neist point hike- part two

It's probably time I put up the rest of my pictures from our Neist Point Day. I made a little video so you could hear how windy it was-- I actually think I'm still getting the knots out of my hair from it. We just could not stop laughing. Aside from the gorgeous scenery, the best part was how much fun we all had being silly in the wind. Adorable Harry was quite the trooper, despite being the tiniest of us all. I suppose it helped that he also had the lowest center of gravity ;)


Geography-wise, I'm including this somewhat odd map of Skye which shows the clan territories. You can see Portree, the capital, where Viewfield is on the Eastern coast, Dunvegan across the way, and Neist Point is the western most point-- that teeny little puzzle piece that looks like it's pointing out to sea. 

tigerlily is six months old today!!

Today, I am missing the joyous, beautiful Tigerlily. Six months ago today, I was in the room when she was born. It remains one of the most important things I've ever experienced. I love her so much and her mom too!! xo

Bonfire Night at Dunvegan Castle

Happy Saturday! These are some of my favorite photos I've ever taken-- from Bonfire Night at Dunvegan castle. Enjoy!

garneau returns

Peter posted this and got me thinking about good ol' Chris Garneau. Leave it to him for this kind of video. Over a minute of JUST puppets before the song even starts. 

While we're at it, Relief is still one of the sexiest songs I've ever heard. Though I prefer the recording I have from the Artists Den (which they no longer sell on itunes, but check here) to the one they used in this video, which is more choppy and less velvety. "I didn't to go to see the city, I-ay, I went to see it around you..." Mmm. Still great.

A Perfect Sunset Walk on Skye

When I'm not sitting, reading, I'd say one of my primary activities in Scotland is the long walk. They all pretty much require wellies. And often these long walks involve steep hills or treacherous rocks, so I'm tempted to just call them hikes. This recent Skye trip was full of good walks and one of the best was our sunset walk up into the hills behind Iona's house. We took the trusty puppy, Harry, and definitely burned off all the crust less, egg mayonnaise sandwiches we had eaten for lunch. 


The colors! We talked about how some landscapes are pretty, but they aren't dramatic (England). They don't take  your breathe away. And we all agreed that we preferred a landscape with some theatre. 

Tomorrow.... Bonfire Night at Dunvegan Castle....

skye part one- Viewfield, Portree, Piping competition

We set out Friday evening fueled by carrot and coriander soup in a giant seafoam green Stanley thermos. A long drive is a good way to become friends with people quickly. So we bonded when all three of us were unable to put air in the tires properly and had to ask for help and over our obvious love of Downton Abbey. I learned that Zaza makes a wicked sandwich. And that pretty much everything Iona says is bitingly funny. The drive from Edinburgh is supposed to take about 5 and a half hours, but we came into a big stretch of deer country and had to slow down for stags and clusters of baby deer for quite some time, so we pulled up to Viewfield at almost 1AM.  We were greeted by Iona's dad, Hugh, and sweet doggie, Harry. 

After a quick night cap, we crashed in our lovely rooms in what was once the old nursery and slept like logs until early the next morning when we woke up to help with and watch the Colonel Jock MacDonald Memorial competition. But before the competition, we woke up to a brisk (maybe more cold than brisk) morning and this view:

Chilly mornings make me move a little slow, but we didn't have time for relaxing. Before we knew it, a swarm of rambunctious bi-lingual kids and their parents flooded Viewfield in kilts and school uniforms. There were harps and pipes (and by the end of the day, crisps and crisp wrappers everywhere.) I genuinely think it's amazing that a festival of this variety exists to foster and encourage children to learn their cultural traditions. Some of them were only 7 or 8 years old. But it was heartwarming to see an adorable nymphy 8 year old with flowing golden locks playing a traditional clarsach (sounds like Classic, which caused me to misspell it about 8 times, and finally, I just kept labeling my recordings as "harp" which Iona mildly corrected me in:) 


There was also Gaelic singing and of course, pipes. Man, you forget how mostly, you're used to hearing pipes from a distance. Up close, those things will blow your ears out. It's amazing. At one point, it was one of my life goals to learn to play the pipes. Sadly, I think  the coordination level required is vastly out of reach for a klutz like me. But I'm pretty much always going to love the sound. The only sound to rival it for personal symbolism is the steel guitar, thanks to my dad. 


I really want to post the recordings I made, but they're being pretty obnoxious. Not only will they not sync from my phone to the computer, but I've still never figured out how to embed an MP3 on blogspot without a lot of headache. Anyone help me out?

Zaza and I took a break from the competition for  bit to take a walk in Portree. I tried to do some shopping at a Saturday market only to realize that I had left my wallet at Viewfield (I so wish I had been able to get the 1930's teacup made in honor of some Dunvegan anniversary-- you'll see why later.) But we also saw a seal, who flirted with us, and of course the beautiful fall views of Portree. This was just the first of many of our walks. Tomorrow, I'll post our Sunset walk in the mountains! 

More photos after the jump...

lit nerds, rejoice

A new Jane Eyre! Yay for Bronte. Like the art. And the seemingly increased sense of the supernatural. Love the Rochester. Love Jamie Bell as St. John. Dench-- no words. But ya do get the sense of having seen the whole film watching the trailer...am I right? 

Edinburgh Afternoons

Edinburgh is literally a Georgian paradise. For anyone who's a fan of this period of architecture and decor, you must make a pilgrimage. I'm still having dreamy thoughts of both Iona and Zaza's flats...tall, streaky windows overlooking rainy streets. Views to write by. All the walls in the whole city, it seems, are painted colors to imagine by. The crown moulding knows no bounds.  The wood flooring is made of actual wood. And I'm already decorating my imaginary flat there now. 

I stopped in at the world's most perfect coffee shop below Zaza's flat on Howe Street, Leo's Beanery. They sell Zaza's rings too! If you're in Edinburgh, you must go. You'll be treated to a full bottle of water and silver cutlery just for ordering a sandwich. And all the teacups are obviously to die for. It makes me miss my teacup collection that sadly had to be left behind in NYC under Autumn's guardianship.

artsy types in Stockbridge

at the vintage store, threadbare, where Cecille sews right in the shop. 

Zaza and Peculiar Presents

Hi! I promise I'm not being deliberately dodgey about posting my Skye pics. I just wanted to introduce you to the characters and have a bit of an Edinburgh themed day. Especially since it's my time with these lovely folks in my favorite "toooon" that makes me really certain I'd like to move there next year when I'm done with the class portion of my degree. Plus, it's Wednesday and who doesn't need something cute as a pick-me-up mid week? So let's talk about Zaza! 


Zaza, in addition to having the coolest name ever, makes the most lovely gifts and art pieces. She was an art history major at St Andrews for her undergrad (where she met Sophie, and then subsequently, Iona [ so, question: are Sophie and Iona the nexus of the universe? Maybe.]) and is a very very talented artist. She's also hilarious and does fabulous impressions of all kinds of people and pop culture references. 


Yesterday in Edinburgh, after having seen all her beautiful stuff on her website, I went over for tea and to get my very own adorable tea cup ring. Be prepared to want EVERYTHING on her site, dear friends (some of you I can already see salivating). And she ships to America!

Her flat in Edinburgh is like a dream artist's flat. I just loved it! And as we sipped our tea and then hit up the local vintage shops in New Town and Stockbridge, my imagination went on a total tangent thinking about all the fun things to do once I'm an Edinburgh resident. (I've even been just spec-ing rentals etc etc to see what what kind of flats might be within reason for next year.)

In addition to rings, I got to check out more of her stuff up close. Everything is perfect for small gifts and even stocking stuffers. I'm one of about 5 people in all of Scotland who don't need a draught excluder for under their doors, but if you live somewhere cold, I feel like this is just the thing. I'm also a big fan of her cards. She has some great punny cards about sea life, the 3 Kings are beautiful, and with Christmas coming up, I think I may be buying her out! 

For those of you in Edinburgh, she'll also have a booth in the Edinburgh Christmas Market, so if you're around there, look for the Peculiar Presents Booth! 

the waves at neist point

We got a pretty amazing tour on Sunday of Neist Point and the light house from Hugh MacLeod. There's a lot more I'm going to say (I'm currently splitting up all fabulous elements of this super trip into separate posts) but this day was so astronomically windy that many times, we physically couldn't get where we were trying to walk, and as we climbed down the huge rocks to the wave breaks, I thought on more than one occassion, "Well, at least if I die today, I'll die in Scotland." 


There's a lot of specific people to thank for specific and general things. I'm saving that for once my brain has decompressed and I'm settled back in St Andrews. Now I'm off to spend some more QT in Edinburgh. 


These waves were beautiful. More on this expedition of giggles to come...