30th of August
Blasted squirrel just ducked behind a branch…
Jim's General
29th of August
I’m in Ohio, though the rental car is from the Land of Lincoln. My US tour is underway, more to follow….
15th of August
‘We’re Jammin’, here are the fruit preserves of our labours at the berryfields. Well Susie’s labours mainly. Jam making has been a great family tradition for the last ten thousand years. My grannie won prizes for it and even more prizes for boasting about winning prizes for it. But its only warm just after it is made mmmm…
13th of August
Since we are going to see the new Sottish based movie ‘Brave’ we thought we’d go and see the castle it was based around – Dunnottar near Stonehaven. More captions to follow……
Thistle do the trick… looking out along the North sea coastline
‘Come fly with me.. a very blue bottle.
Arty shot of a staircase inside the oldest part of the castle.
Some awfy bonnie flowers on a castle wall
The formidale entrance to the castle which held out against the whole of Cromwells army for eight months.
Sandy who has since had a good, short back-to-school haircut…
Beeutiful….
The Scottish crown jewels were held in the castle during the Cromwells 1650 seige but successfully smuggled out and hidden in a nearby church where they stayed hidden until the restoration ten years later. This restored room commemorates the efforts of those involved in saving the Honours of Scotland…
A nice coat of arms…
Very Robert the Bruce..
Looking out east there was a bit a regatta going on round the corner at Stonehaven.
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You do meet some dodgy characters hanging around castles.
More arty nonsense
Lots of seabirds use the castle to nest. we found a big seagull chick waiting for mama with the fish…
Looking south into a little cove…
The kids decided that this was the cave that Harry and Dumbledore visit in the Half Blood Prince
We were there with the Laing family. Robin is a well known folk singer and whisky guru
Summer is not complete without a visit to ‘the berries’ here at Watsons fruit farm near Perth.
When I was a kid we lived on a farm surrounded by raspberry fields and we we forced to pick them as a summer job. When you go to sleep at night you see nothing but raspberries.
A bit like this…
28th of July
Last night I gave a concert at the new Robert Burns Museum down in Alloway outside the town of Ayr. It was a great honour to perform there although a bit nerve wracking as the folks there know a lot about Rabbie. It was two days after six months on from Burns Night. I think that since the Irish can have their halfway to St Patricks Day bash we should do the same. I’m calling it the Half Rabbie…
I had a good crowd, who missed the opening ceremony of the Olympics to be there, so thanks all for that. And thanks to Stuart and all at the museum for a great night.
Latest news is that the museum is to receive a collection of Burns memorabilia that had been collected by Micheal Jackson who was a big fan of Rabbie.
