slowly she turned

Living the Slow life in North Carolina

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  • hoo boy

    what to do what to do what to do

    A little over a week since the beginning of the end of human history, I am emerging from a fog of fever and phlegm: the virus that hit both of us and numbed us both somewhat for over a week. Sandy less so; his coughing has not been as out of control and his anger not as tamped down. With him still under doctor’s orders not to drive and me spending most of my time in bed trying to snatch a few hours of cough-free sleep here and there, except for the loud fits of hacking, it’s been a quiet week at Casa O’Neill. There’s been much consumption of canned soup and hot tea.

    I guess I actually had more hope than I thought I had.

    Now, as things begin to penetrate a little more, my INTJ brain is searching for all the contingency paths forward, but I see nothing as safe.

    I read a little bit of Heather Cox Richardson or Joyce Vance every day or so to keep up. Maybe a little Wonkette. A little bit of the Guardian US. I say to myself that I’m going to let all the political news go. My therapist would suggest this. I haven’t made an appointment with her because 1) what’s the point and 2) I can’t talk without starting a coughing fit.

    Big trips abroad are likely out for the foreseeable future as we reassess our finances and wait to see what happens. Sandy has not depended on his Social Security but I have. I had a great year as far as travel this past year, so I am grateful that I got to see the Scottish Highlands and Cornwall at least one more time. It may well be that we will be fine staying here in our little paid-for Craftsman bungalow in blue Greensboro, NC, where the climate is mild compared to most other places. It may well be that we are already in our final destination. Acceptance is going to be an ongoing mission.

    In a fit of positivity on Halloween, I signed a three month contract for a small studio space in 205 Collaborative downtown, an artist co-op in a former industrial building. It’s $200 a month and I’m committed through the end of January. I love the funky industrial vibe there and the diversity of artists, and it is a short drive or bus ride or doable walk away. I spent four blissful days cleaning the space, moving stuff upstairs to it, and weaving on my cat tapestry, which I am now thinking of calling “Tangled.” I only spent a few hours each day because I was being careful not to hurt my back and because I am the driver in the family until Sandy gets cleared for take-off.

    Then this virus hit on late Monday last week – Sandy already had a milder version of it. Why I got hit with both barrels, I don’t know. A side lesson in acceptance…I finally had to accept that I didn’t have control of this thing and it’s not going to respond how I think it should and it will take it’s own sweet time, thank you very much, until it decides that it is done with me. Humbling me further.

    I had to reschedule Pablocito’s vet visit, the first in seven years, from last week to yesterday. I wasn’t totally surprised that he needed dental work, but the extent of it shocked me. He was still eating and he didn’t have bad breath. Dr. Hunt says that all of remaining teeth have to come out except for his fangs. She will sew flaps over his gums. Poor fella’s rejection of every new food after a couple of days was that he would associate the new taste with pain. The good thing is that other than that, he is as healthy as I thought he was. It’s gonna be expensive.

    So that’s scheduled just before Thanksgiving. He needs to wait two weeks after his vaccinations, and I have a morphine-based pain medication to give him until then. We’ll be in Greensboro for Thanksgiving and possibly Christmas, I don’t know. Usually we spend Thanksgiving at Lake Waccamaw.

    I got a email from John C. Campbell Folk School saying that I didn’t get chosen for a scholarship again. I may stop trying there and concentrate on other opportunities. They probably don’t want retired white women – they have enough of that demographic.

    I’m going to have a few pieces in Preston Wiles’ Emerging Artist Show at the Continental Club mid-December through mid-January.

    There’s an art retreat in Alexandria in late April that Leighanna Light, one of my favorite artist/teachers, is going to be at. That’s a nice train trip for me and I may try to make that happen. I’ve already paid for classes with Seth Apter and Leighanna’s husband, Thomas Ashman, at Art & Soul in Harrisburg, PA in mid July. That’s is somewhat refundable, if I have to do it, but since it is money spent and I have enough United miles to fly there, I may go ahead and do it and stay in a cheap hotel.

    I’ve had to delete all the enticing emails about other art retreats – the bombardment at this time of year is titillating and disheartening at the same time.

    Books: I finished reading the excellent “The Weight of Cloth” by my friend Dee Mallon, which told the story of a couple of decades in the life of Eliza Lucas Pinckney and the slave women around her through their voices. A tricky subject for a white writer to tackle, and yet she did it with poetry, grace, and didn’t skimp on the sorrow and brutality. I zipped through “Fourth Wing,” a sexy fast-paced fantasy novel by Rebecca Yarros, the escapist reading I needed during the past week. I’m reading “Rebecca” by Daphne Du Maurier, which I could have sworn that I had read before, but now I don’t think so. My new Libby check-out is “Tom Lake” by Ann Pratchett.

    Still watching reruns of “Northern Exposure” but I can’t focus on any other movies or TV. Will I ever get that back?

    I don’t think I’ll make it to the studio today. I did manage to go for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon and weave. It was a bit chilly and reminded me that this space is not heated or air conditioned, and I’ll have to lug a heater up there on the next trip. We’ll pick up Pablocito’s pain meds, our meds, and maybe some take-out food and set my sights on tomorrow.

  • Sunday morning coffee pot post

    Now that I’ve finished my posts about our trip to Scotland, and I highly recommend that you scroll to the bottom of that linked page and begin at the beginning, I can get on with journaling my regular life here in North Carolina.

    A week after we returned from Scotland, I participated in a group show across the street at Kevin Rutan’s house and studio. Kevin is an abstract painter who has a large clientele and I angled for years to get him to let me set up at one of his home shows. Lately he showed appreciation for my collage work and I’ve gone to him for advice for things like presentation, etc. So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that he finally had a group show and asked me to be part of it with him and three other artists. He advertised it heavily, including a full page ad in the local magazine. I had a variety of work to show and sell, and I sold a bit of each kind of media. It was a success and Kevin mentioned having Jeanne, who makes incredible ceramics, and me do it again in spring.

    I sold the two framed leaf prints, a woodcut print, two collages, a small abstract painting, and a small weaving.

    “Garden Hours” – sold!

    With that and my anxiety about politics and Sandy’s broken arm, I haven’t gotten any artwork done since the trip. I did do a stitch meditation the night before last. For over a week, I couldn’t use my kitchen much because a critter of some kind (I suspect a chipmunk) got under my kitchen cabinets and died and the funk was overwhelming. Thankfully the weather was pleasant so I had the doors open and fans pushing air through the house and I simmered cinnamon on the stove. My studio is next to the kitchen and there is no wall between them. There was nothing else I could do about it. We went out to eat a LOT and I was grateful for our screened front porch. We also had to get a plumber to fix a leak under the sink and now the Volvo is in the shop because the turn signal handle broke and is hanging beside the steering wheel. My phone is not working well, so I didn’t get the call that it was finished until after they had closed for the weekend. I wonder if I need to upgrade my phone.

    I seriously thought about searching for a part-time job after I came back from Scotland, but I’m going to see how it goes for a little longer, since I am now the house chauffeur.

    Sandy and I both had appointments. I got a cardiac scoring scan and finally assented to trying statins for my high cholesterol, although from the low cardiac test score I don’t think the results looked that bad. Sandy sees an orthopedic doctor tomorrow, almost exactly a month after he broke his arm at the shoulder. They couldn’t do much for him other than put him in a sling and tell him not to move it. After we see this doctor he will find out about physical therapy, which he needs for other parts of his body other than his arm and shoulder too, but he has to voice that to the doctor. I’ll probably go in with him if he will let me. He has been letting me go in with him lately. He is not able to drive and it is his dominant arm as well. Most of the time he has refused to take even acetaminophen or ibuprofen, much less the codeine the Scottish ER doctor provided him, but now he says that the pain has gotten better. He is quite stoic.

    So now the plan is to finish my tapestry, get back on my stitch meditation daily practice, and maybe making some more paper pulp sculptures. My friend Susanne has a Hollander beater and can make the overbeaten pulp, which is really expensive if you buy it. She is very motivated to do it. I still have some small amounts in the bottom drawer of my refrigerator that I added alcohol to to cut down on the fermented smell. I’m eyeballing a couple of random weave baskets that I made long ago and thinking about dipping them, and I’d like to make some more birds.

    Reading: Finished “Penmarric” by Susan Howatch, a really great novel that takes place in late 19th-20th century southern Cornwall. Started “The Weight of Cloth” by my friend Dee Mallon, and it is a very good, very sad novel about an 18th century plantation near Charleston told from four different narrators. She has a poetic way with language. I’m almost ready to tackle another Sharon Penman historical novel, “Lionheart,” whose story “Penmarric” parallels in the 20th century.

    Next door at our former property, the landscaping company has cut down all the camellias, and several trees. It’s a shame about the camellias but I am not too sad about it because I’m just happy somebody is doing something, anything, about that lot. We won’t have as much shade but at least the solar panels will get the sun that they got when we first installed them. I talked to the landscapers and they are leaving the yellow maple that grows right on our property line and the area where our cats were buried when we lived there. They are trying to get rid of the invasive vines and the English ivy. Good luck to them because I never could.

    Heigh ho, onward! Alan Rickman said “heigh ho” a lot in his diary. Gosh, I really do need to watch those Harry Potter movies, don’t I? Instead we are rewatching “Northern Exposure” and what a pleasure it is!

    Okay, time to weave.

  • Sunday morning brain sweep

    I wanted to sleep a little later, but I really didn’t need to. Pablocito convinced me of that with his loud meowing. He is a pain in the ass early in the morning and he is the most vocal kitty we have ever lived with. However, he has settled in to curling up beside me in bed sometimes and has claimed the spot on the bed that he always wanted.

    We still miss Diego. It’s been almost four months since we let him go. We have talked about getting Pablocito a companion after we returned from Scotland and after the election (who knows if we liberals might need to flee the country!). I don’t know. If we do, it will be an older female cat that an elderly person has had to relinquish through moving or death or illness. I’m hoping for a black cat, since I haven’t had one since childhood, or an orange cat, but the right cat will show up at the right time. Just like Diego and Pablocito did in 2013. Just like Theo did in 2009.

    Right now, like a lot of people, I’m just hanging in there to see if Americans are going to come to their senses on Nov. 5. We will go to early voting this week. We’ve become big fans of Kamala. Sandy went to one of her rallies while I was at Wildacres in September and came back very energized. My retirement savings are doing very well in the stock market. I’m not sure that I understand why some people are blaming Biden for inflation when it began under Trump, is worldwide, and corporations have been raising prices despite major profits, but logic has taken a vacation from their brains, apparently. It has mostly made me extremely sad. How do people live with these thoughts in their head? This violent rhetoric that has caused real harm to real people? Do they think that deporting immigrants will LOWER food prices when most of our agricultural and food processing workers are immigrants?

    And women’s rights. My God. I have two friends (that I know about) who had to have abortions or die. Their babies were dead or not going to live. They wanted those babies very much. I’ve had other friends who had abortions because their economic and personal lives could not support having a baby at that time. I never wanted a child, and if I had become pregnant, I would have been a terrible mother. I would have had to consider the choice. But the reasons don’t matter, really, so much as the basic fact that abortion is health care and shouldn’t be up to government or religious institutions.

    It is all such a mystery and the dissonance is making this half-Vulcan mind hurt.

    It is the meanness that has been revealed that hurts the most. And from some of the people I knew in my past that I thought were smart and kind, or at least intelligent enough to look at the evidence and think through it.

    Enough of that. Maybe writing it out will let me sleep more soundly tonight. I have to say that retirement has helped with my sleep problems so much. Not having to get up at a certain time when I was awake until 2 or 3 a.m. has been a godsend to my health, and I’ve actually been able to get to sleep by midnight and then get up at 7:30 or 8 without a problem. When I do have to get up early for an appointment, I still get anxious and find myself reading a book at 3 a.m. to get to sleep, otherwise I toss and turn, worrying about insomnia, which of course makes it worse. At least now I know that I can take a nap if needed.

    Now that that’s out, I think I’ll start another post.

  • Saturday Catch-up Post

    Before I blog our trip to Scotland, let me take a few moments to process some of what has happened in North Carolina while I was gone.

    Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage to a huge area of one of my favorite places on Earth – the mountains of North Carolina. I have friends and family who still don’t have power after nine days, and many people are trapped in places where the roads and bridges have been destroyed or made impassable. A huge loss will be felt in commerce, food production, the arts, and technology. Many lives have been lost and we still don’t know the extent of it. Entire small towns have been wiped away by floods, landslides, and mudslides. I-40, one of the main east-west roads through the mountains, is predicted to re-open a year from now.

    I feel fortunate that we were not touched by this massive storm in Greensboro while we were gone on our Scotland trip.

    I will be grieving for my beloved Appalachian mountains. They will eventually rebuild and recover, but it will take billions of dollars and much time. Some places will never recover.

    And climate change means that this >1000 year event could happen again.

    I treasure the time I spent at Wildacres Retreat near Little Switzerland and Spruce Pine less than one month ago, and viewing the lovely scenery along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

    If you’d like to help in the recovery, I believe that the best way is to research reputable charities and organizations and give money, rather than buying supplies to send to them. They don’t need old clothes. I have a friend who is concentrating on helping farms and livestock producers now, but she has delivered supplies and found that her big truckload could only go so far, at which point the supplies were loaded on smaller trucks, and eventually on ATVs or mules to get to the most remote places. Helicopters have been doing much rescue and supply drops as well. Army and National Guard troops from several states have been deployed.

    Be ultra careful about what you read about on the Internet. Much disinformation is out there and the usual bad actors are lying their asses off for political gain. Con men will con – sociopaths have no shame.

    Now I plan to work on my blog posts about Scotland, probably a day or two at a time and back dating them to the date when it happened. I’ll share them on my Slow Turn Studio Facebook page. I also have a group art show coming up in a week that I can now continue to get ready for, although I’m mostly ready. As you will read in the travel posts, I am also a caregiver now until my husband recovers from a bad injury, so I have housecleaning and driving to do. It’s all doable. We both feel lucky in comparison to others right now.

  • Leaving Scotland, Oct 2-3, 2024

    In the morning, I went down to have breakfast and say goodbye to the members of our tour group. The news was on TV there and I was once again swept away with grief about what was happening to my friends in the path of Helene. One person who lingered at the table beside me was a woman who I had talked with a lot during our trip. She made a crack about Biden and I knew for sure then that she was MAGA. We had studiously stayed away from talking politics during the trip.

    So when I rose to go upstairs, we hugged, and I said to her, “I gather from what you said that you are a conservative.” She said yes. “Well, you may have guessed that I am very liberal. And what I hope that we can both take away from this is that we got along very well. It gives me hope for the future,” I said.

    We hugged, we talked for a while longer, and then I took my leave of the group. Sandy, of course, was now feeling better, but the die was cast and the tickets bought. We left Inverness on the train.

    The ride through the Cairngorms to Edinburgh was beautiful. I took a two minute video at the highest point on the rail line. I’ve always been a fan of being able to see the bones of the earth, even though I hate to see humans strip it of trees. It’s one reason that I love to go west. Maybe it’s because I’ve always lived in very green North Carolina.

    We got off the train at Haymarket and almost immediately got on the tram (Edinburgh’s Metro) to the airport, where we stopped at the disability assistance office because I was looking for a bus stop to the hotel that was no longer there. This was a fortunate stop, because they were of great help that day and the next. A staff member wheeled Sandy back to the new bus stop, and told us what to do the next day for assistance. We stayed in a nearby hotel that night.

    At Edinburgh airport, the disability assistance folks were kind and helpful. We were taken to a lounge just for people with disabilities in the heart of the airport, and when the time came to board the plane, Sandy was wheeled to the gate. He was somewhat resistant to all this, since he hates to be waited on and wants to do everything himself, and that attitude made us fight off and on throughout the day. However, it was necessary, and he finally accepted that. The last thing that we needed was for him to fall again, and it was painful for him to walk more than five minutes so he was very slow.

    United Airlines and the gate agent at Edinburgh saved the day for us by moving someone on our row to another window seat and so for the long flight to DC we had the middle seat empty and Sandy did not have to worry about getting his broken arm bumped. United had given us Economy Plus seats for the whole trip at little extra cost. His cold was progressively better while I started to feel it.

    Wheelchair assistance at Dulles and Newark was a much different experience. At Dulles, at least, the assistant who was ordered ahead of time was at the gate and extremely helpful in getting us all the way through customs, picking up and rechecking our luggage, and making our connection with a little time to spare. I was practically trotting along behind he was moving along so fast. I made a much needed stop at the bathroom and the assistant hit Sandy up for a tip. Sandy only had a twenty dollar bill and gave it to him. I came back and the assistant was hurrying away. It pissed me off that he pressured Sandy when he was vulnerable, but in hindsight I have to admit that his help was worth a $20 tip.

    At one point when we thought we might miss the connection we discussed leaving the airport and taking a train to Greensboro. It would cost us more but it would have been about the same amount of time to get home and would have been more comfortable. I mean, it’s insane to have to fly in the opposite direction to catch another flight home, but that’s how it is sometimes.

    On this flight to Newark, Sandy was on the aisle and I was in the middle so he had to be vigilant about his arm. When we exited, the help we had been promised at the gate was not there and the gate agent made many calls. Finally when it appeared that we would miss our connection there if we didn’t get help immediately, he stepped out and snagged one of the assistants wheeling an empty chair going by, and it was another mad dash through the airport and over a shuttle bus but we made our flight home to Greensboro. We would never have made that connection had we tried to walk it, and I was getting weepy at the thought of having to spend the night in Newark and trying to get home in the morning.

    Once we got home, Pablocito was so very happy to see us and he has stuck to me like glue ever since. I wish that he would pay attention to Sandy, but he has made it clear that I am his person. I suppose it is good that Sandy doesn’t have a cat pawing at his arm and jumping on him the way that Diego did, but I know Sandy needs the love of a furry feline.

    Now we are concentrating on getting Sandy healed up.

  • Inverness and Loch Ness, Oct. 1, 2024

    The night before, Sandy told me that his throat was very sore, so I dosed him with hot tea and lemon and honey. There were three people on our tour who had terrible coughs and said that they had been sick the week before. Sandy was not feeling up to getting out on this first day of October, so I picked him up some breakfast from the buffet downstairs, made him hot tea again, and left him in the hotel room to watch movies while I went with the group on a little cruise on Loch Ness to the ruins of Urquhart Castle. While waiting for the boat, I enjoyed a bit of time on the shore.

    for those who want a Nessie sighting
    the boat ride on Loch Ness up to the castle ruins
    Ach, a heelin coo
    Finally, I get to explore a castle!
    the destroyed gatehouse and moat
    looking up the hill to the top of the ruins
    The Grant Tower, which was a residence in the late 1500s
    a view from inside the walls
    Overlooking the ruins from the top

    I brought back some sweet treats from the Urquhart visitor center cafe and after a little rest, talked him into walking down the street to a famous used bookshop (at least to those of us who search for such shops on vacation), Leakey’s. When we got there and found no place for him to sit, he decided to go back to the hotel and I spent the last couple of hours of the afternoon exploring around that area of Inverness.

    I was good and didn’t buy any (more) books

    Next to the bookshop was the Old High Church, an 18th century church with a graveyard on a site with a much older history so I poked around it for a while. It was another place with tragic Jacobite history, where executions of prisoners from Culloden were done at the back door.

    Then I wandered around shops, but didn’t really see anything exciting. I stopped for a half-pint of local stout at the Highlander Tavern and sat in a window seat to people watch.

    resting my feet from those castle stairs

    Finally I went back to check on Sandy, and talked him into going across the street to the Black Isle Bar for a drink. I tried dosing him with a gin and tonic to cure his ails, and I had a half-pint each of their excellent organic porter and stout. We ran into a couple from Australia who we had talked to on a ferry two days before and had another conversation about their travels. It really is a small world.

    We discussed going home early on this day. He was ready to go and leave me behind to finish out the tour. Of course, I wasn’t going to do that.

    Then we headed around the corner to an early dinner at Aspendo’s, a Turkish restaurant, where we found Ted and Darlene, another couple we seemed to be thrown together with often by chance. We enjoyed their company. The lamb was amazing, but I was distracted by all the kilims hanging on the walls. This couple had been sick and also disclosed that they didn’t do vaccinations. :0

    Some of the group went to Hootenanny, a music pub nearby that looked great, but Sandy couldn’t go into crowded spaces because it hurt him so bad to have his arm bumped. Also, we became anxious that he was getting really sick and didn’t want to spread it. He was becoming miserable. Because he had busted his nose at the bridge, it was painful for him to wear a mask properly.

    I spent the evening calling United and getting our plane tickets changed to go home early. They were wonderful, but the only way we could do it without a lot of expense was to fly home on Thursday and not finish the tour that ended on Friday, and we had to take the train to Edinburgh on Wednesday. So we packed up, our tour manager looked up the train information and gave us directions, and that was it for Inverness. We left on the train the next morning.

    In hindsight, I regret that I didn’t walk more around Inverness, but my mind was on my husband and how to get home early. So I will have to go back one day.

  • Scottish Highlands, Sept. 30, 2024

    Bus driver Gus reluctantly stops for a photo in front of Glenspean Lodge

    This was probably our rainiest day. For the most part, the weather was quite good, with highs in the high 50s. In the meantime, my sister was in Cornwall and they had terrible weather. We were lucky.

    I was sorry to leave Glenspean Lodge. Really, I would have loved to have spent the entire time there. The food was fresh and delicious, and they were serious about sustainability. Very comfortable rooms. The landscaping was beautiful, and there was a bar and a game room. I’m not sure if they cater to other than tour groups though, since we were the only people there.

    finally got to touch water!

    We got to Glenfinnan early so that Gus could be sure to get a parking spot, and I had another chance to roam about a little. The main reason we were there was to take photos of the Jacobite Steam Train as it traveled over the Glenfinnan Viaduct, apparently often showed in the Harry Potter movies. (I really do have to watch them some time.) There was a memorial. Scotland was the scene of so much bloody, tragic history. This is where the Jacobite Rebellion began, so we visited the exhibition in the little museum there. I, of course, was drawn to the water of Loch Shiel.

    This little European robin posed for us.
    one of my favorite photos, taken from the bus on the way to Mallaig.

    Once the steam train went by, our bus headed to Mallaig, where we would eat lunch and board that Jacobite Steam Train to ride back to Fort William. The beaches around Mallaig were beckoning me – I wanted to get out so bad! From Mallaig you could see the Isles of Egg, Rum, and Skye. And alas, my phone camera was unreliable and I did not get the photos I thought I had taken.

    “cullen skink”

    We ate lunch in a small cafe and our waiter and I had a bit of a communication problem. For one example, I didn’t understand that “cullen” meant “soup” and she didn’t understand that “soup” meant “cullen,” but eventually it got sorted out and I had a fish chowder called “cullen skink” with lovely brown bread. Sandy went to the train station and I had a chance to visit a couple of art and gift shops and walk around the block near the harbour.

    Mallaig harbour

    Once we got on the steam train, it was a fun ride through the highlands, mostly along the lochs. There was a small island with tall trees in Loch Eilt that was called “Dumbledore’s Grave.” Ah well, another Harry Potter reference and a spoiler at that, but it was a pretty place.

    Me and mah buddy Ken on the Jacobite Steam Train
    Sandy on the Jacobite Steam Train
    Another HP thing: “butter beer” tasted like candy and looked magical when spun around
    Jacobite Steam Engine

    Back on the bus, where we headed for our next stop, Inverness. We stopped briefly at the Invermoriston “Old Bridge” and River Moriston Falls beside it. Our hotel was a modern chain on Church St. in the center of Inverness, and we had dinner there at a buffet that night.

    Oh yes, the motion sickness cure. By this day, I was not taking any Dramamine at all, and I was riding on roads that normally would make me sick as a dawg. I wore the acupressure cuffs, and the hotel owner sold these little fizzy candies that tasted like SweetTarts that she swore by for motion sickness. I ate one now and then, but I really think it was the acupressure cuffs that did the trick.

  • Scotland Highlands, Sept. 29, 2024

    This seemed like a really full day – by the end of it everyone seemed ready to get back to the hotel. At the same time, a lot of us would have liked to have had a different itinerary with more time in Fort William and Glencoe and less time on other stops. If there’s one major thing I regret about this trip other than having to cut it short, it was that I wished for time to walk on some trails, especially in Glencoe.

    Our first stop was nearby at the Commando Memorial, a tribute to the elite corps that served in WWII and beyond. There were stunning views and a garden of moving mementos to the soldiers who had died.

    After that, a long stop at Neptune’s Staircase, a set of eight locks on the Caledonian Canal that moved ships and boats a total of 85 feet up or down in 90 minutes. The Caledonian Canal connected the lochs through the Highlands to provide a navigable channel for some pretty large boats.

    On our way to Fort William, the bus stopped at the lower falls of the River Nevis. I took a close up photo of the tree with red berries that seemed to be everywhere. Our assumption was that the berries were not edible since we never saw any birds snacking. They provided a nice pop of color to the roadsides.

    Our bus driver constantly seemed to be on the lookout for Highland cows, or as he pronounced them, “heelin coos.” You see them depicted in all the gift shops in Scotland. “Hairy coos” is the other term you hear. Yes, they are interesting looking, with long fur and long horns. I never got a close up photo of them though.

    a stop to photograph the heelin coos

    We went to Fort William for lunch, and had lamb stew and a toastie (grilled cheese sandwich) at a pub called the Croft, then hurried over to the marina where we boarded a small cruise ship to take a ride on Loch Linnhe. The boat took a long slow circle around this little island covered in seals.

    After the cruise on Loch Linnhe, we rode through Glencoe on the bus and stopped at the visitor’s center. It was as lovely as you see in all the photos. I was grateful for a bit of solitude beside a wee ferny burn, but it didn’t last long! There was a reproduction of a thatched cottage.

    a small respite
    the classic view of Glencoe
    outside the cottage
    the hearth room inside

    Back on the bus, and there were a lot of people and cars about. A major trail ran through here, and someone was getting wedding photos made. Absolutely gorgeous scenery.

    So, we get back to the hotel, and a few of the younger women headed out for a forest walk to a little 16th century chapel nearby, but for all my grousing about not having time to take a good walk in the woods, I was too whipped to go!

    We had a fabulous dinner at Glenspean Lodge, and Sandy and I actually ate haggis, neeps, and tatties and liked it! There was a whisky tasting afterward. Sandy and I passed our whiskys over our water to signal that we are Jacobites. Again, there is video, if I can add it later. Sandy actually participated in this one!

    not haggis. sorry.

  • Scotland Highlands, Saturday, Sept. 28

    Up early to eat a marvelous breakfast at Glenspean Lodge, and since the day’s plans were almost entirely on the bus or the ferry, Sandy decided to give it a go. I wore some acupressure wrist bands that another tour member gave me and took only half a Dramamine. This worked very well and didn’t knock me out, which was good since normally twisty roads on buses and boat rides can trigger my motion sickness within a minute.

    Oban from the ferry

    Our bus took us to Oban, where we were cut loose for a little while. Sandy nosed around the shops some before returning to the ferry terminal to sit. His shoulder and arm weren’t the only parts of his body hurting. I ventured a bit farther away and bought us a couple of toboggans at a Harris Tweed mill shop that looked very old fashioned compared to the ones that we saw everywhere.

    It was quite comfortable on the large ferry over to the Isle of Mull. The weather was a bit wet, but the scenery was pretty.

    Dunollie Point and its castle ruins
    a smooth ride
    Lismore Lighthouse in the fog
    on the ferry
    Big ferry! I wonder if these two knew each other. Maybe there’s a story there.

    We were whisked onto the bus and transported to Tobermory, a beautiful little harbour town. They served an excellent seafood chowder at MacGochan’s Pub and Kitchen.

    There were palmettos in the parking lot. In Scotland! The Gulf Stream is a powerful force on the west coast of the British Isles.

    I rushed out of the pub to take this photo of the rainbow that appeared beside the rainbow colors of the harbour buildings.

    After lunch we didn’t have much time to look around Tobermory. This was my main criticism of the tour. I appreciated the time spent riding, especially since Sandy was in pain if he walked too far, but I wanted more time to poke around. The small area I had time in had some photo-worthy scenes though.

    Once again, our bus whisked us away to another small ferry. On the way, the bus driver pointed out that these boats were some of the most photographed boats in Scotland.

    I often couldn’t tell if he was kidding, since his humor was so dry.

    The roads were mostly one lane with places for one vehicle to pull over to let the other lane’s vehicle(s) pass.

    I finally figured out that if I wanted to take clear photos of the countryside, I would need to take short videos from the bus and trains. Since I always rode just behind Gus, it was very much like being on the front seat of a roller coaster. I did okay, though!

    This ferry had room for a few cars and our bus.

    We went back on such isolated roads that I didn’t see any houses or cars for miles. When I remarked to Gus that we were taking the back roads, he said “Oh, this is the main road.”

    I think he was joking.

  • Edinburgh to Roybridge, Sept. 26-27, 2024

    Looking down Prince Street to Waterloo Place.

    On Thursday morning, we slept late and then took a taxi to our next hotel, the Apex Waterloo Place. That night we would meet our tour manager and group, have dinner together, and decide whether Sandy was up for doing the tour.

    After leaving our luggage, we went to the corner cafe for brunch, where I had my first of many salmon dishes of the trip – a smoked salmon benedict.

    smoked salmon Benedict at the Society Bar & Kitchen

    Sandy wants to make our getting haircuts in other countries a tradition, so we walked down North Bridge then South Bridge Streets with a few stops to sit and found a barber shop with no customers and a walk-in sign. I wasn’t going to get my hair trimmed, but I ended up doing it and was glad of it.

    getting haircuts in Edinburgh
    the Royal Mile
    the Royal Mile
    the Royal Mile
    a “close” is an alley
    North Bridge St., an interesting modern building in the background

    It was a long walk for Sandy on even a good day, but I’m glad we both got out together in Edinburgh for a bit. It proved that Sandy could probably handle the tour, since most of it would be on buses and trains and boats anyway. After talking to both tour managers, we decided to go for it. Our room was very nice and dinner was excellent. We enjoyed meeting two other couples at dinner, and we’d end up hanging out with them quite a bit. I think I slept well for the first time. After breakfast at the hotel, we boarded a train and left for Glasgow.

    Platform 8e at Edinburgh Waverley station.

    We only had a brief stop in Glasgow with enough time to walk around the square in front of the train station. I would be interested in staying in Glasgow if we ever return, especially after talking to a couple of Glaswegians. Our bus driver was from Glasgow, and would only refer to Edinburgh as “that other city.”

    the square in Glasgow on Queens St.
    Glasgow
    detail from Glasgow building entrance

    I took a lot of blurry photos from the train to Fort William, where we would board our bus to Glenspean Lodge. I had taken a dramamine to ward off motion sickness and I struggled to stay awake. Later I figured out a solution for both problems.

    The views from our corner bedroom at Glenspean Lodge were beautiful and dinner was fantastic. Our tour group members were all Americans and the hotel owners knew what we wanted, so they provided top flat sheets on the beds and washcloths. Yay!

    view from Glenspean Lodge bedroom window
    view from Glenspean Lodge bedroom window