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:
I am so enjoying your 'reports' of the cruise and the photographs.
ReplyDeleteI'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.
Do eat properly!
ReplyDeleteOh 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.
ReplyDeleteDid 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.
Love all the pictures. You have lived my dream!
ReplyDeleteI continue to vicariously enjoy your cruise.
ReplyDeleteI 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.
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.
ReplyDeleteLovely 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.
ReplyDelete