To give you a flavour of what it is that takes us so far at an unpromising time of the year, here are a few glimpses of the north coast at the tail end of the year.
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| Tongue village from Castle Varich |
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| Michelin woman - but at least there are no midges |
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| Nosy neighbours Of course we hope we will see this: |
not this:
Terrific pictures. I hope you have a great time and the weather treats you kindly. It looks very beautiful.
ReplyDeleteHi Perpetua,
ReplyDeleteIf you are off to Scotland I presume it means that DMinL (I think that is the correct shorthand!) is much improved which is very good news. Do we get blog posts from Scotland or do we have to wait until you get back?
Thanks, Ray. It's quite difficult to take a bad photos of this area as it is so lovely, even if rather bleak for some tastes. We can't expect miracles where the weather is concerned, not in November, but we can hope....
ReplyDeleteHi Ricky. Yes, she is much better, thanks, and DH's brothers are now caring for her after the month DH spent there. There will certainly be blog posts from Scotland, as there were in the spring. The long, dark evenings are much more conducive to blogging than the light ones of summer - and the days too, if the weather is bad. :-)
ReplyDeleteWonderful pictures, Perpetua! It's so great that you can enjoy the best of several locations at the same times each other. You have such a lovely rhythm to your life and it makes your posts such a pleasure to read. I've become a vicarious traveler -- hitching a virtual ride along with you! Hope winter holds off until you get back south!
ReplyDeleteHi Perpetua
ReplyDeleteThank you for"discovering" me-I don't mind at all. I find this medium a blessing with the people I meet! I love the UK and hope to get back there when I'm better.
My dad was a minister of religion and a part time army chaplain-snap! as they say. I love your pictures of Scotland. Would be lovely to travel round like that. I don't have a partner(my choice) but have a fulfilling life, and have a gorgeous son, who is grown and in a relationship with a lovely girl and her toddler daughter. I get to see them this monday.
Keep the blog and photos coming- lovely to meet you.
Take care
Kathleen x
Good news! Hope you will join us for knitting. We will not be meeting on 2nd Nov as DH is home for a week but back to normal after that.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathy. Yes, we've fallen into a real rhythm over the past three years and we both so enjoy it. There will come a day when the travelling will become too much for us, but until then do come along for the ride. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Kathleen, lovely to meet you too. I can see why your blog instantly appealed to me. :-) Enjoy the visit from your family and I hope you're soon well enough to make that trip back to Britain.
ReplyDeleteIf you like photos of places, just search my blog for "favourite places" and you'll find plenty.
Good morning, Barbara, great to hear from you. Many thanks for the note about Knit and Natter. It will save me having to ring round for a lift as soon as I arrive :-) Have a lovely week with your DH and see you soon.
ReplyDeleteWell if you want to brave the Pentland Firth there is always Orkney to visit ;-) Though I expect you've been before to visit your sister?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos. I've just come back from Scotland though not as far north as you. May your time there be all it needs to be.
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful time Perpetua xx
ReplyDeleteHello Perpetua:
ReplyDeleteWe love Scotland and can so easily see what tempts you back there. Indeed, whatever the inconvenience, to be stranded there would be quite appealing to us.
Please pass on our good wishes to DH for his birthday. We are sure that you will both have a lovely time!
Now I've always loved visiting Scotland - not that I've done it that much - but it is stunning and your photos clearly show that too. But you mentioned the reason I don't like to go - midges - so I'm very glad to hear that where you are isn't the time or the place, so I know you'll have a wonderful time.
ReplyDeleteAxxx
Gorgeous photos! As you know I absolutely love the countryside and nature, I am rather envious of this trip. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteHope the isolation is not such as to prevent blogging?:)
Enjoy your trip to the wild country, I hope the weather is kind to you.
ReplyDeleteJust look at those colours!
ReplyDeleteSo beautiful. The land looks familiar on the trees are different from Otago here in NZ. I expect the early settlers from Scotland said just the same when they landed in Otago!
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a lovely time "up north" in Scotland before your wintering over in Wales.
Thanks for the suggestion, Sian. We'll take you up on it one day, but not with the short days of November. I never actually made it up to Orkney when my sister lived there, as those were the years when I was training for ministry alongside a full-time job and had no time to spare for holidays.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks, Nancy. I'm sure it will be, as we always enjoy every minute of being here, whatever the weather. I hope your trip too was everything you'd looked for.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ayak. I'm sure we will. We finally arrived yesterday afternoon, absolutely shattered! We're gradually settling in and recovering, but the journey certainly takes more out of us than it used to....
ReplyDeleteHello Jane and Lance and thanks for the good wishes, which will be duly conveyed to DH when the time comes.
ReplyDeleteI can think of few better places to be stranded as we were last year, when we finally made it home ten days later than we'd planned. Nevertheless, we're rather hoping that the early snowstorm in the north-east USA isn't any kind of harbinger of our weather....
Thanks, Annie. The north coast does get midges, but only between June and September, which is why we never visit during those months. Our spring and autumn visits are entirely midge-free and we often get gorgeous weather (like today) as a further bonus.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Sue. Scotland is a nature-lover's paradise, even though we sometimes have trouble seeing it through the rain or mist. The grandeur of the scenery in this area is awe-inspiring and we feel very fortunate to be able to visit as we do.
ReplyDeleteBlogging will definitely continue, as where we go our computers go too!
Thanks, Harriet, so far so good.... The wildness here is reminiscent of the wildness of Dartmoor, just on a bigger scale. I somehow need my fix of wide, empty spaces and it doesn't get much wider or emptier than NW Sutherland.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous, aren't they, Fly? On a clear sunny day the colours almost hurt your eyes and the camera certainly wasn't lying in the ones I posted.
ReplyDeleteLovely to see you, Mickle and I hope you and Zebby are well. Yes, the area is wonderful, but one sad reason for the emptiness I love is the number of Highlanders forced to emigrate because of poverty and eviction from their land. Scotland's loss was New Zealand's gain and I'm glad they found a landscape they could identify with.
ReplyDeleteAh, but you have to admit it is beautiful in the snow! :) However, fingers crossed, you should be OK this year: the weather forecasters are reported today as saying we won't get any snow in November. So far this autumn we've had endless mild, soggy days and only one frost here, so it will certainly be a shock to the system when it turns colder.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't travel like you do, even if I didn't have small children to look after, but - as you say - how wonderful to enjoy it while you can. Have a lovely stay in Scotland.
Very true, DB, but we had a bit more than we really needed for scenic impact last year. Let's hope your forecasters are right. One I read yesterday was predicting an even colder winter than last year. Brrr!
ReplyDeleteA lot of people feel as you do about our peripatetic lifestyle, but, as my mother always used to say, it takes all sorts to make a world and we enjoy it. :-)