S.O.S. -No, not a cry for help

 not in this instance anyway. 

SOS stands for several things but here it stands for the Scottish Owl Sanctuary. We've been talking vaguely about visiting this 'one day', without the day ever having arrived before. However, due to the vagaries of the weather and possible ferry disruption we ended up with a spare day in Glasgow before setting off for Stockholm so the 'one day' arrived. We gave Son No 2 a lift into work, thereby making him late for the first and probably last time. Honestly he gets there early every other day and has to take two trains and then walk; you would think that the one time he got a lift in a car he could do at least as well. What can I tell you? Glasgow commuter traffic. 

We went straight on to the Sanctuary after dropping him as we couldn't face trawling back through the commuter traffic in the opposite direction to the flat only to go out again half an hour later, but this meant that we arrived rather more than an hour before the place opened. Luckily the cafe was open so we spent some time in there.

I risked a scone, and it was fine. Baked on the premises fresh every morning apparently.

And then we went and looked at owls. I do love an owl, so I took lots and lots and lots of pictures, some better than others. Here are a few of the best ones. 

Eurasian Eagle Owl. Shame it shows the cage wires; the OH's phone camera is fancy and somehow gets rid of those. 

This is a burrowing owl. Judging by its performance the day we went, it spends large portions of its life standing on one leg. Well, why not? 

This one couldn't be bothered to pose so I couldn't be bothered to remember what sort of owl it was. A 'Whatever' Shrugging Owl, perhaps?

My favourite - the snowy owl. 

A Very Cross Owl

And a Very Fluffy Owl (also possibly quite cross)

The SOS has the largest collection of owls on show in the world, and they are from every corner of the earth, from deserts to rainforests . They do flight demonstrations twice a day and we were lucky enough to catch one; even more luckily one of the owls used was the female snowy owl. They get really close up to you so you get a very good look and the talk by the handler was informative and funny without being too much. We had a really lovely time. So glad we finally made it.