eagle.dawg
July 9th, Urquhart Castle ruins, on the banks of Loch Ness, Scotland
If the Scottish Highlands could ever be described as brooding, this misty day would certainly qualify. On the positive side it didn’t rain & the mist over the mountains and loch added to the tragic nature of this castle which has a long and violent history up till it was partially blown up during the Jacobite Rising. No sign of Nessie out in the water today, my guess is whiskey is the main contributing factor to the ongoing legend.
Scotland is undergoing the removal of non-native invasive trees the same way Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay was, in this case with conifers except the Scottish pine. It was funny to watch the reactions of the other tourists to these cleared areas when they clearly aren’t familiar with the reasoning behind this practice. I have a deeper appreciation for the inclusion of so many elements of nature in Scottish songs and prayers (I come from a long line of Presbyterians traced back to Edinburgh) than I did before, and I look forward to coming back decades from now to see the renewal of wildlife in these areas. After all, if it’s not Scottish it’s crrrrrrap!
Hopefully in the future the exchange rate will be kinder to us as well; it’s essentially $2/1 euro (slightly worse for the pound) so we’re not buying all that much. Barracuda has a lovely collection of leather bookmarks from most places we’ve been to in addition to postcards added to his travel journal, which he fights me on some days but I’m sticking to the deep maternal war cry of ‘You’ll appreciate that I made you do this some day!’
July 9th, Urquhart Castle ruins, on the banks of Loch Ness, Scotland
If the Scottish Highlands could ever be described as brooding, this misty day would certainly qualify. On the positive side it didn’t rain & the mist over the mountains and loch added to the tragic nature of this castle which has a long and violent history up till it was partially blown up during the Jacobite Rising. No sign of Nessie out in the water today, my guess is whiskey is the main contributing factor to the ongoing legend.
Scotland is undergoing the removal of non-native invasive trees the same way Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay was, in this case with conifers except the Scottish pine. It was funny to watch the reactions of the other tourists to these cleared areas when they clearly aren’t familiar with the reasoning behind this practice. I have a deeper appreciation for the inclusion of so many elements of nature in Scottish songs and prayers (I come from a long line of Presbyterians traced back to Edinburgh) than I did before, and I look forward to coming back decades from now to see the renewal of wildlife in these areas. After all, if it’s not Scottish it’s crrrrrrap!
Hopefully in the future the exchange rate will be kinder to us as well; it’s essentially $2/1 euro (slightly worse for the pound) so we’re not buying all that much. Barracuda has a lovely collection of leather bookmarks from most places we’ve been to in addition to postcards added to his travel journal, which he fights me on some days but I’m sticking to the deep maternal war cry of ‘You’ll appreciate that I made you do this some day!’