ABC...Z the end of the round

I had to think through what I might use from our trip last summer to conclude with the theme I have used for nearly all of this round. We didn't visist any countries starting with Z such as Zimbabwe or Zaire or New Zealand. We weren't in Italy, so we didn't eat any zabaliogne or zitti. We didn't go on safari or visit a zoo, so we didn't see any zebras or zebus.

But there were some specific zones we visited.




For example, this Central Controlled Zone is around the Scottish Parliament Building. (I'm not sure what is controlled, maybe it is vehicle traffic. It's not girls in shorts.)








Near our hotel in the outskirts of London, the Pedestrian Zone may end, but it still stands. The Construction Zone in the area, however, ought to be ended by now.

I may pull out images from our UK trip for other blog entries in the future, but for this round, this is the zzzzzz, the end. So I will leave the ZZZZZZZs with my husband resting his eyes as we traveled through the Highlands back to Edinburgh after our week of hiking.

ABC Wednesday -- the end of Round Seven.

See you next week as we begin Round Eight.

V is for Village

The common dictionary definition of a village is:

1.a small community or group of houses in a rural area, larger than a hamlet and usually smaller than a town, and sometimes (as in parts of the U.S.) incorporated as a municipality. 

2.the inhabitants of such a community collectively.

Our visit to the Northwest Highlands of Scotland this summer brought us to Torridon Village.

 We stayed int he village of Kinlochewe, and hiked through the village of Gairloch.

This leads one to wonder what constitutes a hamlet and what a town. Those definitions are suitably vague, though it appears that a hamlet, at least in Great Britain, does not have its own church and a village does.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 If you've read my blog on any kind of regular basis, you probably have figured out that I am blessed (or cursed) with wanderlust. So, though I've featured sites and sights from our trip to the UK for this round of ABCs, I've had some previous experiences with villages by all definitions.

In India ten years ago, we made several evening visits to nearby villages. We visited in the evening because we were busy working during the day  on the roof of the boys' home where we were volunteering. We met with them to learn about their life

 and the projects through which they were improving conditions for themselves and their families.

The question we were asked at each village we visited was "How are your marriages arranged?"

We visited some villages in Siberia when we were there. On this Sunday afternoon we traveled with the priest for Mass in the village of Krasny Pochara. This is the little church there and some of the congregation. Most of the village (definition 2) were out harvesting wild mushrooms, an important part of their diet.





Rural would be the part of the definition that applied to the village of Kargasok, because it was much larger than any other place I have heard called a village. It was one of a number of villages on the Ob River traveling north from Novosibirsk--maybe the largest. The trip by boat was fifteen hours, and we spent two days visiting with internet friends.


Maybe isolated is a better word than rural. But since the cows greeted us in the yard of the hotel in the morning, I guess "rural" works, too.

After we were home from Siberia that year, I compared photos with my friend who had spent her summer in some Alaskan villages. The scenes were remarkably similar.

So these are some of my village memories for ABC Wednesday, round 7.



Wednesday--U is for...

U is for Ullapool.

This is the lochside street where our Bed and Breakfast in Ullapool in the northwest of Scotland was located. A row of compact houses facing the port, most of them on this street were B&Bs.

Ullapool is a small port town with a rich history. Our friend in Edinburgh told us it is where the settlers of Nova Scotia embarked from. Unusual for a village in the Highlands, Ullapool is laid out in a grid, having been rebuilt after a fire. Most Highlands towns grew in a more haphazard arrangement.

You can see that the location on the water is vital to the economy and lives of the people here. Tourism, fishing, and transportation are very important. These boys were having fun skipping rocks. 

An important link to the Outer Isles, the ferry comes in several times a day (and at some wee hour of the night as well.)

ABC Wednesday--thank you Denise for a continuing run, and thank you to the team who help her keep it going.

ABC Wednesday--Q is for...

Q is for Queen.


So, while we were in the UK we could have gone looking for the queen. Officially, the Great Hall here at the Edinburgh Castle is hers for entertaining.

But she wasn't there.

She wasn't at Holyrood Palace at the other end of the Royal Mile, either.
















When we got to London, we could have seen the queen, too.

We went right up to her gate.

Be she wasn't home.

There are many places where the queen has the privilege of residence. Even here:

But I will save that for T.



ABC Wednesday,
Round Seven,
Found here.

ABC Wednesday--O is for Old

O is for OLD.

When we saw these signs in Edinburgh, it gave us a smile. We are exercising regularly to hopefully avoid being that bent when we are old. Hey wait, depending on your perspective, we ARE already old.

O is for OLDER.


The cathedral at Lincoln is considerably older than we are--well--by several hundred years, though the current amazing structure is not as old as its beginnings shortly after the Norman Invasion.

I have to think really hard about what we have in North America that is that old.

O is for OLDEST. This is the probably the oldest thing we saw while we were in the UK. This is one of the small gateways on Hadrian's Wall, built across the north of England in 122 AD.

ABC Wednesday--now on O for the seventh time. See it here.

What K would you do if you'd just been to Scotland? ABC Wednesday

The obvious K for someone recently visitor to Scotland--the KILT.

ABC Wednesday can be found here.

And for the answer to the question--I don't know.

Sunday's Psalm--23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time

 In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

 

~~~~from Psalm 90~~~~

cemetery at Gairloch, Scotland; dear grass on Ben Dampf, Scotland; sundial near Tower of London; pond at Dawber Gardens, Lincoln, England

Hercules' Garden

So our week of Highland hikes has come to an end and we are on our way back to Edinburgh to make our ways back to the next phase of our lives. Alexander and Elizabeth back to their studies, Nicola back to work, and the two of us on for further adventures. Shaun had another group to meet on Saturday, so Jon from Walkabout Scotland came to join us and escort us on our journey back to reality. He had a few small adventures for us along the way, though, including a stop at Blair castle's garden.

Outside the garden was a statue of Hercules, thus its name. The formal garden spans ten acres, but the best of it was the pond. This pair of swans had a single fledgling, who stuck pretty close to mom and dad.

A perfect Weekend Reflection

Some other random bits from the day are appearing at my photo only blog. Haven't been over there? Be sure to look through all the August archive. They are all full screen images--odds and ends from the Scotland trip, and will continue into England and Wales with us next week.

Ullapool

That second half of our Scottish Highlands week, while we were hiking Cul Mor and Stac Pollaidh, we stayed in the little port town of Ullapool. Lynda, back in Edinburgh had told us that Ullapool was the port that the first settlers of Nova Scotia had sailed from. It has  changed quite a bit since that time, though many buildings are quite old. Unlike many Highland villages which just kind of grew helter skelter and then roads were put in to connect, Ullapool was built on a grid, and is quite an orderly layout. Our B&B was in this street across from the harbor with this view of Loch Broom. As you can see, we

continued to have gray wet weather, some days wetter than others, some days grayer. This was to our delight, as we had escaped the summer heat of Central Washington, but, then, some of the wettest we could have done without.

From our window we could observe quite a bit of local activity, as the harbor was really a center of it all.






These boys were passing the time one morning splashing rocks.

And here, for the SkyWatchers is one of our brilliant Highland rainbows. The photographs do not do justice to the brilliance of the colors. One that we had had on our way back to Kinlochewe from a hike was so bright, we just pulled over and stared for several minutes. It was complete in the field beside us, and double, and I have never seen colors so extraordinary. (No pictures of that one--the cameras were in the back of the van drying out.)

SkyWatch links can be found here.

The boating activity in the loch was quite varied--small pleasure craft gave us their reflections (A bit early for Weekend Reflections hosted by James at Newtown Daily Photo but I have another for tomorrow.) and we were, of course, properly checked out by the local inspector:













Fishing boats tied up at the docks.

And the arrival and departure of the ferry to the Isle of Harris and Lewis was an important part of the day.

Two more days of hikes--Cul Mor and Stac Pollaidh

Fog! We set off for Cul Mor not anticipating long views. Some days are like that.

We did get to see some of the lochs below through the damp. I think this is Loch Veyatie. Cul Mor is a challenge. I looked back to see the others scrambling up the rocks behind me. (How did I get ahead?)

...and ahead to see what was coming as we continuned upward.

This time I was among those at the top, as we gathered around the trig mark at the highest point.

I think this is Stac Pollaidh, our goal for the next day. I am not sure, as the most distinctive part of that peak would be hidden there in the cloud.

Friday's hike, easier in some ways--up to a certain point. You can see the top from here.

This is the top. Shaun knew not to ask me to take those vertical rock walls. Ranney and I remained to watch and look around.

We could look back to Cul Mor--you could actually see the top today.

While the mountains in the Torridon area were like a range--lots of hills and ups and downs, these rise up from the surrounding plain as individual monoliths. You definitely start at the bottom.

Here they come back down--a white knuckle experience for some. They could truthfully say they climbed Stac Pollaidh. I am content to say that I climbed ON Stac Pollaidh.

Where had they gone? Up there!