have that experience. Ten hens, one peahen and one peacock make an impressive amount of poo. One of the days, some guys came to shore up the outside enclosure and had to corral them all in the coop for a whole day. Wow.
Of course, the upside of chickens are eggs. When Trev arrived that first day to learn the ropes, they toured him around and found only one egg. They had been waiting patiently for those chickens to start laying. In my mind, I was thinking of it as a ‘Chicken Run’ scenario. Lay, or… else. We were instructed to go ahead and change them over to a protein food for laying and boy did that do the trick. By the time we left, we were getting 5-6 eggs a day. Granted, they were about half to ⅔ the size of an egg you get in the store, but it did still add up and made it nice to have eggs for breakfast.
I also enjoyed just being around the chickens, learning their behavior such as the clucking that is distinct when one of them has just laid. Boy, do they get quite proud of themselves. Then there are the more muted sounds of ‘talking to themselves’ or each other that I found quite comical and pleasant. I sometimes walked in the outside enclosure to check for the stray egg and retrieve and clean their water. Several of the chickens seemed friendly and somewhat curious about me. As our stay went on, I swear they seemed to recognize me and be a bit more chatty.
The fish were super easy. Currently in a barrel with lily pads awaiting installation of their new pond. A gentleman was coming almost everyday to finish up the surround on a pond he had put in. We made friends with him and it was another unexpected gift, getting to chat with a local. As it happens, he lived in Toronto a good bit of his life so our being American wasn’t perhaps as much of a novelty for him.
What we both realized is that after being so busy for so many weeks, and lots of moving around since Valencia, it was nice to settle into a quiet rhythm for a bit. It was also nice to complete our first pet sit. If they are all as enjoyable as this one, we have found an interesting way to approach future travels.
