Highland Line No. 47

Four years ago we were at Shara and Dave's wedding in Ashland, VA. We were happy to be there and glad to be able to say goodbye to the whole family as we prepared to fly away the next day to begin our new life here in Scotland. After an overnight flight, we arrived here on the 3rd of September, 2004. It has been a wonderful four years. Our plan now is to stay in Scotland for as long as our health and money hold out (so far, so good). I'm sure we'll return to live in the States eventually but for now, life is sweet here and we could only be happier if we could drive to see all our children and grandchildren. As it is, we fly to the States twice each year: once in the spring to Bethesda and once in autumn to New York State (Buffalo, Rochester, and Albany). We've made so many friends here, feel well integrated into the community, and are involved in numerous activities that keep us healthy and stimulated. We truly love this beautiful country. And life in a rural village provides a peaceful, gentle way of life which seems to suit our natural rhythm, as those of you who have visited us now know.

I was going to write that August was a quiet and laid-back month, but looking back on it, in fact, it was quite full. We had two trips to Edinburgh for Festival-related events: on the 2nd and 3rd we went for three Jazz Festival concerts of traditional jazz, and on the 28th and 29th we went for two Festival classical music concerts by symphony orchestras. Both times we had the good fortune to have friends who offered home hospitality and went with us to some of the concerts. (The blogs of 8/4 and 8/31 cover these two trips to "the Big City" with photos.)

On August 4th, the Comrie Fortnight village fete concluded with the major event, a float parade. (Description and photos on the 8/5 blog.) It was an exceptional crop of floats this year, all of them "home-made" and manned by locals. It is always impressive to see how imaginative and creative people can be when given the opportunity and outlet. Luckily they had a dry sunny day for it.

We did a fair amount of socializing this month in addition to the two festival events with friends in Edinburgh. On the 5th David and Juliet Sutcliffe took us to the Perth Concert Hall for an outstanding performance by the Edinburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, made up of players aged about 15 to 22. Their featured work was Elgar's Cello Concerto with Julian Lloyd Webber soloist. As wonderful as that was, Don and I were completely awed by the orchestra's closing piece, a performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition so fresh and exciting that we felt almost as though we were hearing it for the first time ever. We also did some entertaining at home and went out with another couple to the Thai restaurant in Crieff.

Our tourist experiences this month weren't limited to Edinburgh. On Sunday the 12th we returned to the Lake of Menteith and this time managed to get the boat across to a little island in the lake to see the ruins of Inchmahome Priory. (If you're interested in some of the priory's history and seeing some photos, see the August 13th blog.) Last Sunday, the 26th, we took a drive north of here to Rannoch Station, a train station almost in the wilderness. It was a gorgeous run up there, across mountains, through blooming heather, alongside a loch, and just generally wild and beautiful. (Full description and photos on the August 27th blog.)

Another milestone in our lives, aside from having lived here for 4 years, is that we have—finally—bought ourselves cell phones (or MO-byles as they are called here). We haven't used them yet—and when we went to Edinburgh, we forgot to take one—but we have at least learned how to type on the dinky little keyboard well enough to add ourselves to each other's call list. (Don't expect any text messages, though, as you can read in the August 19th blog, we are not very adept with this technology yet.)

Sadly, yesterday we attended another funeral. Our music-loving friend Nisbet Cunningham died on Tuesday morning. He was an avid fan of classical music in general and Wagner's Ring Cycle in particular, and had traveled all over the world to hear it performed. He is the man who, among other things, founded the St. Fillans Music Society, which Don belongs to. It gives musical enjoyment each week to up to 40 faithful participants. Nisbet will be sorely missed but well-remembered. It is sad to say goodbye to new friends.

For the past week I've been dealing with an over-abundance of Victoria plums. Last Saturday we had to harvest many, many pounds of almost-ripe ones because there were so many and they were clustered so closely together that limbs on the little plum tree began breaking. I've given countless numbers away, thrown away a fair amount, let quite a lot of them just fall and rot under the tree, stepped on some (ewwww!), and have made plum puree for Plum Fool (puree mixed with either Greek yoghurt or with plain yoghurt), two Nutty Plum Crunches, and a Plum Cake. This week quite a few have ripened so this afternoon I harvested close to 8 lbs of them. I will give some more away and may try to freeze some. (For photos of the tree and some of the plums, see the blog for the 26th.)

Remember you can click on any photos in the blog to see them larger. Then just hit the Back button to return to the blog. Unfortunately (for us) you can't help yourself to any of the plums!

We hear from some of you that the weather is cooling off at last. It certainly is here; it's downright cool. It is definitely early autumn, not late summer. We hope this finds you all enjoying cooler, less humid days.

Love,
Lynn and Don