It’s celebration time in the beautiful province of Quebec, in Canada, as Quebecers are taking part in Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day and Fête Nationale du Quebec festivities. The public holiday celebrates the culture and heritage of francophones inside Quebec and across the country, and how they have shaped it. While the religious significance of the civic celebration is gone, the day remains … Continue reading →
On my desk is Alex Nye’s book For My Sins, a fascinating historical novel I’ve just finished reading. I recommend it to all people interested in Mary Stuart’s life. There are many books devoted to Mary Queen of Scots but this one is particularly moving since the narrator is Mary herself. In my last selection of books for Christmas … Continue reading →
In Norse, Saddell means “sandy valley” and the ruins of Saddell Abbey are situated in this lovely and quiet glen where the Saddell Water flows into the Kilbrannan Sound on the east coast of Kintyre. The beauty of the landscape around, the ruined abbey echoing times long past and the remarkable collection of medieval slabs and effigies sheltered in a special-built … Continue reading →
MULL OF KINTYRE LIGHTHOUSE The Mull of Kintyre is a beautiful peninsula on the West Coast of Scotland and you can admire stunning views as you get closer to the Kintyre lighthouse, which is one of the two oldest lighthouse of Scotland, the other being the Bell Rock Lighthouse, off the coast of Angus. As mentioned by Mairiuna in a … Continue reading →
The Kintyre peninsula is one of our favourite places in Scotland. We went there twice in May 2004 and June 2015 and its very name conjures up many unforgettable memories. It’s quite possible to visit the Kintyre peninsula in a one-day trip and we did it but, if you ask me, it’s rather frustrating to do so, not being able … Continue reading →
Robert Louis Stevenson’s cousin, David Alan Stevenson worked on twenty-six (26) Scottish lighthouses during his career. Among them, near Glendale, is one of Scotland’s most famous, the Neist Point lighthouse on the Duirinish peninsula, the most westerly point of the Isle of Skye. 1909… On the very tip of Neist Point, quite literally on the cliffs edge and standing alone … Continue reading →
Hugh Miller was born in 1802, in Cromarty. It is a lovely little town, a former royal burgh, situated at the end of the so-called “Black Isle” which, contrary to what the name suggests and also, on a quite different register, contrary to Herge’s description of the place in his volume of Tintin entitled The Black Isle, is not an … Continue reading →
With 39 different local times in use, it takes 26 hours for the New Year to encompass all time zones 😉 Happy Hogmanay to our Scottish friends! “Each age has deemed the new-born year ‘The fittest time for festal cheer’. ” — Walter Scott Bonne Année à nos amis de la France et du Québec! “Saluons ensemble cette nouvelle année … Continue reading →
Some time ago, our daughter’s best friend was looking for ideas of Scottish fairy tales books for her young daughter and she asked me if I had suggestions. I needed no more to turn to my library for over the years I have collected a number of such books and… guess what… hardly had I opened the first book that … Continue reading →
After a rich life of adventures, from the mundane circles of Hollywood where he spent years writing about the biggest movie stars of the world to the wilderness where he finally chose to retire ‘Between Earth and Paradise’, Mike Tomkies, the unforgettable master of Moobli, died on October 6th 2016. Maybe Moobli and Mike’s friends who crossed the “Rainbow Bridge” … Continue reading →
Bonjour Marie-Agnès, Bonjour Jean-Claude, Bonjour Janice, The other day I came across a letter I received some years ago from Maurice Fleming, then Editor of the Scots Magazine, telling me about an old newspaper report he had been reading. It referred to the imprisonment of the staff of Lerwick Post Office in November 1914. Mr Fleming asked if … Continue reading →
. A snippet from an article on BBC.com about increasing chances of seeing Aurora Borealis in Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England Breathtaking pictures! British Geological Survey, Aurorawatch UK and US body Space Weather Prediction Centre have all reported heightened opportunities of spotting the aurora. It is due to recent activity on the surface of the sun. The aurora is … Continue reading →
Had it not been for this magnificent sculpture of a white unicorn, I’ve probably would not have noticed, upon leaving the beautiful town of Cromarty, where we delightfully visited the native house of one of Scotland’s premier palaeontologists, Hugh Miller, this very ancient building, circa 1775, named The Stables. The Stables, an imposing Georgian building was converted in 1995 to … Continue reading →
It was our last day in Islay and we had planned to visit a number of places: Bowmore, Kildalton Church and Cross, Ardveg Distillery, Port Ellen… the Oa peninsula… too many places for a single day! But the weather was nice and we set off early in the morning, leaving Port Charlotte and passing once more in front of Bruichladdich … Continue reading →
On our second day in Islay we had planned to take the little blue ferry at Port Askaig to go to Jura, a wild island which lies only 800m off Islay. After visiting the Isle of Jura distillery, we intended to follow the single track A 846 up to the end of the road in the north of the … Continue reading →
