Travels with a Flat Hat

  Puffin, Hiking and Rough Waters in Anstruther Our explorations around Scotland have been exciting and wondrous but the latest was much more than that. It was the fulfilment of a life long dream for Susi.   I don’t know how many times she talked about seeing puffins with a dreamy longing expression on her face. We booked the boat tour far in advance since it is an extremely popular destination for tourists. The boat (Isle of May) holds around 50 passengers and the slots fill up in a flash. As our time got closer, the weather forecast got more foreboding with a promise of a high chance for 34 mph winds which could force a cancellation. I am not sure what the wind speed was when we got the go ahead, but they were quite fierce. The waves in the harbour were fairly calm, but as we went through the walls for the hour plus trip out to the island the boat was rocking and rolling like a wild carnival ride. Many of the passengers were screaming when we crashed through some of the bi...

This Ewe just wanted to be petted, so we did. Susi and I have been trying to do at least one day each week to take a long hike or a tour of an interesting town or city.  Ofttimes our plans are all for naught due to the lack of cooperation from the weather man. Yesterday when we saw that the our forecast had changed from steady rain and wind to dry, relatively mild and overcast skies, we saw an opportunity to take advantage of the dry weather to do something outside. After discussing the situation and overcoming our lazy alter ego's desire to cocoon with a good book, we adopted a plan to hike locally.   Springing into action, we hurriedly packed our back packs, put on our hiking boots,  caught the bus to Kinross, got a cup of coffee at our favourite cafe and took a bird watching hike up to the RSBC (Royal Society of Bird Conservation) visitor center and back. By the time we were done, we had covered 13 miles and sited many birds, four of them new to our list. ...

Big Tree and Victorian Hotel   Susi and I decided to explore the little town of Dunkeld which was the Capital of the newly formed Scottish Nation in the 9th century when the first King of Scots, Kenneth MacAlpin made it head of the Celtic Church. Okay, the real reasons we decided to go there was that it was close, pretty, had some good hikes and a reasonably price hotel for an overnight stay.  I thought it would be fun to take the train from Perth there as I really like trains. Unfortunately, the connection from the bus station to the train station was tight and due to an uncooperative ticket machine and a labyrinth of halls and bridges to get to the correct platform we arrived  just as the doors were closing and the train was leaving. So we were out the price of the tickets and had to trek to a bus station in the middle of town to use our free senior bus cards to travel to Dunkeld. It wasn’t all that bad though as we took a very scenic route through valleys and hills to ...

Hey! What happened to the Blog? At least that is what I am hoping viewers might have been thinking since it has been months since I finally took the time to write another instalment. If that wasn’t on your mind, don’t tell me as my delicate ego just couldn’t take it :)  Seriously, this time of the year with the grey windy rainy unfulfilled promises of snow days, it is hard to be in the mood to sit down and write something. Although, we did have fun and do enjoy being able to cocoon in the first house we have lived in since we retired almost nine years ago. Starting with the obvious, yes, the weather was high on our agenda. It seems that have been in a cycle of high winds, driving rain, a bracket of low temperatures and muted auroras. The plants love all the attention they are getting with profuse moisture, followed by periods of sun as well as being stirred up with the fresh winds. The range of temperatures have generally been in the 35 to 45 degree range, but nights sometimes dipp...

Holiday update  I know this is a bit late to share the doings for our December and January but I have an excuse. I spent so much time on the slow computer using a hotspot that I didn’t have the stamina to yell more creative bad words when things would not work the way I expected them too. We now have real wifi and I am mostly caught up with things.  I have sorted the accounts for electric, gas, council taxes, National Health Service, broadband, bus passes, library cards, household set up, Alexa working (mostly when I remember what I named things) and the cat signed up with an account with the local veterinarian. That is my poor excuse, but we also did some fun things that seemed more important in order to maintain a semblance of a good mood and sanity. That of course, took time away from this joyful task. Now that may sound like a bit of sarcasm, but honestly, I enjoy sharing our settling down adventures here in wonderful Scotland. So let’s get on with describing some of those...

  Maybe Loch Ness' little relative?       I t’s been  a while since my last installment but it was for a good reason. Everything finally came together for the rental on the semi detached house and we have been very busy getting things up and running. You would think that you just rent the place and move your stuff in, but it is not that simple here. First of all, even though we signed the contract for the first and the landlord assured us all was done, things were not finished. We had two scheduled deliveries of furniture and appliances for a date way beyond the date of the promised completion. In fact, the date we scheduled was way past the initial promised date because the delivery people were booked for all the days before it. So we really didn’t have much choice unless we wanted to get back in line and spend more time in the B&B. By the time we discovered that the house wasn’t ready it was too late to rebook the delivery anyway. It had to be done that da...

While we are not getting the extreme weather being highlighted in the news for many of the northern states in the US,it has been rather interesting here. After days of almost constant rainfall many pond sized puddles have been created challenging traffic and runners. After a few days of peering out the window and wind driven rain and thinking,” no way am I going running in that!” I was tricked by what appeared to be a calm dry morning. It wasn’t too bad to start with, but the further I got away from the B&B, the more my confidence in that assessment deteriorated. The rainfall did not return, and the wind was a mere breeze,  but the path got muddier and navigating the perimeter of increasingly larger and deeper mud puddles was challenging. Despite my fancy ballet steps around the perimeters or my long detours, I ended with squishy soles and blackened socks and toes. Still, it was a fun run. We got to experience a few interesting interpretations of some familiar holidays here in ...