Jim Malcolm

Evening folks, safely back at home with me slippers on after a wonderful trip the West Coast. Scotland is still in late winter mode but the snowdrops are bloomin’ and the odd crocus too. There has been little snow even on the mountains this year in stark contrast to our two previous full-Narnia winters. This is good for the trout fishing because the cormorants have been happily munching trout in the unfrozen lochs and not my beloved Perthshire rivers. So – lookin’ good! But it can all still go wrong I assure you and it usually does.

Id like to thank everyone who made my wonderful tour possible and I dearly look forward to trouble-ing your kettles again soon. The provision of afternoon tea in America is getting better and better. And the Renaissance in American Beer continues apace. From Caledonia to California, Oregon and Washington – a happy Scotsman salutes you !

Near Cloverdale Ca amongst the vineyards – if only the Scotsman would get out the way….

Near Morrow Bay CA

The other direction…

Heading down towards the central valley from Clearlake the hills are very triangular

The Sacremento River near Chico

Snow geese in a rice field near Yuba City Ca

Mount Hood from the car park

Up the very mountain shaped er mountain

Had a beer and a rather chewy hotdog in this wee shop thingy – fairly sure there is a posh french name for such places.

Nearly went off a bit of a cliff here….

Mt hood is one of a string of similar looking volcanoes called the Cascades. I think this is St Helens , the one that exploded in the eighties. A bit like Margaret Thatcher.

Goodbye wonderful mountain, a superb day with thankfully no injuries. mind you I have got some serious padding. Snowboarding has totally been my mid life crisis, but at least it’s a lot cheaper than a sports car!

A bird with a massive beak that I managed to get surprisingly close to near Morrow Bay on the Central California Coast.

Football crazy – goalposts at the mouth of the Navarro River on the way to Fort Bragg.

Vines near Santa Rosa

That tree again at Legget

Yes folks, the Luddite who used to write songs about how good the old lightbulb was has started to tweet.The ether has begun to tinkle with short rumblings from a folkies belly that will both edify and educate princes and paupers on a daily basis. We’ll see…. As my new years pledge to be more communicative kicks up a gear we will see if a Malcolm resolution actually makes it through to February. I am currently preparing for my next tour which is out on the West Coast of the US, I’m really looking forward to hooking up with some old pals. I think this is the twelth year in a row I’ve made it out west. I’m hoping to get a day snowboarding in Oregon or Washington as Scotland has been rubbish for snow this year. But mostly I just want to walk along that Ocean.
Oh, and by the way, when it says above that it’s Susie who adds these posts it isn’t. Just haven’t figured out how to change it yet.

Well folks, yet again I have disgraced myself by failing to keep my blog up to date since November in Texas. I have a couple of excuses. One is that I lost my camera, and I’ve been more of a post card blogger than a textman.  The other excuse is that I’ve been extremely busy recording a new CD which thankfully is finished and currently getting made at a factory somewhere in Lancashire. It is called ‘Disaster For Scotland’ and is a collection of most of the satirical songs I have written in the last twenty years or so. I’ve waited ’till now so that I could dedicate a whole CD to them rather than contaminate my ‘serious’ albums (strikes a serious pose). Anyway I have resolved to be much more communicative in 2012 and will be buying another camera when I get to the US in a few days time. Back soon……

Tucson Arizona, where Chris and Mel take me to watch a pumkin chunkin at the local uni. Here is a machine for firing pumkins.

Here is the pumkin it fired, though not far enough to smash it.

Here are the serious ones that fired them pretty far.

As well as for distance they had to try and smash a wall, which the rubbish one did best.

Signs for this infamous attraction can be seen for scores of miles in southern Arizona. It costs a dollar.

….. Mummy!…..

                                                                Old pals the Ponsfords in El Paso, have an organic waste disposal unit in their kitchen

  Into West Texas – mamba country……….

My rental car got attacked by a West Texas tumbleweed.

Oils well that ends well. There are thousands of these guys nodding away glooping up oil from the desert.

There are also a surprising number of windmills but it was dark by the time I reached them.

Hello folks as you can see there has been a bit of a drought here in Perthshire. No, I’m in Arizona where the seguaro cactus are like something out of a cartoon. I landed in Phoenix and headed up to Flagstaff, through a landscape dominated by these guys.

Sedona from a distance, famous for it’s red rock and canyons

Lots of these amazing features

I was planning to do a spot of fishing in Oak Creek but when I got to Sedona the overnight rain had turned it into a chocolate river  worthy of Willy Wonkas factory.

So I spent a bit of time looking at galleries with super pricey statues like this angry looking feathered friend.

This chap is out to hunt for the bear necessities

And this lady  is a real charmer – of snakes.

As I climbed out of Sedona the river was strangely clear, so I had a few casts and was roundly humiliated by the trout. So nothing new there then.

Scotland Forever !
This lovely piece of stained glass was made for me by Kerry in Alaska, a great friend of the Old Blind Dogs.

Those dots on the other side of the River Tay are salmon fisherman at Rome Croy, an ancient earthwork built by the Romans to create a harbour at the tidal reach of the river.

The river Almond near Perth, a fish was rising in the foreground, honest.

Plaque at Caputh to celebrate the biggest salmon ever caught in britain, by Georgina Ballantyne

who lived here……

River bank here looks like a face!

Sandy spent some time with my big sis and brother in law quadding around and hunting geese.

Greetings from Autumnal Perth. Here is the Old Bridge and Tay Street, taken from the New Bridge but enough about bridges. Shortly after this moment it started to rain, a commodity not rare this year. As a result the river has been in beautiful nick this season although short of trout due to the winter plague of cormorants, blah, blah, glaze over….

Ecce Tiber – Behold The Tiber, The Romans came here and it reminded them of home, something to do with the surrounding hills and the river. But what did they ever do for us? Not much, except cower in their forts. Here was the first real frontier of their Empire that stretched from Persia. We were too fierce and perhaps not worth the sandal. The shellfish is a swan mussel for which the Tay is famous as a source of pearls. See lyrics to Fields of Angus