Fred kindly gave me the day off today as the guests had headed down to Edinburgh to see the festival. After a kitchen clean-up Theresa and I headed off to the coast for a meal and some bird watching arriving in the seaside town of Arbroath at about one in the afternoon. After a bit of scrounging around for somewhere to eat we found a spot close to the harbour where we managed to find some fare while also doing some birding with a redshank being a new one for us along with the usual herring gulls and eiders. We then took a leisurely drive for about 12 miles up the coast to Montrose to get some groceries for the lodge. Having been annihilated by midges the previous day while fishing with the guests I was determined to track down a “midgie net”. A midgie net is one of those extremely useful pieces of anti-midge equipment that one is never told about until you see the keepers all conveniently whipping their nets out as the clouds of midges descend. Formed of fine mesh, the net is designed is fit snuggly around the head thereby preventing the wearer from being fed upon. Like I said – easy once you know about them and actually have one… And best of all, the net will as useful back in SA for our mozzies. A great investment all round.