DEAR MARLO IV

Hello, Marlo,

I have finished my big bike ride and am going to be home in a week.  I cannot wait to see how much you have grown and get a big hug from you.

I thought you might like to see some of the animals I saw while I was riding.  We went a long way, through lots of towns, past mountains with farms and over rivers. I was riding with quite a few other people who were good fun to travel with and now I miss them too.

 These beautiful horses passed us on the road and because we weren't going as fast as cars we called out hello to the farmer who told us he had seen our lunch being got ready down the road and we'd better hurry along to it. So we waved goodbye and headed to lunch.

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I know this isn't a real swan and it is just one of lots of swan statues that were around the town.  I liked the colour of this one, the crown and the necklace and it looks like it has a seat too.

We saw a lot of cattle, but these cows seemed to be more interested in seeing us.

 There were also quite a few horses and ponies, this one looked as though it might be hiding from something. Maybe it was just keeping out of the wind.

Sheep were all sorts of colours,  some shaggy, some not. Quite often they were in the road as they had lots and lots of space to roam around.  They didn't seem to mind people on bikes, but some of the lambs ran up next to their mothers when they heard us.

My favourite is this shaggy haired cow, a highland cow.  They need to have all this hair to keep them warm I think as they live in a very cold part of the country. The people in Scotland say it differently, when they talk about them it sounds like "heeland cooos".