SCOTLAND

It has been an embarrassingly long time since the last entry. Career and marriage took over most of my time in 2011, and both focuses bore results I am very happy about. More about that some other day perhaps. Anyway, in an effort to pick things up here at this dusty, abandoned outpost of history, design, food, travel, and life, I am starting up entries just before we leave for a nearly 7 week trip to Southeast Asia. Here, as a meek sort of "dipping my toes in for the first time in a long time," are images from our recent trip to Scotland.

Our first stop after Glasgow was the Isle of Skye, where we stayed with family in a cozy rambling farmhouse perched 300 feet above the sea.

We hiked to old dun ruins, ate hearty soups, read history, and drank whiskey by the peat fire.

Peats are bits dried turf from bogs that are burned in lieu of fire wood. Here they are being stored in a dry spot.

We also drove the family cows down to town where some were separated to be sold to market. Life on the farm... where the family raises their own meat and grows most if their own vegetables. Scottish crofters have been practicing locavorism out of necessity and economics since before, during and after the industrial food revolution and the tradition continues today.

The trip to Scotland was planned around a cousin's wedding-- a fun, rainy-day affair in a tent in a field near the sea complete with a rainbow and a traditional Scottish Ceilidh afterwards which lasted late into the evening. I must say it was really fun.

The sun came out for about 15 minutes on our last day. We used the opportunity to explore the nearby town of Mallaig. You might know this small windswept village from the movie Breaking the Waves.

More posts of our journey to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand coming soon...