Tuesday, June 15, 2021

 I have been desperately feeble today – I who scaled Mt Dublin Street yesterday and made kimchi. Helen came, but the only possible walk was to get to the garden and sit for a while on the nearest bench. I may not have eaten enough yesterday. Appetite has been poor lately.

 

Not much knitting, either. A few more rounds on the current sock. I settled down this morning to watch Franklin’s vlog about the Men’s Knitting Retreat – not without interest, but very short. Why didn’t those lambs have woolly mothers to look after them?

 

A new issue of Knitting magazine pointed me to titityy.fi – a delicious Finnish yarn shop. I am greatly taken with their Uschitita Yak Singles (a Dutch yarn, in fact) but it would be ridiculous to buy yarn when I sit here day after day not getting much of anything done.

 

Cruise

 

Beth, I’m sure you’re right (comment yesterday) – the Stevensons designed and engineered lighthouses; didn’t own them. There was a book about the family on a small but useful bookshelf on the boat, but one of us commandeered it at the beginning of the voyage. Many of their lighthouses were built at inhospitable places, including both Ardnamurchan Point and Cape Wrath. I saw Muckle Flugga once, on my first trip to Shetland. It’s another Stevenson, on a tiny rocky outpost off the north of Unst – the most northerly geographical point of the British Isles. How do you get the men and materials there, to build a lighthouse?

 

Tamar, I agree with you – I take that picture yesterday to be of lobster pots.

 

Weavinfool asked on Sunday whether our fellow passengers were from Scotland, a propos of my mentioning the evening when the conversation at dinner was about Scottish independence and C. and I were silent. Essentially, yes. There were three married couples in the other three double cabins: two of them lived in Scotland, the other couple were thoroughly Scottish but lived in England. The two single travellers lived in England and were as silent as C. and I. The one thing everybody agreed on – C. and I could join in here – was that Boris Johnson has nothing to say to Scotland.

 

Shandy, I’ll get to birds. We had a real expert aboard. He claimed to have seen 63 different species on the cruise, and crowned his list with a golden eagle the last day.

 

Here’s another of my reports:

 

“Today was Inverewe and at the last moment I decided not to  go, to C.’s disgust. When they all came back complaining of midges I felt I had made the right decision. C.  took lots of pictures and it looks wonderful. I have promised to go ashore with her at the much more boring Tobermory -- with luck, it won't be early afternoon when I am at my feeblest.

 

Now we are on our way to Loch Torridon where we will spend the night. I was there 50 or 60 years ago in the youth hostel.”

 

Some pictures from Inverewe:







7 comments:

  1. I am so enjoying your 'reports' of the cruise and the photographs.
    I'm not surprised you are still tired after the trip AND then the dentist; it took us at least a day to get over the dentist and my poor husband is going back tomorrow.

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  2. Oh no! Tobermory could never be boring! We were there in 1985 and a Naval submarine came into port, discharging her occupants. Much fun in the local pub ensued. It was a small vessel, certainly not a nuclear sub. Fond memories.
    Did you know there is a Tobermory, Ont.? Right at the tip of the Bruce Peninsula which divides the Georgian Bay from Lake Huron. We have passed many happy hours there as well.

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  3. Jenny2:55 AM

    Love all the pictures. You have lived my dream!

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  4. I continue to vicariously enjoy your cruise.

    I was interested in Valerie's comment about Tobermory, Ontario. When our children were young we would drive every summer from New York City to our summer place in Michigan. Often we would drive through Canada via Niagara Falls. We would then head up the Bruce Penninsula to Tobermory where we would spend the night. At 6 in the morning, we would board the Chi-Chi-Maun Ferry to Manitoulin Island and then on to Sault Ste Marie to our cottage on Sugar Island. Many wonderful memories for our family.

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  5. The Stevenson lighthouses were the models for the lighthouses built around Kangaroo Island and the rest of this state. My great-grandfather, a marine cartographer and ship's pilot, knew the family and drew on their knowledge while working on the placement of at least two of these. The Stevensons built twelve in the most difficult places.

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  6. =Tamar10:50 AM

    Lovely pictures! Please do remember to eat. I know I feel very low when I'm hungry. Perhaps you could consult a nutritionist. Maybe there's some trace element you're low on.

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