Knitting Musings

Sheep Dogs in the "Wild"

Our guide on the trip lived just outside of Ullapool, and offered to swing by her place on our way to our next destination. The lure? Her husband has about 700 sheep, and trains (and competes) sheepdogs. DUDE. Sheepdogs, 700 sheep, and the beautiful Scottish countryside? SIGN ME UP.

I should probably warn the more sensitive readers that they may be exposed to lethal doses of cuteness...

Unfortunately, only 3 of the doggies got to play with the sheepies - the others had to wait their turns.

Stuart (doggy handler and shepherd extraordinaire) sent the 3 dogs way out over the hills - probably about a mile or so away (not that we could see them after the first few minutes). About 15 minutes later (with the addition of a few well-timed whistles and commands), this showed up...

SIGH. Sheep dogs ROCK.

Unfortunately, we had signed up for a HIKING trip instead of a sheepdog-watching trip, so away we went to climb a mountain...

And the Little Monster seemed to enjoy the spectacular views of the Atlantic Ocean we found the next day...

And look! Culture! Shawn and I took the opportunity to visit Eileen Donan Castle as we drove towards our next destination, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

One more Scotland roundup to go...

Labels: Scotland

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I Wanna Go Back!

Scotland was fantastic - we had (mostly) great weather, I felt wonderful, and the Little Monster learned how to play trampoline on my bladder.

The trip started (and ended) with some out-of-character airplane luck - all of our flights went smoothly, were on time, and resulted in us receiving our luggage at our various destinations! Definitely a welcome change to how travel with S usually goes.

After arriving safely in Edinburgh, we had a little time to explore the city (S tasted whiskey), and then we were on our way to Inverness via the lovely ScotRail, which, in stark contrast with our own Amtrak, was on time. Apparently this is not that unusual.

I enjoyed the scenery, my ipod, and some knitting.

I continued my knitting adventures in Inverness, where we traversed the town looking for somewhere that would make S an iced tea. He finally had success with a very amused barista at Costa Coffee, who made him a hot tea and gave him a huge cup of ice. I told S that he'll probably become the basis for one of those "you'll never believe what the stupid Americans asked for" stories.

Eventually, though, we had to leave the soft urban living behind and start hiking! Here's the Little Monster enjoying a view of the small town of Ullapool on our first "warm-up" hike.

One of the highlights, though, was the discovery of some stealth knitting info - these displays were hidden in a small lighthouse in Scoraig, which is a small, mostly self-sufficient community reachable only by hiking or boat.