House Day

Usually when traveling for a long time, we try to build in a rest day mid-trip. Today was that for us, but only because we did less than other days. Willie MacLeod’s House is very cozy, and very remote, being the last-but-one house on the northern tip of Skye. 

While we didn’t rest all day at our home away from home, we did spend it in other people’s houses. Today we visited a range of human dwellings, from Iron Age pithouse to an ancient watch tower (we only imagined it to be Amon Sul), to a timeless crofter’s cottage to a castle that’s been occupied for centuries.

Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home. 

Grooving with the Picts

A day of adventures on the high and low roads of Perthshire. Today we put our our rented van to the test on some seriously skinny roads. Rowan named our chariot “The Dreadnaught” which is appropriate as it’s much larger than anything else we see people (other than lorry drivers) using. You basically have to drive off the road on the left to allow an oncoming car to pass. On the straightaway it’s alright but on a blind corner against a stone wall is something else!

We first visited the Ian Burnett chocolatier in Grandtully. Treats in hand we next went to the Dewar’s Aberfeldy distillery for a tasting. Lovely scotch on a nicely kept production facility. 

Stone circles and a reconstruction of an Iron Age lake dwelling followed by a 5,000 year old yew tree now in a churchyard rounded out the day. 

The folks at the Crannog Centre were welcoming and very earnest in their “Experimental Archaeology,” and some had been at it for nearly a decade. It was an excellent demonstration of Iron Age life skills, but it did bring up some lingering questions, first of which is: why would people living on a lake (oops, LOCH) that connects to an excellent (and still productive today) salmon river NOT eat the fish? 

The guides insisted there’s nothing in the archaeological record to support fish consumption. Apparently the ear bone is what survives to tell the tale. Now, they are portraying the leaders of society, so maybe the plebes who lived on land had a different story, or maybe the archaeologists just haven’t found the right midden yet, but in a time when growing, processing, and storing food, especially protein, was so challenging, it makes no intuitive sense that such a rich resource would be ignored. After all, where we’re from a whole culture developed with salmon as its foundation, its staple, and one of its prime trade goods. The Picts truly were mysterious. 

The Angel’s Share Fungus

We’ve finally made it to Edradour! It only took ten years after our first try. 

The “Angels’ Share” is something we’ve known about for quite some time, but today, in addition some superb touring and tasting, we learned about the fungus accociated with distilleries, specifically with spirit aging facilities. It eats the ethanol seeping out the barrels, and forms a crusty black mat on buildings, equipment, and nearby trees. According to Andrew our guide, the tax collectors would use black-stained trees to locate and destroy illicit stills. (I regret I didn’t get a good photo of the really black trees by the warehouse, but you can make out some of it here.) 

Apparently the distillery has to paint its buildings four times a year to keep them so spotlessly white, and they want them white to reflect heat from the buildings, keeping them as moist and cool inside as possible. This is to minimize the share the angels take through evaporation. I wonder now, though I didn’t think to ask Andrew in the moment, why they don’t just pressure wash instead of painting. I may never know. 

Kingdom of Lothian

I’m a Sauceror  but playing KOL was a long time ago and I haven’t cooked anything in days. Never mind that, the food here in the ancient Kingdom of Lothian has been remarkably good. Rick Steves says it’s the French influence, though I just think it’s more the ready access to lots of great farmland. And raw hares. 

We’ve visited a huge castle with a tiny chapel and some shiny jools. 

Or maybe it’s just the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. 

I think the Scottish National museum is more interesting and accessible than the British in London. They present the objects as parts of a story, rather than just stuff sorted by time. I especially admire that when it comes to the ancient Picts, basically all the displays admit variations on “Hell if I know,” even though there’s a pretty decent amount of archaeological material. Just no one ever wrote down much about them. 

We saw bog butter. Mmmmmmm bog butter! I’m glad we could not smell the bog butter. (The interiors of Edinburgh Castle smelled really good, though.)

And the Romans were really into peen. 

The crew at Hertz gave us the most painful rental car pickup ever. We won’t let that spoil a delightful road trip starting tomorrow, and transpiring entirely on the wrong side of the road. 

Wishlist

From when we started planning this trip, Rowan has been asking if we could ride a double decker bus, “like the Knight Bus in Harry Potter.” Well, today we did, right in the front. 

While congratulating ourselves on how brave and savvy we felt for jumping into unfamiliar public transit (thank you, Google Maps, for your excellent data), we enjoyed a top notch view of Edinburgh. 

After one or the other of us had exclaimed some variant of “it looks just like in Harry Potter!” I had the epiphany that, by golly, they made it that way in the movies on purpose. Duh. 

Art imitates life and we sometimes forget that, until life experiences remind us of the truth. Soon enough we were enjoying the sights on their own merits, not in comparison to some fictional ideal. It takes time to fully inhabit a new place, to cease viewing it through the filter of preconceived notions. 

Edinburgh

Soooo we're in Scotland now, or so we're told. City of Edinburgh  (ed-in-burr-uh) near the main waterway called the Water of Leith. Which I assume is what you drink  when you want to become the Kwisatz Haderach. In any case,  it leads to the botanical gardens which are lovely and partially in large glass buildings which seems sufficient to convince the cacti that they are not in fact in Scotland and otherwise totally fucked.

Most everything is made of stone here which is smart both from the perspective of fire control and tourist appeal. You could probably just shut down a couple of streets here and film a period movie from the middle ages to WWI and not have to change or add anything digitally. 

Let's look at some pictures.

Preppers

It’s a week until we leave; back to the auld sod. Rowan is beside himself. He’s just sure that when we visit Loch Ness we’ll find Nessie, and bring back an egg for him to raise in Rimrock lake. He plans to introduce himself to the locals by his FULL name, which I’m sure will make us some friends. 

He’s just got his first pair of headphones, and he’s practicing using them for the plane. 

Faces of Birth, part I

First baby-birthing class last night. Seems like an amenable group - at least most have a good sense of humor. The teacher is just the typical nice, smiley, woo-woo sort that sitcoms have led me to expect. At least she's got her chops - we jumped right into discussions of circumcision, childcare options and other kinda touchy stuff and she kept it all comfortable.

Hiking while pregnant

Over the first weekend of August, Sam, Ryan, Jodi, and I went for a four-day backpacking trip in the Goat Rocks. I have never hiked while six months pregnant, and all in all I think it went pretty well. I certainly feel accomplished to have met this major goal!

The area is where I have been hiking since I was first allowed to go with Dad on "Big Hikes," and where Sam and I spent our honeymoon. This being the year of our 10th anniversary, the trip had even more significance for us. We were prevented from going up the drainage of the North Fork of the Tieton River by a forest fire, so we went up the South Fork to the McCall Basin instead. It was interesting viewing the landmarks we know and love so much from the rear, as it were.

I am so thankful that I was able to make this trip, and grateful to the other three hikers for allowing me to take my time and carry a little less weight. I could not have done it without lots of help from my friends.

The best part of the trip? Aside from the company and the sheer thrill of accomplishment, it would have to be the wildflower display. I have never seen such a lush bloom as this! It was also great to see a herd of over 30 mountain goats cavorting on a snow field. And of course Sam's "Frog Stomp" is not to be forgotten.

The worst part of hiking six months pregnant? It's a tie between trying to find a comfortable sleeping posture on the Therm-a-Rest (always a challenge!), and wearing the pack's hip belt really really low - right over the bladder, as if the kid himself doesn't put enough pressure there. By the way, we decided that if he comes out showing any effect from Mama's pack wearing, we're gonna nickname him "Bucklehead."

It's a . . . Zombie?

Alien autopsy photo? A ghostly apparition? The missing link?

No, it's our new life-form project we've affectionately code-named "Skeletor".

Ain't it cute?

Anarchy Fist

Little Peanut is a punk rocker already. Here he can be seen raising the fist whilst still in the womb. And I haven't even played him any Ramones yet...

No thrifting for Peanut?

I may forever be prevented from shopping at my favorite places - Goodwill and Value Village - for little Peanut's necessaries. Well-meaning do-gooders who pushed legislation to keep lead and other toxics out of kid's toys have unintentionally (I hope) made life much more difficult for secondhand stores and all-natural toy and clothing makers.

Here is a quote from a Rick Woldenburg article published on the Free-Range Parenting blog:

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act became law on August 14, 2008 and it dramatically changes the way we regulate children’s product safety. After several toys from China were recalled in 2007/8 for high levels of lead, Congress wanted to do something – anything — so it did. And went way overboard.

Until then, the Consumer Product Safety Commission focused only on products that posed an actual threat to your child’s safety – things like faulty car seats, or toys with small parts that could break off and cause choking. Under the new law, Congress imposes arbitrary standards that require the manufacturers of pens, shoes, t-shirts, ATVs, bikes, books, backpacks and toys to “prove” the safety of their products, and label them a new way...

The law also makes it difficult and risky for Goodwill, the Salvation Army and other charities to sell or give away used children’s products, because merely by selling something with plastic or old ink, they might be breaking the law. Thrift stores are reacting to the new regulations by closing their children’s departments. Some have actually THROWN OUT any children’s books printed before 1985. That’s when printing ink still included lead – which might be a problem if children sat down and ate books, page by page, but is no problem at all if they just read them.

- - - -

I'm not afraid of the big bad unproven goods wolf, but I hope that all the awesome secondhand and consignment stores I've been looking forward to shopping in are still doing their thing when I want 'em.

Water Words That Work: A Blog I Love

http://waterwordsthatwork.com/ maybe my favorite blog so far. I say this mostly because I work for an environmental non-profit who provides consulting to other environmental non-profits and often the issue of "framing the problem" comes up. This blog primarily focuses on water issues (streams, stormwater, pollution, water rights, etc) but the concepts could be applied to almost any environmental issue.

The genius of this blog is not immediately apparent, but read a few posts and you'll see that this guy (Eric Eckl is his name) writes well and stays focused. You won't read many platitudes or "engagement made easy" kinds of articles because he understands that getting people to change their behavior for the common good is difficult work.

In short - community organizers, and local non-profits take note!

Pons Aelius

Pons Aelius
Originally uploaded by samknox

When Hadrian commissioned his great wall in AD 122, he ordered six forts be built along its length, a castle every mile, and two watchtowers between each milecastle. With today's visit to the Castle Keep in Newcastle (from which the modern city gets its name), we have been to the site of five of the six forts. There is nothing left of the fort at Pons Aelius (the bridge of Aelius: Hadrian's family name), but there is a fun Norman keep. We climbed all the way to the roof up the scariest spiral stairs we've yet seen to some beautiful views on this beautiful day, our last here. The two modern bridges you see in the background are the main car and pedestrian routes, respectively, to the city of Gateshead across the River Tyne. The pedestrian bridge is an engineering marvel - it's a drawbridge that hinges at its abutments and swings vertically out of a passing ship's path.

We visited the Diamond pub one last time, and much to our delight the man in grey was still there, as was cask conditioned Black Sheep ale, our favorite on this trip. Having said our goodbyes to the beer barrels, we are now ready to travel for 30-some hours tomorrow. The only form of motorized trasport we won't use is a boat! We will post if time and brain allow. Thanks for reading this, and we look forward to showing you all of our pictures when we return.

Homesick now

Newcastle United v. Blackburn Rovers
Originally uploaded by samknox

We could think of no more fitting way to spend our second to last day in Newcastle than by attending a football match. We slept in a bit at Simon's, mostly shook off the exertions of last night on the town, and wandered into the team store to get tickets. According to our friends here, there's been a great deal of drama within the home team's leadership, leading up to the sudden departure of the manager (we would say coach) the day we first arrived here. Today's match was N.U.'s third or fourth without a leader, and the team has not been doing well. They are a good team, it's just that morale is in the toilet right now. So today's match was an instructive one for us: we were really there more for the people-watching than for the actual game, and the crowd obliged by being large, mostly supportive of the team, and extraordinarily vocal. You see, soccer fans don't just yell, they sing. In unison. All 53,000 of them. It was awesome!

We are having a great time here, but we both feel ready to head home soon. It's hard work being a stranger in a strange land, and we really miss our friends, colleagues, and cats. After all, there's no place like home. See you soon.

Make way for the princess

Durham Cathedral
Originally uploaded by samknox

Today's trip was to the highly defensible town of Durham and its cathedral, said by many to be the finest example of Norman, that is Romanesqe, architecture in England and resting place of Saint Cuthbert. We'd been looking forward to climbing the bell tower, which at 280 feet is the highest in Europe, according to the guide. Apparently they also have some beautiful reliquaries and devotional art, not to mention the Saint's lovely shrine. To our dissappointment, all these were closed and visiting hours severely curtailed due to the imminent arrival of Princess Anne. We mere peasants were made to go have a pint on the riverside in the warm sunshine. Durham Brewery's fine cream ale did much to restore our spirits, and we had a lovely time exploring the medieval streets, vennels, and market places.

Then it was on to an evening with Simon and Jill, who took us out to sample a bit of real Newcastle nightlife. Northern Soul is apparently alive and well, as evidenced by the fabulous funk band we heard. We shook our moneymakers until Sam couldn't stand anymore, and walked back to Simon's sweet garret flat for a well-earned rest.

Hotspur! (Not the musical.)

Warkworth, Harry Hotspur's castle
Originally uploaded by samknox

Well here we are on one of our last days out and about and it was a good one. Not only was it our ninth wedding anniversary, it was sunny and we got to explore a spectacular castle ruin near the equally fine coastal town of Amble. The castle overlooks a small bay and the North Sea beyond. We found it hard to photograph due to its size and general complexity. The best part was the three-story keep which we ran all around in and felt quite lost in a bygone century.

We had Angus' nephew Simon with us who was kind enough to drive us to each of our destinations today. We started out the day in search of 'proper' fish and chips which took us to no less than three coastal towns before we found our quarry. 'Proper' must come in newspaper, be comprised of a large chunk of fried fish and deep-fried or 'batter' sausage should be on the menu as well.

We spent the afternoon in Alnwick gardens, which were not as cool as advertised, but had some pretty neat water sculptures. Even though it's hard by Alnwick castle, the garden is cunningly designed so as to allow no views of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland's residence. The treehouse was a highlight, although tea was not available at four pm, but it did feel as if we'd gone to Endor, sans Ewoks.