Weather here rubbish went to Scotland for 10 days and it was hot and sunny. We have 4 children Susan, Michael, James, Richard and when they were young I would not fly anywhere so we spent all our holidays in Britain and as a result we have been all round the coast and a great number of places inland. Then we started visiting the islands Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, all the Scilly Isles and smaller ones like Bardsey and Shell Island, Angelsey. Scottish islands are marvellous Arran,Skye, Mull, Ulva, Great Cumbrae, Bute, Jura, Islay, Easdale, Luing, Orkney, Shetland, North and South Uist, Benbecula, Eriskay, Harris and Lewis, Barra, Vatersey, Mingulay (where I, who is afraid of heights had to clamber from a small swaying boat up the side of a steep cliff no steps or handrail to the top. Walk a narrow path above the sea to get to the beach and after a few hours when my heart had stopped pounding I was told I had to go the same way back which was worse as on the way up I did not look back but this time I had to look down. I very nearly colonized Mingulay to the tune of one inhabitant. Only peer pressure got me on that boat.) Rum. Eigg, Colonsay. This holiday it was Arran, Gigha, Kerrera, Lishmore, Coll and Tiree. Coll and Tiree had amazing beaches with white sand and blue/green water. The islands were all beautiful but our favourite was Coll. The beaches were isolated and one had to walk to reach them over grass covered in an abundance of wild flowers. Susan and our grandson Alex came with us. Frequent ferry trips which Alex found exciting (we did too) the longest trip was four hours returning from Tiree to Oban.Met some lovely people both living on the islands and visitors. German people seem to like Scotland. Be prepared though coming from a fairly hectic lifestyle nothing is done in a hurry. As one lady in Coll said to me the kettle takes a long time to boil here. We found places to eat mostly hotel bars which were very few and far between and in Tiree Hotel I had the best knickerbocker glory I have ever had. I am still dreaming about it. Returned to Oban still bathed in sunshine but got a rude awakening when we stayed overnight with our friends (Terry and I have known each other since we were 4) in Glasgow when we encountered rain.
Home to Pannal more rain, cold and today grey skies. Missed the Jubilee (60 years of Pannal) to which I contributed a number of items so will have to find out how well it went and write it up in a later blog. I did have the first copy of the new look Harrogate Advertiser and I think it looks like The Metro which is the free paper handed out to rail passengers. To me it is a comedown from a quality broadsheet to a tabloid.
