Travels with a Flat Hat

  One of my favorite things to do in the morning is to get up and get out for a morning run. Ok, I confess that my heart is in it the night before but at sunrise the enthusiasm is diluted by the desire to linger in bed.  This Comorant is ready too!  My wonderful wife knows me well enough to remind me that it is to both our benefits for me to get up and out the door. I know she is thinking of my health as well as the need for her to have the two or three hours of peace and quiet once I am out of the house.  I guzzle down the rest of my coffee and spring into action. Once I have donned my running uniform and step out the front door, I realize how much I enjoy the time with just myself and the challenge of a long run in whatever atmosphere nature offers me. There is no “running” season here in Scotland as, except for some surprises, the weather is manageable. Fall, however is my absolute favorite in our landscape filled with a variety of deciduous and coniferous tr...

Weather is always a factor   Occasionally we have some sun and everyone is outside. It’s great fun to see all the wee ones taking advantage of it playing in the water. Below is an ideal night for a celebration in Stonehaven for New Years. We watched the video in the museum there. As you can see, they had nice weather for the parade. The wands are made of wood. A ball of wax and paper to create the fire. Participants swung them around carefully to avoid igniting themselves and spectators as they marched to the harbor. There they each make a final high arching toss to throw it into the water. It would be great to be there but since that is impossible, we have a plan to watch it on the live link to watch it live on the web.  Click on the picture to go to the video. It pretty much rains most days. It just depends on how much. There are dry and sunny days  We are getting used to the fact that the weather forecast is not reliable for more than the current day and the accur...

In between raindrops, high winds, shopping and visiting new towns, we managed to complete The Fife Pilgrim's way this week. Actually, we were pretty lucky with the weather as each week we planned the hikes around the best weather guesses and they mostly were accurate. The primary school behind our house will start up again tomorrow (August 18, 2023) which according to the locals, should signal the summer is about over. Mother Nature must have gotten stuck on April 1 and decided to play April fools jokes on us all here in Scotland because as far as I can tell, it never got started.   Our friends have all been making the same comment as how unusual it has been this year.  I’m not complaining. I like cooler weather as do the Flowers, trees and weeds. It’s been green, breezy/gusty and Wet. Temperatures have  ranged from   55 to 72 degrees, and humidity remained between 65 to 99 percent. There have been exciting winds with strong gusts but none of the promised seve...

 ​​Spring is Sprung , Stays the Sun Hello again. I am finally sitting down to add more life highlights to my blog. Seriously though, things just kept me from planting myself in front of the computer screen to be creative enough to describe our outings. We have been having loads of fun intermixed with the normal end of winter dreariness  So here goes.  In many ways living here in Scotland is comparable to living in New England. Of course there are many differences too. Most of them are obvious, the weather is much milder here, so snow is rare and does not last long on the ground. It does make up for that occasionally with serious winds and lots of rain. As a result there are copious rainbows and  the ground, fences and houses stay green most of the year. Things can also change rather quickly from one extreme to the other. Even now in springtime we are confused about what to expect, no matter what the weather wizards predict. Susi and I do many activities on foot. The ...

  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...