Victoria's
Restaurant & Coffee Shop, Pitlochry
Website Newsletter
June 2010
Somehow June turned in to quite the holiday month, don't know how that transpired but it was a good plan! Off we went to the Dordogne region to help celebrate a friend's special birthday. We had the most beautiful weather, and had such a fun break. Then another wee break to a friend's holiday home in Majorca kept the holiday head going a bit longer and has set us up for the busy summer season ahead.
Had a most amazing experience mid June - completed the Edinburgh Moonwalk and it truly was an awesome walk. Awesome in the true sense of the word, 26.2 miles throughout Edinburgh during the night in order to raise money for breast cancer research. It was such a priviledge to do and a special moment crossing that finish line and having my medal put on which I'll never forget.
May 2010
Thankfully Lewis returned from his ski season and courses in Europe just in time to assist us with what has now become the busiest weekend of the year. Etape Caledonia was another tremendous sucess this year with the most competitors ever and so expertly and professionally organised. Pitlochry develops an extraordinary festival feeling on this weekend - a lovley mardi gras ambience to the town. Weather was lovely throughout May and we topped off the month with a fabulous wedding of a family friend - congratulations to Emma & Andy for such a perfect day! John jetted in for the wedding so it was great to catch up with him again before he begins his charter season in the Med.
Off Victoria went again on her travels, this year to New Zealand....... she is working a ski season in Wanaka, South Island during her university summer break.
April 2010
Wow, what a month of family celebrations! Victoria turned 21 amidst her end of year university exams so we had a simple low key gathering of the family to celebrate her special birthday. We also had the very special occasion of Mum & Dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary. This we marked with a very special luncheon at the fabulous East Haugh House, Pitlochry where we enjoyed simply outstanding cuisine - such a perfect family day!
March 2010
At last, signs of Spring! Growth on trees, bulbs nudging through, temperatures improving and lambs frolicking in the fields.
February 2010
Gradual improvment in the weather, with some sunny days but still very cold spells - wonderful weather for enthusiastic hikes around our lovely scenic Perthshire. John arrived home for some well deserved holidays and did just that taking in many stunning walks and drives through still dramatic winter scenery. Valentine's weekend and mid term break brought much activity to the town and it was good to see Pitlochry busy again.
January 2010
Traditional family ski trip over to Trois Vallees where we met up with Lewis. Fantastic snow and sun again this year with excellent ski-ing enjoyed by us all. Finally, the snow and freezing weather let up a little and we enjoyed many wonderful walks all around Pitlochry area - just so beautiful in all its winter glory. It is truly remarkable how each season has its own unique beauty; it really is such a wonderful part of the world we live in and I urge you all to please come and visit and find out for yourselves. (www.explore-highland-perthshire.com)
December 2009
Just as well we had our blast of sunshine last month as nothing could have prepared us for the huge downfall of snow and freezing conditions. Lewis returned from overseas and was absolutely delighted to get his skis out at home before heading off to Trois Vallees for the season. Fantastic fun was had throughout the Christmas and New Year period - with so much snow around it made for a very challenging walk on Boxing Day! We were never so glad to arrive at Moulin Inn as we were that day and enjoy a very well earned refreshment!
October/November 2009
And so Enchanted Forest time again and this year it was incredibly busy. The Myths & Legends theme seemed to be enjoyed by many and with the Autumn Festival activities and also the Dougie MacLean Festival, there was much to keep families occupied and entertained throughout this period. And so to winding down and thoughts of holidays - off we headed to the sun for a little bit of rest & relaxation.
September 2009
Great day for Pitlochry Games with lovely weather. Victoria back to university and Lewis decided to join his brother on their Atlantic crossing from Med to Carribean and then remain working on boat till ski season commences!
June/July/August 2009
Very intense period, so focus was very much on the business at this time. Plenty of patio dining this summer which was so nice to see, if only we could guarantee nice weather every year! Lewis completed his 4 years at university and returned to assist us in the restaurant. Victoria finished up at university for the summer and headed off West this year - New Hampshire, USA to teach various watersports at a childrens camp.
We celebrated Lewis Graduation Day in Glasgow with a lovely family luncheon - such a shame both John & Victoria were overseas as they were sorely missed - very proud day, well done Lewis! Strange though it may sound, Lewis jetted off to Austria for a ski course - apparently they ski on a glacier there in the summer!
May 2009 
Another hugely sucessful Etape Cycle Race here in Highland Perthshire. Such a fantastic "buzz" to the town during the entire weekend, just a delight to see. John arrived home from overseas and took part in the race streaking home over the finish line in a very respectable time. Rather shockingly, some lunatic had decided to cause problems for the event by spreading carpet tacks over part of the route. Although this caused disruption and many, many tyre repairs, it did not lead to the event being cut short. We just cannot understand why anyone would go to such lengths causing such inconvenience for competitors and indeed possible injuries to cyclists. Weather in May was lovely and is a super time to consider a visit to Pitlochry. Why not take in the Etape next year and experience it for yourselves?
April 2009
Such a gorgeous month in Pitlochry – the cherry blossom trees were in full bloom in town and the surrounding fields full of beautiful, frisky new born lambs. We had some wonderful walks within the area with many days of lovely sunshine. Victoria arrived home from university for Easter full of plans for the holidays. She enjoyed kayacking at Loch Tay Boating Centre, sphereing (check it out!!) with Nae Limits, and several cycling trips before eventually settling down to some serious revision for exams looming. Poor Lewis was still stuck in Glasgow revising for final year exams. Many cyclists have been seen this month on the roads locally, no doubt practicing for the Etape Race on Sunday17thMay. Let’s hope for some lovely weather for them next month. Victoria turned 20, which we can barely believe possible! She & some friends had an hilarious camping trip to a tepee on Loch Tay to begin the celebrations and then later birthday cake with the family.
March 2009
Mother’s day came around again and we were very busy in the restaurant for lunches. What a lovely way to give thanks to Mothers by taking them out for lunch. We had gorgeous corsages made up for all the mothers lunching that day, made for us by Williamsons Florists, Pitlochry – just beautiful. Spring had sprung – daffodils began to pop their heads through & Pitlochry looked so very pretty, with some lovely, warm, sunny days. Preparations for summer season 2009 were well underway, with maintenance plans completed and staffing all in place.
January/February 2009
Ski trip time again! Yipee! Off we headed to Courchevel & then later to Meribel Quite simply, just outstanding breaks – great snow, sun, food, company & this year, an outdoor hot tub in the snow! Could it get any better – g&t in a hot tub, outside, with snow on the ground, to ease the muscles after a hard days ski-ing!
November/December 2008
And so the Enchanted Forest ended and brought summer season 2008 to an end, and what another fine year it was. Normally, this would mean holiday time but we didn’t manage to make it happen this year – there always seemed to be something to deal with first, as is frequently the way running your own business. Our annual maintenance programme kicked in behind the scenes and all repair works and paint jobs got underway. Lewis & Victoria came and went over weekends, home from university and we had some lovely family catch up meals. As December came in, thoughts turned to Christmas, all its preparations & family. Unfortunately, once again, John was not going to be home for Christmas again this year. The Christmas card delivery ladies arrived at Victoria’s, as is tradition, once more bringing their wonderful Christmas ambience to the restaurant. A very busy period over Christmas & New Year meant no traditional, annual get together at our house on New Year’s Day, but we did manage to fit in some lovely family gatherings over the period – and there’s always next year to party!
October 2008
Probably the most beautiful month to be in Pitlochry – well one of them anyway! The colours on the trees and surrounding hills are quite simply amazing, just so pretty and a fantastic time to get out and about on the many, many walks we have in our area. The Enchanted Forest exhibition took place and this is just simply an event not to miss. It is a lovely walk through the forest at Loch Faskally with an incredible lighting display accompanied by music. Throughout the period, the Pitlochry Autumn Festival runs in the town with Ghost tours, Halloween Marquee, Treasure Hunt, live music on the street and is great fun to be had for all the family, either before taking the bus to the forest or indeed after having been. (www.pitlochryautumnfestival.co.uk) We also had the Dougie MacLean music festival with stunning performances by Dougie and friends at various locations. (www.perthshireamber.com)
September 2008
Lewis finally got a break and had a well earned trip to Dubrovnik, Croatia. Apparently, beautiful with stunning scenery and lovely, historic old town. Victoria and Lewis headed off to university in Glasgow – Lewis in his last year and Victoria just starting. Think Victoria is more excited about her easy access to the shops than anything else at the moment!
July/August 2008
Off Victoria went on her Europe trip – first stop Amsterdam……. John left to go overseas again and the family all celebrated Jane’s special birthday with a wonderful party. Intense period of business now so heads down, focus and on with the work.
June 2008
So work getting busier now and all the children back home this month. But life is all about balance….. John showed up for his buddy’s wedding, Lewis back from uni and Victoria back from scrubbing decks in Antibes. Several celebrations this month – a lovely party for Mairi’s special birthday, AJ’s seafood extravaganza for Lewis’s birthday and a fantastic trip to Florida to celebrate a friend’s 50th! SO good to have Lewis back as barista in the restaurant! He is outstanding on the coffee machine – calm, organised and committed to producing the perfect cup of coffee for the customer. He has now definitely taken over the mantle as top barista in the family!
May 2008
Etape Caledonia Cycle Race was the big highlight in May, with an outstanding weekend of weather for the cyclists. It was an amazing sight to see the high street full of enthusiastic cyclists and there was a fantastic buzz to the town. A quick trip down to the South of France to celebrate Fiona’s birthday was an excellent pick me up as the summer season kicks off. Victoria’s Restaurant took a wild white water rafting trip on the Tay – what scarey fun & hilarity for half the workforce, the other half had to work of course. We must do it again for the remaining half that had to work, can’t have them missing out!
March/April 2008
Making as much use as she possibly can of what’s left of her Gap Year, Victoria headed to Antibes. Here she did a yachting course which will allow her to work on yachts. Next it was off to Barbados to sail on the Tall Ship Stavros Nicharos. She sailed across the Atlantic, taking in her 19th birthday, finally making land at the Azores. As a planned rail trip of Europe was next on the cards, Victoria headed back to Antibes where she worked for a few weeks on a yacht to earn some much needed Euros!
 Feb 08
Well the big highlight of this month was that Victoria decided blonde was not for her! She has now reverted to her natural, beautiful, dark locks! Yippee! John jetted in for a quick visit and catch up and is off again, this time to Barcelona. He is now a fully fledged first mate having successfully passed his next qualification, so well done to him!
Jan 08
And so to New Year 2008 and party time!! Our traditional, small gathering at our house on 1st seems to be growing every year but this year I think was a new record. Think we’ll have to consider an extension for next year! Great fun was had by all once again with an amazing fireworks display provided by our own private pyrotechnician. Not sure how we top that next year though!! After all the excesses of Christmas & New Year, sister in law Gillian had the fab idea of a girls day away to the Spa at Cameron House over on Loch Lomond. This was a superb day of pampering and relaxing and catching up with each other. Highly recommended! And so to ski holiday and off to Courchevel we go. This year we were a party of 15 and the weather and snow conditions were absolutely fantastic. Burns night was celebrated in true style while over there – we even had haggis!
We certainly gave Courchevel a sight to remember as all the males in the party skied in their kilts! Chilly, but so fantastic to see, made us proud to be Scottish!
Dec 07
Holiday time!! Discovered the beautiful island of St Bart’s this year! John has been telling us for  years to visit saying it is the most beautiful island in the Caribbean and we would definitely agree. We had the most perfect trip – it has the sophistication of the South of France combined with the wonderful weather of the Caribbean, quite perfect! We also chartered a boat in the British Virgin Islands for the second half our holiday which, until this trip, was our most perfect place to be in the whole wide world, to date that is! And so holiday over, rested and recharged, we headed home to Bonnie Scotland with the anticipation of our little girl coming home from Kenya for Christmas. It was so exciting waiting for her to come through arrivals at Edinburgh airport but nothing had quite prepared us all for the shock of seeing our gorgeous little girl looking a little different from when she had left home……….. Victoria was a blonde!! …….
We had a superb family get together at Creggans Inn, Strachur. Archie & Gillian did an outstanding job of entertaining us all and it was so lovely to be able to spend time with them after the hectic season. Unfortunately, John didn’t make it home for Christmas this year as he had to work – poor John, bobbing around in the Caribbean on a boat, such a shame! Creggans Inn is a lovely hotel set right on Loch Fyne and the perfect place to switch off and unwind,: it really is a beautiful part of the country over there on the West coast and you should try and have a trip over if you get a chance.
Aug 07 – Nov 07
So with our baby girl gone overseas, it is heads down & focus with the priority, season 2007, here at Victoria’s. Once again an incredibly busy year, fantastically rounded off mid October to early November, by the delightful Enchanted Forest, Pitlochry Autumn Festival and Perthshire Amber Festival. This is an exciting time of the year in Pitlochry and area and continues to grow year upon year. It is a lovely time to visit, with lots going on for everyone. Please check out the website at www.pitlochryautumnfestival.co.uk for all the latest. Life is for living though, and we managed to fit in a quick few days out to Majorca for a friend’s birthday party! What a fantastic trip we had out to Pollenca, and never having been before we shall certainly return!
 August 2007
Since the age of 10, Victoria has been talking of “going to Africa to look after the children”. We had hoped her passion would have lessened somewhat but it became very apparent while discussing possible Gap Year options that indeed, this what she would be doing! So off to Nairobi went Victoria to work as a volunteer in a school and orphanage there. She adores her work with the children and is teaching Art in the school and helping look after the children in the orphanage as well as working on the commercial side, fund raising. She intends to climb Kilimanjaro during her time out there and knowing Victoria she no doubt will do so! We await her return with great excitement!
 JULY 2007
Brother Archie & his wife Gillian and young family have taken over Creggans Inn, Strachur, Nr Dunoon, Argyll. It is a stunning location and all of us in the family wish them all the very best in their new venture. We look forward to fitting in a trip to visit them over on the West Coast as soon as we can.
 JUNE 2007
This month Lewis turned 21! Our little boy is all grown up. Angus John decided an adventure day out was just the way to celebrate & mark the event. So on the morning of his birthday Angus John, Lewis and 8 of his pals all headed off on their adventure. This was organised through the excellent Nae Limits (see links page) based at Ballinluig junction. They had the most fantastic day canyoning locally and because of all the rain we have had over this month the conditions were outstanding. Victoria arrived home from school with 4 girlfriends in celebratory mood with the end of exams and in fact the end of school. The boys were delighted to welcome the girls into the group and we barbequed the evening away and generally had fun with  sophisticated games such as British Bulldog and whellbarrow races! The next night we celebrated Lewis 21st together with all the family based in Pitlochry when we barbequed again but this time didn't keep the neighbours awake!
MAY 2007
John arrived back into the Mediterranean after a fantastic trip delivering the motor yacht he works on from Australia, through the Indian Ocean, Red Sea & Suez Canal ready for charter work this summer season. He was very chuffed with this beautiful Dorado caught en route.
 APRIL 2007
So to April and Victoria's 18th Birthday...... Who can believe she can possibly be 18 already - well certainly not her two big brothers who it seems, still think of her as 12 years old!! As Victoria boards at Strathallan School and this was smack bang in term time, it was celebrated quietly - anyway, we reckon in the family 21st is the big birthday! To celebrate, we had a lovely meal out at the excellent Cafe Tabu in Perth. A little corner of France right here in Scotland. The attentive French waiters even sang Happy Birthday to Victoria as they presented her with her cake. All in all it was a lovely evening and then it was straight back to school for her afterwards. Victoria also passed her driving test a few weeks after her birthday, so watch out on the roads everyone!
February 2007
Hi to you all,
To our regular customers, just a wee newsletter on what we have been up to over the winter, and to all our potential new customers who have just found our website, a wee insight into life in the MacLellan clan - Winter mode .............
So after another very busy year and with the Enchanted Forest over, things started to become a bit quieter and we were able to look forward to the beginning of what we call in the family, “Winter Mode”!
This is when we kick back a little, de stress and enjoy some good, quality family time. We had the most fantastic winter period this year with all three of our children home for the entire festive period. Each year has become increasingly more difficult to achieve this as they each have their plans to fulfill, but this year it worked perfectly.
 John jetted in from Australia looking more like a “Bondi beach surfing dude” than the “short back & sides first -mate in waiting” that we know he is!! For anyone that knows John, who would ever have predicted that he would ever be seen in a pink flowery Armani designer shirt!!! So with big bro home, Lewis of course postponed his planned ski instructing in Italy until Easter time and little sis Victoria started to plan for party time!
We had a lovely family Christmas Day followed by our spectacular, traditional Boxing Day walk from Killicrankie over the hill to Moulin, ending up in a wee dram at the excellent Moulin Inn.
Partying with friends on Boxing Day night and a birthday party celebration inbetween Christmas & New Year, brought us neatly on to Hogmanay when the whole family brought in 2007 with very good friends here in Pitlochry.
The morning of 1st came round very quickly - or so it seemed for some! So it was off to the Street Party here in town for dancing and celebrations. For any of you who get the chance to be in Pitlochry over the New Year period this is a great way of meeting new people and having fun. Back to tradition again with a small getogether at our house to kick off 2007 with a bang. Nibbles, drinks and fireworks helped us while away the hours as we reminisced over the old year but more importantly, looked forward to the New Year ahead with great expectations and enthusiasim.
Our ski holiday to Courchevel, Trois Vallees, neatly finished off our festivities. We had the most perfect week of blue skies, good snow and excellent company. Could there be anything more perfect? Sitting on the very top of a mountain, on a clear sunny day, sipping hot chocolate with gran Marnier, looking out over the French Alps - just like sitting on top of the world!
 So back home to Pitlochry and the beginning of winter mode unravelling...................
John jetted back to Brisbane, Lewis back to university in Glasgow and Victoria back to school.
So for Fiona & Angus John it's back to work mode now with the focus on Victoria's and staffing up for the year ahead. It is always great to get the team back together again after a period of rest and relaxation and we look forward to 2007 with great enthusiasim. We will always have our special memories of our wonderful winter tucked away in our hearts, to be brought out and reminisced over whenever we need them. Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas & New Year where ever in the world you celebrated it. We look forward to seeing you all over this coming year.
Every good wish for 2007,
Fiona & Angus John & family
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