Beginnings of Spring in St. Andrews

We had a nice afternoon out in St. Andrews.  A lovely place to visit.  We had lunch at The Glass House Restaurant - very yummy.  Here are a few photos towards the end of the afternoon.  The clouds had begun to gather a bit, but the day had been mild and people were in good spirits.  Happy Travels!

~the wee city on the east coast looks sleepy~

~the winter brings a softness to the

beach grass~




~bright courtyard flowers intrude upon the soft blue, beige and browns of winter's sleep~

~ancient ruins                imitate modern art~

  

 

~a Highlander with dreams of the ocean~

 

~one more glance to the sea and dreams of sails~

 

Meet the McRaes

Scot blogging here.

Some of our Followers might be aware that we have been developing the tour Journey to the Western Isles.

It's an amazing place, unique unto itself, and while politically part of Scotland, it is quite remote from the mainland and has its own culture.

It's the long chain of islands that runs down the north west coast of Scotland.

We went there in 2010 with Mare and Care (aka The Sisters), just as a wee extension to the Jamie and Claire Tour.

This year we are going twice (or at least I am going twice, Sam is a bit miffed that she's only going to get there once).  The August tour is open to all while the first, in June, is a private tour, so

Da Daaa!

Meet the McRaes.

My favourite photo of them - hiking in remote Skye in 2008

John and Sally did a genealogy tour with me in 2008 and are coming back to see these amazing isles, that lie on the very edge of Europe.
I'll be blogging in the run up to this great pilgrimage to whet the appetites of all concerned.

Because it's a private tour, I've tailored it to their requests.  We'll be spending some time in Glencoe on the way back.  I'll let the photos tell the story.

Big Hills. Wear a hard hat.

In the next months' blogs:  Food, cute cottages, beaches...

Journey to the Western Isles.

Solstice and Christmas on Loch Ness

Feasgar math, good evening Outlandish Bloggers,
Scot here, hailing you from the shores of Loch Ness where Sam and I are staying in a Victorian hunting lodge over the Christmas / Solstice period.  Log fires, good food, good company, no snow, driving rain... It's Scotland.

We're cabinned-up in The Inch na Cardoch Hotel.  That's Alan Clayton, the owner in the kilt below.

We've been having a we break and also performing the role of MC for the few days here, bringing Scottish traditions to the proceedings.

We've just been making Brides Crosses with the 19 or so guests.

Sam gathering Luachar for the crosses

Loch Ness from the lodge

Bridget's Crosses proudly displayed.

Bridget is a Celtic diety who was the Goddess of hearth fire, home, the plough, poetry, wisdom and blacksmithing.  She was taken into the Christian cannon of saints.  Making of her crosses for the home is a blessing. We do it in the winter dark hours.  Here, the guests have given them as gifts to the staff, Marian, Ali, Michelle and Rab the chef have been working hard to look after us in this fine old homely home.

Winter blessings with you.  The sun is returning!
Scot

May 2012 - Happy Thoughts of a Spring Tour

I'd really like to know if there's something happening out there that I'm not aware of, because there's been a run on the Jamie & Claire May 2012 Tour!  There are now only 4 spaces left.  Usually we get people signing on throughout the months, but this time it's been almost all at once..... interesting (as Mr. Spock would say).

It's a nice diversion after the two wind storms we've just had here in Scotland where winds of 100 to 150 mph were lifting trees out of the ground and roofs off the houses.  Scot and I lost power for two days just after a huge grocery shopping trip, so we scrambled to friend's for freezer space.  Then our roads flooded into our yard leaving us without clean water until we had our water tank emptied and cleaned.  But if that's all life is challenging us with, then life is pretty good and we have no complaints!

Mind you, we had quite a wind storm in May this year.  This has all been a bit unprecedented.  Climate change anyone?  I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the spring and to meeting more lovely faces on our adventures following the trail of those two famous and much loved Outlandish Spirits, Claire & Jamie.  We really enjoyed our travels with all our other OSs and hope you're all doing well and keeping warm.  Cheers Dears! Sam

And here are some sheep... blue spotted sheep... a rare breed.... ahem.

Getting the Harvest in

This wee post is not a tour blog.  Tour season has ended, big sigh, sore feet, what day is it?

Now it's time to get the white board out and make the long list of winter projects to do.  One of which is to finish the harvest and get the garden put to bed.

Scot has been mowing the meadow and making hay stacks.  There's still a few wee beasites and bees around (unusually warm over 3 days) so he's been leaving some flowers up for them.

For tour guest Monique and other city dwellers: a haystack

I have become "smoothie girl", blending bulk spinach for fruit-smoothies that I will freeze for eeking out over winter.  There is a lot of eeking done here in the winter - Gabaldon and other books to read and make last; currently, "A Thousand Splendid Suns".  Firewood to eek out, sanity to make last a winter of snow.  (You've seen The Shining, aye?)

I have been keeping us healthy with nutritious blends of vegetables and fruit, much from the garden, to make smoothies.  (Scot:  "canny eat that. I's got froot init." ).  I'm running out of room in the freezer.  I grew my own spinach this year with great success, but the season is over and now I've gone to our local green grocer for a crate.

Scot has a cottage to thatch next week in Argyll and then it's down to book writing again.  He's set himself the target of 20,000 words to add to the book this winter.
Another note for city dwellers:  A thatched house that Scot's repairing.  This is only slightly smaller than our last wee house.

On the tour front, I am playing with the idea of an Ireland tour for next year (amazing country and people).  Some of my Outlandish Spirits from previous J&C tours are interested. 
Scot will be doing a "Journey to the Western Isles" tour for some previous old-tour-friends.  That one's private, but again, some interest from the Outlandish Spirits in the public one.  (See Scot's website for pics of that tour from last year Journey to the Western Isles)
Himself is also thinking of a dude tour called Grain and Stone.  It's just a "what if" at the moment, but the idea would be to visit a few clan chiefs in their castles, share a dram and experience the lives of highland chieftains.  That's the Stone part.  The Grain is to visit a couple of breweries and a few distilleries.  Throw all that on to the back of highland ponies and head into the wilderness hawking and hunting for their daily rations for a few days.
All a bit dudish for me (and perhaps you, the blog followers) but it might be a good way to get rid of your husbands for week, perhaps permanently if they can't keep up.  Visions of City Slickers (1991) come to mind.

Line em up day 8

The Last Day, sob sob.

We won't have any words from our Outlandish Spirits directly for the final day, because we didn't carry the blog machine around Edinburgh today.

Gale force winds buffeted the Western Isles and we felt just the tail of it on the Royal Mile.  Bracing!  Very authentic for Claire-returns-to-Edinburgh-1768.

We did all the wee side streets and closes that feature in the book, testing the guests along the way to see if they knew which scene was played out in the place they now stood. Julia was, and has been through the tour, the most.. erm... devoted reader (there's always one on the Jamie and Claire tour whom we suspect has a box of cross-referenced indexed cards with every character and scene cataloged -lol- that would be Julia on this tour.  Hello Danelle from last year to name but one.)  Which of you was it on the Grain Tour?

Debie has not stopped grinning throughout the trip (see yesterday's picture of her with a gnome friend).  Today was no exception.  She kept saying that she was just going to stay in Scotland and not go back.  I'm sure her family can come up with a story about Stones and Gems and being lost in time.

Line em up one more time - Jacobite Glasses

Sam gave "a few wee gifties" as she calls them to our guests (above).  A rare 18th Century style of glass, traditionally engraved with a Jacobite symbol.  Line em up!  Just sayin'.

Sam went running about some local shops and discovered some that specialize in proper Scotland items, made in Scotland and not some foreign land and came back with the locations for our Outlandish Spirits to visit later.  She also ran into and had a good chat with Mike Katz and Alasdair White of "The Battlefield Band".  Alas, they were not playing in town this day.  But she recommends that you buy one of their cd's and enjoy some good Scottish music.  She has seen them in concert in the past.

After most everyone said goodbye, I decided that we should do a pub crawl for some local ales and 'convinced' Julia, Monique and Glenda to join in.  Luckily it was on their way to their accommodation (complete with swimming pool and spa - another J&C Tour first) so the lasses didnae have far to stagger, I mean walk.  Then more goodbyes and aye fond farewells as the song goes.

We shall truly miss this group of haggis eat'n, whisky, ale and sambuka drink'n, bunny chasin', and most important Jamie chasin' (except for Ron, who kinda likes Loighaire) Outlandish Spirits ... Just sayin'.

Line em up - day 6 and 7

DAY 6

Monique: Last night we got to stay the night in the castle. It was my first experience in a castle and it was awesome. I don't even know how to describe it. We had a three course meal with bagpipers, and then I encountered my second favorite dessert (next to the thick hot chocolate, of course)...sticky toffee pudding. It was the most sinful thing ever. To our surprise Robert the Bruce and a Templar Knight came to visit. We had to make a decision on whether or not to help the scottish war against Edward of England. How to make such a decision was hard but ended up helping anyway. We got to try on the armor and play with the weapons. Boy, that was fun!!! Overall, the people were great, the food was wonderful, and the company was grand! Also there was the cutest gnome garden in the front of the castle. Any type of gnome you could think of probably exist in that garden. There were a few gnomes being very "cheeky" in the garden but they were too cute to be upset with.

Cindy: We arrived last night at Castle Stuart to spend the night; another first for me. The meal was fantastic as was the bagpiper and Robert the Bruce. Yes this was somewhat of a fairy tale night. This was another favorite day and night for me. I'm yet undecided if climbing up the mountain with sheep all around and the bubbling creek was my favorite day or was it the castle stay. It doesn't matter. It is all such a real wonderful dream. Who would have thought I would be waking up in a Castle in Scotland.

Nancy & Ron: We enjoyed a magical night and day in the Castle Stuart. [They had the big king size bed chamber... I'm just saying... Sam)

Debie: Oh Brothers of mine grab your walking sticks and join me in the enchanted forests of Scotland! Green moss covers the trees, mushrooms of every color cover the ground orange with polka dots, white and green, wild flowers blue, pink, yellow and orange [we took a walk along the hills around Loch Ness]. The castle was outstanding, the piper calling us to dine. It was a dream come true. Fireplaces so big you could stand in them, you could feel the history!

Tales by the walk-in fireplace

Not sure how to add to this image by words?

Debie makes a friend

A porter goes to fetch a bag

Tomorrow... we walk the Royal Mile and search out the haunts of A.Malcolm seditious printer.  It is forecast to be gale-force tomorrow and raining heavily, just like in Claire's return to Edinburgh and the run to the World's End.  Ah, the authentic Scottish experience.  Can't wait!