Scotland

I've been wondering what to fill this winter's posts with, and I've decided on Scotland (unless you just want pictures of the weather outside our back window week after week).  I've covered the Arctic, Iceland and a variety of other topics the past few years, all while sitting here at my computer to come up with ideas and photos.  This year I'm trying to write a photo book on the two big trips we took to Scotland, so I thought you might be interested too.

This ragged looking rocky hill is one of the most famous sites in Scotland.  Known as Dunadd, it's the site of a fort in the centuries before Scotland existed, capital of the kingdom known as Dal Riata, a diffuse area taking in the north-east corner of Ireland and a large swath of south-west Scotland.  (On a clear day you can see this corner of Scotland from Ireland).

The crest of the hill was where the ancient kings of this kingdom were crowned, placing their foot in a footprint carved in the solid rock, as I tried to do.  Archeological research has revealed evidence of a sea-going kingdom with trade goods from as far away as the Mediterranean - this in the 5th century!

Nearby is evidence of much older civilization, standing stones from several millennia ago.  The Kilmartin valley here is full of such ancient evidence, though it is most spectacular on Orkney, which we will visit later.

Our next stop was the tiny Isle of Iona, site of St. Columba's early church and abbey in about the year 563 A.D.  I had been reading a lot of novels on Scottish history, including the life of St. Columba (or Colmcille), so I was well aware of this; the story is quite an inspiration for me.  St. Columba is given credit for bringing Christianity to Scotland; his biography written two centuries later by one of his successors, is one of the earliest writings on the early life of the area now known as Scotland.

Iona became an important centre for Celtic art as well as religion, with carved stone crosses being notable.  "Celtic' crosses (with the ring around the centre) originated on Iona.  Only a few remain, after Vikings destroyed most of them during their first raid in 795 A.D.  

One of the 'illuminated' pages of the Book of Kells.

In addition illustrated manuscripts were produced, including one of the most famous, the Book of Kells, now on display in Dublin and later said to be 'the most precious object in the Western world'.

Iona is also the burial place of at least 49 Scottish kings from the early middle ages, including MacBeth (yes, there really was a real MacBeth).  The 'Street of the Dead', along which funeral processions walked, is visible in the foreground of the picture of the Abbey above.

I should pause for a moment and say a little about this, our first trip, taken with our daughter and a friend, both teenagers.  Here they are standing among the old stone walls of the nunnery on Iona, established several centuries after the abbey.  We landed in Glasgow and drove north, eventually completing a giant circle through the highlands and back down to Edinburgh.  In the process we were inspired to visit again at the earliest opportunity!

Iona is reached by a short tiny ferry ride from the Isle of Mull, and we took the back road on our return, getting a quick lesson on the narrow one-lane roads of Scotland, as well as a lesson on Scottish weather!

It had been raining all day, but as you can see the sun did shine in Tobermory, known for its colourful waterfront houses, the next day after we enjoyed that horizontal smirr (pronouced 'shmir') the day before.

We took the much larger ferry from Mull back to the town of Oban on the mainland, to continue our journey north.  All the Hebrides, the western isles of Scotland, depend on ferries to get around.

Lots more to come!

A Changing Landscape - Part II

To continue our drive from yesterday, I was beginning to see the cumulative effects of farm enlargement, as farms get purchased only for the land, the buildings redundant.  Only where the farm home is substantial, and presumably in good condition is it saved, usually for resale.

This looks like a beautiful old farm home, with an old tree-lined drive leading to the house.

Barns are redundant, often removed, or less commonly just left to fall down.

Fencerows get removed in favour of giant machinery, and woodlots get reduced, or even worse removed.

It's all a result of a switch to cash cropping from the former mixed farms, and cash cropping means grain drying and storage facilities like this one.  

This is a cash crop of a different kind, a farmer growing hay for sale.  There were three large stacks of hay like this, far more than you'd ever use on an individual farm.

And in the nearest village, an old one-room schoolhouse now a residence.

And a small rural cemetery, still maintained, but isolated among giant fields.

We ended up going through the tiny hamlet of Arkwright, a village my uncle often mentioned.

And my uncle's old farm, now a non-farm residence (occupied by my cousin actually), with the fields rented out.

I came home realizing that we had seen a very changed landscape, largely depopulated, with enormous fields, few fencerows, or even fences at all, few  barns, and even fewer farm homes.  And during harvest I'm sure there would be a lot of enormous equipment rolling across those fields.  The evidence of an earlier busy farming community is scattered and hard to notice, former schools or churches now residences, isolated rural cemeteries, former village stores now closed, and so on.  I'm not sure if it's good or bad, but I am sure that we've lost something.

Though I'm beginning to sound like an old man longing for a simpler time!!

A Changing Landscape

On Saturday we went for a countryside drive, ostensibly to hunt for Snowy Owls.  We didn't see any, but what we did see was a rapidly changing rural landscape.  Traditional farms are gone and cash cropping in a depopulated landscape has taken over.  I never recognized this so very clearly before.

I also took far too many pictures, so I eventually divided this into two posts.

The landscape we drove through was incredibly clear of any buildings or fences, though straddled at one point with power lines from the Bruce Nuclear plant.  We noticed first because the long grass that marks the fencerows is a great place to look for owls, but there were no fencerows!

This was the only 'conventional' farm I got a picture of, a farm with a both house and barn, as every farm used to have.  Though if you look closely you'll see that the barn is really a large driveshed, typical of a cash crop operation, no animals in sight.

Of course there are still some beautiful big farmhouses, this one of the nicest, but either there is no barn left or the fields are simply rented out, so this is one of a few rural non-farm residences.

There are a few barns that appear to be actively used, with manure in the barnyard - but no farmhouse.

More often all that's left is a foundation.

And houses are usually absent entirely, though this one was simply abandoned - what was once a busy farm home.

Much more common are barns standing alone, no farmhouse in sight.  We came across one after the other of these. The net result of these changes is to remove all the original farm homes on 100 acre farms from the landscape, almost entirely, and the population with it.

The Big Thaw

Never in my life have I witnessed as big a January thaw as over the past two weeks.  Two weeks ago today we experienced one of the fiercest blizzards I can remember, but within a few days the temperature was above freezing, even up to 10°C on two different days.  the snow started disappearing, and 98% of it has now gone.  Here are three photos to mark the transformation.

This was the day after Christmas, no sign of green anywhere except the spruce trees, no deck, no 'ostrich'.

A week later the vast majority of snow is gone, most of it melted at the bottom of the snowpack and drained into the groundwater.

On Friday there were only small patches of snow left, the deck was bare, the 'ostrich' was back to being a heron.

And here's our snow measuring stick, the garden heron.  You can start with the top picture when it was totally out of view, buried in the big drift that formed east of the deck, and then follow the sequence of its emergence.

We're back down to below freezing temperatures as of yesterday, and there are snow flurries forecast for tomorrow.

Furry Gnomes Galore!

Every place I've looked this Christmas Furry Gnome relatives have been appearing.  I didn't realize I had so many relatives around town!  It's been fun spotting these, though since I got my own nickname nearly 50 years ago, I think I'm definitely ahead of this curve!

Our Christmas card this year featured a furry gnome couple, riding home for Christmas on the back of an old pick-up truck.

And when Mrs. F.G. went to buy more stamps, there was another furry fellow, in fact whole sheets of his picture.  We even had furry gnome wrapping paper, though in my rush to open more presents I failed to get a picture of that.

Then when I got into bed Christmas night, I discovered one more present - a fresh new bright red pillow case, featuring guess who!

Back to bed the next day and what should I find but another Furry Gnome pillowcase!

And finally, my big present, sitting on the windowsill, a Furry Gnome silhouette, cut out of sheet steel.  He's already outside keeping an eye on the garden.

****

Our snow is almost gone here, with temperatures above freezing since just after Christmas.  On two days it has reached 10°C, unheard of for January here!  A very far cry from last weekend's blizzard.  So we got dinners rescheduled and went out for New Year's Eve dinner at lunch on the day before, at the Harrison Park restaurant.  We had a full turkey dinner with all the trimmings.  That restaurant has done a good job of spreading their tables out and putting in a few tasteful barriers, so we certainly didn't feel crowded.  

And I'm pleased to report that this restaurant has dramatically improved the accessibility of its front door.  When previously the door buttons were such that you got trapped in a vestibule trying to press the second button and open the second door, now one larger button opens both doors, which stay open long enough for you to ride right through.

On New Year's Eve itself we finally had Christmas dinner for lunch with our son and daughter-in-law from over near Lake Huron.  It was homemade lasagna, and it was delicious!  Perhaps you don't know the work that goes in to making true homemade Italian lasagna.  It's a two-day event in the kitchen, one day devoted to making the sauce, and the next the lasagna itself - but nothing tastes so good!

Again I wish you the happiest of New Years, and may it be prosperous and healthy for you.

Seasons in the Garden '22

And now we take a look back at our garden in '22, a fabulous collection of plants created by Mrs. F.G. herself.  And I think a few of these are actually great photos too.  I'll just give you their name, since their beauty, in order of the season, speaks for itself!

Redbud

Dandelion

Daffodils

Icelandic Poppy

Lupin

Peony

Clematis

Lavender

Cleome

Day Lilies

Sunflower

Fall Anemone

Needless to say I felt compelled to comment on most of these, but it truly is a case where the pictures do speak for themselves.  And these flowers are all growing in a garden that was bare grass two years ago.  Happiest of New Year everyone, and prayers for peace in the wider world.