Flora, fauna and the works of man

Flora:

Gorse.  This entire island is covered in beautiful flowering gorse bushes.  Entire hillsides covered in brilliant yellow flowers.  I'm sure you've seen them in the background of some of our earlier pictures.  I don't know how long it flowers and whether it will be here when the heather flowers.  I think that would be especially impressive.

Peat.  It doesn't just come in sealed plastic bags at the local DIY store.  We've come across a few people digging their own peat (for whiskey flavouring perhaps?) in the hills.  For such a dirty job, they generate nice neat, terraced lines.  No machinery, either.  Just a guy in his wellies and a spade.

Logging.  We've been trying to figure out whether this island is naturally (mostly) treeless, or whether it has been heavily logged.  We do see evidence of clear cutting - and a little more of it than expected.  It seems like they don't much mind putting large scale industrial environmental exploitation out for the tourists to see.  I have this idea that at one point the isolated little forests of pine that dot the island once used to be connected and were extremely hard done by by hundreds of years of foreign (English) exploitation.  I've also heard that the introduction of sheep and deer by the aristocracy keep anything from growing larger than a bush.  I'll have to do some more digging to satisfy my curiosity on this.

Fauna:

Seals.  We went on a glass bottomed boat tour of the Skye Bridge area (fun fact: the bridge is hollow and only the second box designed bridge ever made - the other fell down - and that it was built to its height specifications to ensure the Royal Yacht Brittainia could pass underneath - the yacht was decomissioned a year after the Bridge was built).  Anyway, we saw several Common seals frolicking in the bay and sunning themselves on the rocks.  They remind me of sausages with flippers.  We saw several more at Otterhaven.  They were cresting and diving like dolphins.  Actually, we were pretty disappointed when we figured out they were seals, as we had seen them earlier in the day.

Salmon Farms.  We've seen a couple of these floating in the Firths and lochs.  Some of them are towed to different parts of the loch depending on what time of day it is.  Cool to see some industrialised fish farming.

Otters.  We didn't actually get to see any otters, although they are "common" in this area.  I still have problems with the glass-bottom boat tour company, who heavily advertise the fact you might see a river otter while on a trip into the salt water bay.  We also took a trip to a place called Otterhaven, which is a little place in the middle of nowhere, where they've placed a shack up in the woods with good viewpoints and free binoculars.  We didn't see any otters, but got plenty of seals and a nice, quiet place to relax for an hour.  Plus the drive there was on a one track road with twists, turns, and hills that made your stomach turn.  Fiona took the wheel and worked the blind corners and summits like a pro.  I think I see an F1 championship in her future. 

Oystercatcher.  Fiona saw an Oystercatcher.  It was cool.

Mean seagulls.  On our boat trip we saw some sort of black backed gull, which has, according to our guide, an almost 6 foot wingspan and eats puffins whole.  I thought he might be pulling our collective legs when he talked about them attacking sheep by sitting on the back of their heads and knocking their eyes out with a peck to the back of the skull.

The Works of Man:

Eilean Donan Castle.  Wow.  Beautiful castle shown on a gorgeous Isle of Skye day.  It's situated right on the loch, and the parapets hung onto the rocks.  It's been extensively rebuilt by the leaders of Clan MacRae, which means you get a nice intact castle on the one hand, and on the other, you wonder a little if they are running cable TV through the 14 foot thick walls.  It think this is a necessary step on the Scottish tour of castles, even though as one of the more touristy ones it tends to be very busy.

Double Jeopardy Category: Isle of Skye

Hello everyone, I'm your host, Alex Trebeck, let's start today's round of Jeopardy!

Q.  Although not known as the "Lord of the Isles", this clan possessed a much finer castle home.

A.  Who are the MacLeods?

We visited Dunvegan castle today, traditional and current home of the chiefs of clan MacLeod.  Although their neighbors on Skye, the MacDonalds, considered themselves Lords of the Isles, the MacLeods had a much finer castle and grounds.  A lot of history was on display and the castle is in really good shape for Scotland.  I think we were a little too early to catch the gardens in their best shape, but the waterfall was great and the tulips were almost too good to be real.

Q.  Known as the "Sheepwhisperer" this real-life Doctor Doolittle discovered his ability to talk to sheep while on vacation on the Isle of Skye.

A.  Who is Rik?

There has to be at least a 10:1 ratio of sheep to people here, they literally are everywhere.  Whenever Fiona scampered off to get the perfect shot to feed your incessant demand for blog pictures, I would invariably be left face to face with a herd of sheep.  I soon discovered that I could command the attention of the entire flock by bleating.  They would all stop eating and stare at me intensely.  I thought it was cool at first, but now I feel the weight of responsibility on my shoulders - being the sole link for communication between humans and sheep is a little more than I bargained for.  

Q.  The Isle of Skye's lone brewery.

A.  What is the "Isle of Skye Brewery"?

OK, so the name is not so original, but the beer is pretty tasty.  I've been looking for a local Scottish beer that I could enjoy as much as I loved the local beer in Houston, Shiner.  I think I've found it.  It's called Red Cuillin and it's brewed in a small brewery in the town of Uig ($5 if you can pronounce that correctly first time).  I bought a case.  It reminds me a little of Rickard's Red ...

Q.  In this hidden gem of Scotland, hobbits would feel right at home.

A. What is the Fairy Glen?

Our Lonely Planet guidebook steered us towards this beautiful piece of scenery just outside Uig.  We've never seen anything quite like it.  These small hills covered in grass and slumps, with sheep grazing.  Ponds, waterfalls and ruined cottages rounds out the perfect imitation of the Shire from Lord of the Rings.  

Q.  A formation of sandstone and vertical volcanic sills makes up this famous Isle of Skye viewpoint.

A.  What is Kilt Rock.

So named because the vertical beds in the cliff look like the pleats on a kilt, it truly was a spectacular view.  The railing keeping you from falling 100m down into the sea below were humming in the wind, creating this eerie noise, like a faraway boat sounding its horn.  This was probably the busiest place we've been on the Isle - with tour buses galore.

Q.  About one day.

A.  How long does it take to drive around the Isle of Skye?

We've done this before, on PEI when we were there for Adele and Doug's wedding.  It looks intimidating because it takes up a whole page on the driving atlas, but, even with some single track lanes, we managed to make it around most of the island in one day. 

Q.  They're having a great time on the Isle of Skye.

A.  Who are Rik and Fiona.

Truly.  It's such a unique landscape, and it feels like stereotypical Scotland, from the sheep to the castles to the weather to the small lanes.  If you're coming to Scotland, you might want to leave a couple of days in your itinerary for this.

Isle of Skye

We got up bright and early today to start our Isle of Skye long weekend.  We had dropped off Casey at a kennel the night before - getting to and from the country kennel is a story on its own - we ended up having to get directions from someone on a horse!

I was about to write that the trip was uneventful, but I don't think that is entirely accurate.  It's always an adventure driving through northern Scotland, where the main roads disappear and are replaced by a series of tracks and roads that barely fit one car.  If you are unlucky enough to end up behind a bus or tractor you could be driving 30 miles an hour for the next 50  miles.

We dodged and weaved our way to Strathcarron by lunchtime and pulled into the local pub for lunch.  The bartender had a buddy he was talking to, who was quickly joined by his granny for lunch.  It was all very quaint.  And just when you think that you've gotten as far away from home as possible, the bartender/waiter asks where you're from, and when you say Edmonton, he tells you about the year he spent working there and how wonderful it was to see a mall with dolphins and submarines.

As we got to the "other" side of Scotland and started to see the ocean, we were taken aback by the amazing view points.  It was hard to take my eyes off the blind corners and hills, but Fiona tells me it was quite nice.  We eventually got to the Kyle of Lochlash, where the Skye bridge takes you from the mainland onto the Isle of Skye.  The rain was intermittent, which is a bit of a problem for us as our wipers are really bad.  We need either a good steady rain to keep the wipers lubricated, or no rain at all, otherwise they scrape and generate a noise that has no equivalent in the natural world.

We got to our hotel in the early afternoon and it was fabulous.  We've got a nice room overlooking an old garden and a stone's throw from the sea.  After we got settled we headed out into the island, stopping first at Armadale castle, the traditional home of Clan MacDonald.  The castle itself is not much more than an assembly of ruins, but the associated gardens were fabulous.  There was an interpretive centre with a history of the MacDonalds that was kind of cool.  Afterwards we trundled up the coast a little further on these small one track roads until our car was attacked by a goose - or gander I guess.  He seemed quite upset at the prospect of us driving past his ladies!

We got back to the hotel and had a very nice dinner.  We're catching up on some Master's golf highlights before bed - although we're more used to watching major tournament golf highlights in the afternoon with Roger, the calm demeanor of the announcers helps put you in a nice frame of mind for bed.  I think I can get used to it.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures, we should have more over the next couple of days.

Springtime

Another beautiful spring day in Aberdeen.  The city deserves a bit of a break after having to endure the tragedy of losing all passengers and crew of a helicopter on its way out to one of the rigs.  In that way, Aberdeen still has quite a small town feel to it.  It was something everyone talked about and sympathized over for the better part of the week.  

We've been getting a few things done around the house, doing some spring cleaning, sending forms for our US taxes, hanging the last of our pictures, etc ...  Yesterday we walked up the hill into Rosemount to look into getting a few pictures framed.  We must have spent a good half hour with the shop attendant getting the right mats and frames, and all for a quite reasonable price.  It feels good to stay in the community for stuff like that.

We also went down to the butcher to try and find some back ribs.  We have word that Fiona's dad is coming in mid-September, so we have to make sure that we can make his favorite ribs.  It didn't start out well.  We spent a fruitless ten minutes trying to tell the butcher exactly what we were looking for.  In the end we got a cut of meat with pork ribs in it, but not what we would normally cook.  We've since consulted the internet for a more exact description of what we need.  I guess it is not a cut of meat that is ever used here.  We then had to make our own apple butter, a key ingredient in Fiona's ribs.  We've had some success making our own apple sauce, but apple butter is another story.  The ribs are cooking now, I'll let you know how they work out.  Don't worry, Roger, we'll have all the kinks worked out by the time September rolls around.

I think the lack of readily available, good quality rib racks won't help Fiona's ribs regain their lost position as her signature dish.  Her apple-rhubarb crumble has, in my opinion, solidified its position as the new top dog.

We're also getting ready to buy another car, as well.  Friends heading back to the US have a nice new Honda Jazz that they are giving us a good deal on.  It will be nice to have a second car - it opens up some other opportunities.  We're also excited because it is an automatic as well.  If we have an automatic then at least one of us should be able to just trade in our license for a British license, instead of going down the path of lessons and tests.

We spent some time outside this afternoon working on our patio in the backyard.  It has been a little overgrown and we tidied up the edges and removed some of the most obnoxious overhanging bushes and plants.  We're looking forward to some nice dinners out there, enjoying the sunshine, flora and fauna.  That being said we are hoping Mother Nature would tone it down a little bit.  We saw the Hannibal Lecter of seagulls quite calmly and savagely latch on to the head of another seagull and drag him all over the neighbour's roof.  The smaller one kept trying to get away, but Mr. Hopkins wouldn't let go.  No word on whether fava beans and Chianti were enjoyed afterwards .... 

Visitors Day 3

The house is quiet again as Pim & Sandra are headed home today.  We had such a great time with them this weekend.

Yesterday started out slow, we had a nice leisurely breakfast of pannekoeken. Then we headed out to the Sands of Forvie for a hike.  A quick 15 minute drive and we were there.  It is close to where Donald Trump wants to build a new golf course.  

It was a beautiful day, lots of sunshine.  The hike was really enjoyable and the trail was well maintained.  The scenery was spectacular.  There were lots of sea birds to be seen.

We were all tired out by the hike so the rest of the day was filled with relaxing and playing some more Wii.  

Thanks for coming to visit Pim & Sandra!

Visitors - Day 2

Day two with the visitors dawned overcast and rainy.  We tried to compensate for the lack of Scottishness in yesterday's breakfast by providing an enormous amount of sausages, but I'm not sure it worked.

We headed out to towards the Cairngorm mountains, with the idea of making it to Grantown-on-Spey by lunchtime.  The scenery was terrific as we travelled on the north shore of the Dee river.  We stopped several times for pictures - the scenery was magnificent.  We took a little detour to Balmoral to see if we could get a glimpse of Lizzie's house - but there was no admission allowed until April 1.  Close by was the the Royal Lochnagar distillery and they had a tour coming up quickly, so we ducked in for a wee look.  The tour was very interesting, with lots of detail about the whole process.  Unfortunately no photography was allowed.  Tasting, on the other hand, was not only allowed but recommended.  I'm not one for Scotch, but I thoroughly enjoyed their single malt.  You can see from the pictures that I was not alone.

After the tour we pushed on through the mountain passes to Grantown.  It started to snow as we went along the road and at some point we were stopped by a friendly Scotsman who informed us the road to Grantown was blocked due to snow.  It was a little hard to believe because we were sitting in brilliant sunshine, but several miles back the snow had been blowing quite hard.

We headed back into Ballater for lunch, which included all the Scotch staples: potato leek soup, toasties and sticky toffee pudding.  We stopped at an old, pre-historic stone circle for pictures before rolling back to Aberdeen.

We went out to a local restaurant for dinner - haggis croquettes as appetizer made sure that we kept to the all-Scotland all the time theme.  We got back in time to see the highlights of the incredibly appropriate Scotland vs Netherlands soccer match (I shouldn't have to tell you who won).  

Visitors - Day 1

We got to go to Aberdeen Thistle Airport on Thursday evening to pick up our first official out of town visitors - Pim and Sandra from Holland.  It was kind of nice to be going there without having to go through security or worry about missing flights.  Interesting point: Aberdeen airport labels itself as the "most improved airport in the world".  Is that a good thing?  How bad did it used to be?  

We all woke up bright and early on Friday morning.  I had managed to take a day off, so we all sat down together to a nice Dutch breakfast.  Pim said he was slightly disappointed not to get a full Scottish breakfasat (eggs, sausage, blood pudding, tomatoes, beans, etc ..).  This will now become the standard first morning breakfast for all future visitors.  Prepare yourselves.

The weather was quite nice when we left, full sunshine and blue sky.  By the time we got halfway to Dunottar Castle it had started to cloud over into what Sandra called her idea of what Scottish weather should be.  We passed a field with a few of the season's first spring lambs, and a few fields of daffodils, so we kept the spring mood.  

Dunottar was gorgeous as usual.  We were unsuccessful again with finding any puffins, but I think everyone enjoyed the ruins.  We even found a couple of rooms that we hadn't seen last time.

The 187 stairs back from the castle to the car park had everyone a little winded and tired, except Casey, so we drove down the road to Stonehaven for lunch.  We had a good hearty meal of fish and chips, washed down with a deep fired Mars bar.  

We did a driving tour of Aberdeen to show off the rest of the sights - it had started to rain, so walking was out.  We went through the harbour, where a CGGV seismic boat was in town, drove by the beach (Pim was declared stone skipping champion) and old Aberdeen.  I think the city acquitted itself quite well.

We spent the afternoon Wii'ing with various levels of success - bowling, billiards and shooting rabbids.  After dinner - BBQ'd steak and asparagus, with Fiona's spectacular apple-rhubarb crumble for dessert - we found ourselves just enough energy to put in a Blu-Ray and watch Batman beat up the Joker for a couple of hours.

We woke up to a little snow this morning.  We're hoping it clears a little, because we're going into the mountains.

Men in Skirts...

Here are a couple of pictures of my handsome husband in his brand new kilt.

Doesn't he look great?

Anniversary

On this day, 9 years ago, Fiona first walked into my apartment, sat down next to me, beat me at a video game and stole my heart.  Like that video game, our time together has seen some exciting twists and turns, a few head on collisions and been a cracking good time.

I won't bore everyone with the details of the "how we met" story, as it surely has made the rounds everywhere.  I also won't get all cheesey, with long soliloquys about the great love of my life.  I'm just glad I chose to go to her friend's birthday, that I wore a clean shirt (as advised) and that I bought her that first drink.

Tomorrow: kilt pictures!

Week in Review

Seeing as we haven't posted since Sunday, I thought I'd take a quick look back at the week that was.

Sunday evening we got confirmation of our first out of town visitors.  Although several fought for the honor, the distinction will go to Pim and Sandra, who will be in town the weekend of March 28th.  We're really looking forward to seeing them again and getting a chance to show off Aberdeen and surroundings.

Tuesday evening we went down the street to His Majesty's Theatre to see a traveling Russian production of Swan Lake.  Fiona had given me the tickets for Christmas and I was really looking forward to it.  The venue, as always, was great, especially from the floor seats we had, although the heat appeared to be on full blast.  The overall production was average, but was highlighted by an amazing performance by the prima ballerina.  We both agreed it was the best we had ever seen.  We had never seen Swan Lake before so we had fun trying to interpret the story.  Comedic relief was provided by a small child three rows back who kept asking (loudly) at every break point before intermission if it was time for ice cream.  The tradition at His Majesty's Theatre is to serve small cups of ice cream during the intermission of plays, ballets and operas.  Seems kind of strange to me, but it grows on you.

It's been a bit of a rough week at work, so we haven't been out and about in the evenings too much.   We've been pulled into this new show (at least it is new to us) called 'Who do you think you are'.  It follows minor British celebrities as they trace their family tree.  Most people find these wonderful and totally unexpected characters in their ancestry.  It's given Fiona the geneaology bug.  She is preparing to do some digging to see what pops up.  With the ancestors being Irish-Welsh, we're now well positioned to go to the relevant places should we need to look up records, etc ...  I've seen the results of an equivalent process done on my Dad's side of the family by a distant relation.  She had managed to track them back several hundred years.  She published a book with the results that is really fascinating.

One of the downsides of expat living is the transience of the people in your lives.  For me it is always been easier to meet people because I could make friends through work.  After each move, Fiona has always had to go out and make new friends, always with good success.  But the business moves people around and she's had to deal with good friends moving away.  We have a feeling that the world economy will be moving more of our friends this year.  Fiona finds that hobbies help her meet new people and keep busy, so she's adding another one to the list of knitting, photography and languages.  She's taken up painting.  Several months back she completed her first painting at a course with friends.  She has since bought some equipment and started painting on her own.  Her second piece was completed last week - photo attached.  I think she has a talent for it.

It's Casey's birthday today.  She'll be five.  She's already working on the sleeping in part, but I think we'll take her for an extra long walk today and throw in a pig's ear to make the day special.  She's working her usual charm offensive on the friends and neighbors here in Aberdeen - making friends has never been a problem for her.

We found ourselves looking at a house across the street that's for sale.  We even went to a bank site and looked at mortgage rates.  A little silly to be doing that in this economy and with my work situation being what it is, but we really like Aberdeen and could live with a long term posting here quite happily.  I guess we've said that before, raving about both Calgary and Houston, so maybe we're just easy to please.

No big plans for this weekend.  I think we'll try and find another nearby hike on Sunday - maybe even stick to the assigned trail this time.  I also might try and watch some of the Six Nations Rugby on Sunday (Ireland vs Scotland).  I still haven't figured out the intricacies of that game, although I think I've caught on to the whole cricket thing....

Lost in the Highlands

After a great dinner party last night - steaks on the new BBQ, back-alley bridge with Vicki and Bob - we decided to work off some of the calories traipsing around the highlands in and around Aberdeen.  We carefully chose our walk from a good guidebook we found in a local bookstore.  We prepared a little lunch, brought along some water, dressed in layers and headed out, Casey in tow.

The walk started with about a kilometer straight up a hill.  The gorse bushes were starting to bloom with little yellow flowers that made parts of the walk quite pretty.  When we got to the top we had a great panoramic view of Aberdeen and surroundings.  On one side we could see the city, with the North Sea in the background.  A little further up the coast was the airport.  180 degrees was a beautiful farmland vista of rolling hills, covered in heather.  We vowed to come back once the heather was in bloom.

Although we thought we had picked a nice day to do this particular hike, once we got to the top of the hill there was no protection from the wind.  It was quite fierce, at one point it was difficult to keep our footing.  So we started down the other side of the hill - perhaps we should have taken an extra look at the guide book before proceeding?  An hour later we were still wandering around the hill, the trail becoming less distinct and our patience running short.  We eventually agreed to retrace our steps to a parking lot we had mis-identified as being right around the corner from where we parked our car.  45 minutes later we stumbled upon our car.  I think Casey was about to give up on us.  She did have a few highlights herself, including bounding through the heather and meeting her first sheep up close.  The sheep were not impressed.

So now we're dead tired and finding a long blog posting harder to accomplish.  We'll leave you with some pictures.

For those who have been asking, it looks like our next trip will be to the Isle of Skye for the Easter weekend.  We just need to finalize the details early this week.  We're quite excited to be traveling again...  

Who Watches the Watchmen? We did ...

As is my wont with movies that I really look forward to, I took the afternoon off yesterday to drag Fiona to the premiere of the Watchmen movie.  Reviews are fantastically mixed.  I loved it.  Fiona was giving a depressed sigh every 20 minutes.  That's a lot of sighing in a 2 hour 45 minute movie.  I did read the comics, which I think will increase your appreciation of the film, but I think it can be enjoyed without reading it too.  It was long, be prepared for that.  And, in highly concentrated outbursts, extremely violent.  Visually, though, both of us agreed that it was stunning.

So I guess I owe Fiona a few romantic comedies.  I tried to buy my way out of the debt with surf and turf after the movie, but I don't think it worked.

Flower power

Well it has been a nice quiet weekend here. Yesterday morning we moseyed down to the monthly farmers market in the city center with Casey. It was Casey's first time walking around the city. She did really well, and received so much attention from people passing by, a great walk by her standards.

We bought some goodies at the market and headed home. On our way to do some more errands we passed the park not too far from house and saw carpets of beautiful purple and white flowers. So today we decided to take a walk and take a closer look. They turned out to be these gorgeous crocuses.

We have been thinking that it is spring but according to locals it isn't here until we see the daffodils. Hopefully soon!