Tag Archives: Scotland

Cows, sheep, birds, and bunnies!

Posted on by
6
We sometimes experienced cows and sheep on the road :-).
Highland “coos” are very cute, and docile. Unless you mess with them and we did not do that.

The sheep were white and everywhere we went outside of towns.

These fellows have been sheared. They look so different!

And this was new—brown sheep! Only saw them once.

I heard more birds than I saw. I’m pretty sure this is an Oyster Catcher.

Gulls are everywhere. More than one kind and Steve could tell them apart.

These are juvenile Jackdaws (I think). They were fuzzier than an adult. While we watched, one of the parents flew in with food 😊.

Most of the rabbits were cottontails but we did see this albino rabbit whose coat was textured. He looked huggable.

The rabbit was with these chickens. we didn’t see many chickens 🤷‍♀️.

The most exciting animal spotting for me were the Puffins!

We are at the Edinburgh airport, ready to fly through London Heathrow to Dallas. I’m out of sewing and knitting so will read one book, or listen to another book, and maybe doodle in a notebook. Lorna and I will have time to map out what to work on next.

I have loved every bit of this vacation. Scotland is a wonderful place filled with some of the nicest people I have ever encountered.

Flowers I saw in Scotland…

Posted on by
9

It’s mid-June and there are a lot of flowers out in nature and in town. I don’t know the names of most of these flowers, but many feel familiar. One man told me that this has been a very good year for buttercups and I think that’s true for many of the wild flowers. I took many of these photos on Islay.

This looks a bit like a plant called Red Hot Poker in Texas
Thrift or Sea Thrift

I first saw these on Islay but they showed up all over Scotland and up into Orkney—although there seemed to be fewer flowers on Orkney, where the landscape is more exposed to wind.

Buttercups
Wild Iris
Elderberry
Looks a lot like Queen Anne’s Lace
Foxglove
Foxglove with a bee!
Fern and I don’t know what the pink flower is.

The buttercups give the fields a bright yellow tint…

Maybe this is Heather? Whatever it is, it’s all over the place.

Plants take a foothold anywhere they can.

On one walk in a nature preserve, there was this sign… None of us read “ditch” at first 🤣.

From here on out, ditches at the sides of the road were bitches. And they may forever stay that way in my head… Back to flowers!

Not Thistle
Thistle
Cotton Grass
a bee!
Daisies

Plants growing in water that seemed bog-like.

And what the heck is this? (Helpful readers told me it’s Gunnera.)

It was taller than me, with thorns! It was growing near the water so can tolerate the salt that is sure to spray up. This plant felt prehistoric… and there was more than one of them.

Purple and yellow were everywhere, so other colors called attention to themselves.

Lots of roses, both wild and domestic…

And garden flowers were very happy!

Columbine
Honeysuckle
Giant Lupine!
Giant Lupine!
Giant Lupine!
Giant Lupine!

Everywhere there are stacked stone fences. I love them!!!!

You have to love the colorful spring flowers in Scotland :-).

Exploring south Orkney…

Posted on by
17

I could spread this out over many posts, but we did all this today so here we go! We started at Olav’s Wood, a small private forest. We met David, the current caretaker who told us that Olsv died two years ago, but he planted the trees. There are some native trees, but many from other places including America.

I spotted this moth cocoon straight off. Its markings tell predators that it is poisonous.

This is what the Wood looks like from a distance. It’s small but inside the trees, you could get lost.

On the way to hunting a toilet, we stopped at this church that had a lovely cemetery. We have passed many like this and I always think that this would be a nice place to be planted. Except I prefer to be scattered 🤷‍♀️.

I think that’s rhubarb!

Next, Polly Kettle Teahouse where we had lunch and dessert!!!

Next we went take an exciting walk.

Google it 😊

Lorna was both excited and nervous because there is a little bit of scariness if you go out to the more exposed part. But we met four lovely people my age or older who told her she could do it and she did! It starts easy. There’s this at the beginning, a gorge out of nowhere…

Keep walking, near water but not crazy high…

And then you get to a path out to a column of rock that can only be reached by going down near the water then back up a narrow walk with steep drops at the edge. There are stairs and a chain railing to hold onto. Yes, do hold the chain!

We made it! There is a Norse ruin at the top.

And a small flat area to walk around the top of the rock. The ground is soft here too, and spongy.

We walked back down the scary trail to the two rocky beaches. Had to look closer.

Back to the car for a quick stop at the Deerness Distillery. Lorna liked all of these. I was driving 🙄.

Next stop at a beach that had huge sand dunes, and a toilet. Lorna put her toes in the sand and feet in the ocean. I kept my feet snug in my shoes 😊.

We had time, so headed back to Stromness to the Quernstone knitwear shop where Lorna found a sweater vest. It’s perfect and the sweater hunt can be checked off the list.

And that was our day! Tomorrow is our last full day on Orkney. We are both sad to see the vacation winding down. Sigh.

Puffins! And more…

Posted on by
5

We headed north to the Brough (brock) of Birsay to see Norse ruins and Puffins. No suspense… we found both! The Brough is a small island that is accessible at low tide when you can walk across a concrete path. We got there a little too early so took time to walk through the Earl’s Palace, Birsay.

Then back to the walkway to the island…

And the norse ruins…

Then we followed the paths around to the cliff side of the island.

Birds that are not puffins but lovely nonetheless.

There are puffins but here but my iphone was not up to the task.

Lorna is not happy being near steep drop offs, but she found places that she could handle.

And then, at the last cliff outcropping, we found people who had spotted one puffin posing very patiently.

We had to lay down to see it!!!

Seeing puffins was big and we felt like the day was perfect but we kept going on to Skara Brae. Click the link for details. It was amazing to be in a place that people thrived in 5000 years ago.

Last stop was the nearby beach…

Back to the Kirkwall Hotel for a very nice dinner where I enjoyed a flight of gin to go with a lovely roast beef dinner.

Lastly, cruise ships come here. Between you and me, I don’t think it fits in, but who am I to say 🤷‍♀️.

The Birks of Aberfeldy…

Posted on by
12

On the way from Stirling to Edinburgh yesterday, we stopped at a lovely book store/cafe. The coffee was good, the cake was even better! Then we diverted into nature, stopping to hike The Birks loop trail to see, and I quote, the dramatic Falls of Moness.

Uphill, a lot, often walking next to water falling.

It was worth the effort!

On the way out, I took photos of some trees—Anne, these are for you :-).

After enjoying nature, Chris drove us to Edinburgh where we found our Air BnB. An apartment on floor 1 which, to us, is actually floor 2. Here, the ground floor is either 0 or not numbered.

If we walk out the door and look right, we can see St. Mary’s Cathedral!