Rotary Trip to Scotland

Mitzi and others seem to have wanted to hear from all of us on this blog, and today we transferred to Symington, to Mike & Liz Kelly’s house, leaving Killearn, and Jason and I are staying together.  He has just introduced me to the ease of using this technology, so I will try to make my reports on the blog.

We have now been the much honored and looked after guests in two communities, and I don’t think I can really accurately describe the extent of hospitality we have enjoyed.  Jason has written about the celebration of George Buchanan’s 500th birthday on Saturday in Killearn.  The dinner in the church hall, prepared by the women of the church, was terrific, and for my next lesson I might add a picture of the summer pudding that I took there.  We moved next door to the village hall, and the musicians, the villagers, our hosts, and the team had a party we will never forget. 

When it ended, Roger said let’s have a nightcap, and we were off to Robert’s house and another wee dram.  I realized about that point that I had better start to write down the list of whisky’s I have been offered (and accepted), and this list has grown since then.

My favorite description of a whisky, in a very nice book presented to me today by Roger, is that it “turns mean and moody in the middle.”

Despite the drinks and the late hours, Sunday morning was no problem and Roger took me on a hike, or hill walk as he describes it, to the summit of Ben Lomond, the tallest peak on the shores of Loch Lomond, about 15 miles from his home in Killearn.  Roger, 76, does a hill walk of at least an hour to an hour and a half 2 or three times a week, and he was spry and chatty all the way up the hill and back down again.  It was misting when we started, raining in the middle (mean and moody?), and misting again at the top and Roger was disappointed from me that I did not get to see the view of Loch Lomond and a great deal more of the country in every direction.  He will send me a picture. 

On the way up we encountered five mountain bikers in full gear, riding down.  They had taken the bikes and their protective gear up to the summit on their backs!  They said it would be a good chat up in the pub.  We didn’t see their bodies on the rocks coming down, so presume they made it.  I barely did, as the steepness cut into my knees all the way down, and another 50 feet would have been too long.

Roger prescribed the appropriate cure in the first pub we came to, a Galvar, something like Drambuie, but better!  It worked!

On Monday night we attended the Killearn Rotary Club meeting in the Black Bull Hotel, a very handsome establishment with very good food in an attractive glassed in dining room.  Jason has written about the program, so I will direct you to his report on the content of the evening.  You’ll note there that Jason noticed the barmaid after the meeting, but failed to get her name.  Roger will be supplying that via email, we think. 

Leaving Roger and Mary Short this morning was like leaving Mike and Diana Ure last week. Difficult.  It’s hard to describe the depth of friendship we have been granted by each family, and impossible to think that all of this takes place in such a short period of time.  We have each made friends for life, and forged relationships that we will continue to treasure.

The drive to Symington was interrupted with a fascinating stop at the Dalgarven Mill, a family created museum and restoration of a water driven mill, with a long talk from the director, founder, curator, delicious lunch provided by his wife in the tea room, and a look at Scottish history in the museum and an insight into Scottish present as he recounted all the difficulites he has encountered and the discouraging unintended consequences of some of the help he has been provided from various sources.  You can learn more about the museum at www.dalgarvenmill.org and you are heartily encourged to visit when you bring yourself to this part of the world.

Looking for comments from readers of my debut post.  Signing off to join Mike, Liz and Jason in a glass of wine.  Best wishes to everyone!  Thorns

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 19th, 2006 at 5:15 pm and is filed under Thorns' trip updates. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.