A day of Castles & Churches

We woke up on Sunday morning to rain, rain and more rain!!

Since neither Michael nor myself wanted to hike in the rain, we moved indoors instead!!

Our first stop was Inveraray Castle, home of the 13th Duke of Argyll and his family….

The foundation stone for the Castle was laid in 1746!! It took 43 years to complete and the 5th Duke was the first to live in it.

As expected, it was ornate, ostentatious, and had lots of gilt!!

I did enjoy this portrait of one of the past Dukes…..

This entryway was interesting with the weaponry being used for decorations!

We didn’t tarry long in the castle, but did enjoy morning tea before we left.

The next stop was to a slightly different type of castle…..

This one in need of some long overdue repairs!!

This castle stands on a rocky peninsula on Loch Awe. It was built in the mid-15th century but fell out of use and was in ruins by 1770.

It was interesting to see the architecture….

…and especially the rock masonry!

The final stop of the day was to Saint Conan’s Kirk (Kirk being the Scottish word for church)…..

The Kirk was hidden in the trees, making it hard to get a photo of the entire building, but we certainly enjoyed ogling all of the architectural details….

I love these stairs, but sure wouldn’t want to be forced to use them….

This window was interesting because it didn’t have any color in the glass…..

The more I look at it, the more I want to pull out fabrics and start re-creating it!!

I was impressed by the pipe organ…..

…until I realized that the “pipes” were strictly ornamental. They weren’t connected to the organ in any way!

It was fun to look up and see the wooden ceiling…..

…so different from the ornate ceilings of many UK Churches.

And of course, we were enamored with this “bunny gargoyle”…..

It looks as if the head is part of the gutter system.

And, I guess that these are owls…..

…but crudely carved.

On the way back to the lodge, we did a quick turn in the town of Inverary….

….until the rain sent us scurrying back to the car!!

All in all, it was a fun (non-physically taxing) day!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

Lessons learned!!

Last weekend I posted about our hiking times in the Scottish Highlands, but I didn’t tell you the whole story!!

IT WAS TOUGH WORK!!!

Some of the slopes were very steep, and the grassy tussocks were super easy to stumble over. There were many boggy areas, and often I would step into a hole filled with freezing water, feeling it rush into my boot.

Our first day out was particularly difficult. Part of that had to do with only 6 hours of sleep in the last 48 hours, but that wasn’t the only problem.

I found myself flailing around as I hiked. I was stepping HARD, almost stomping the ground and using my trekking pole to pull myself upward.

At the end of the day, I was exhausted and discouraged, especially since I had been promised that the next day would be even harder.

So I had a “come to Jesus” talk with myself!!

I KNOW how to hike. I KNOW how to stay balanced and not flail. So what was my problem?

I wasn’t concentrating on my walking, but rather on how bad I felt doing it!!

I told myself that the next day I would stay light on my feet rather than plodding, and I would concentrate on keeping my balance, without depending on the trekking pole to keep me upright.

And you know what…..

IT WORKED!!

With every step, I kept repeating…..”STAY LIGHT FOOTED” and STAY BALANCED”!!

Now, don’t get me wrong, at the end of the day I was exhausted, and my body told me that I had worked hard. However, my mind was in a much better place.

I was more able to enjoy the sun coming up…..

….and the gorgeous views…..

The difficulty hadn’t changed.

My MINDSET had!!

As I return to real life at home, I want to take this new mindset with me. No, I don’t have to worry about being light-of-foot or staying balanced, but I DO need to concentrate on what I am doing….whether in my office or my studio!!

And, even if I don’t want to be doing something, I still need to concentrate on what I am doing, and not on how I feel about it.

That was my LESSON LEARNED!!

Thanks for listening…..

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Scottish Highlands at their best

We have just returned from a 10-day trip to the Glasgow area of Scotland. The trip was split into several distinct parts….. exploring the Highlands, sightseeing in Glasgow and Dunoon, and one lovely day riding the “Jacobite Train”, also known as the “Hogwarts Express”!! I can’t wait to share it all with you!

Let’s start with the glorious Highlands. I have now seen them and…..

They met all of my expectations!!

The hiking was sometimes very hard, as I stumbled over tussocks of grass and stepped ankle deep into holes filled with freezing cold water…..

….but the scenery made up for all of the hard work!!

The thing that surprised me most was the diversity of the environment.

In most places, we were in view of one of the 30,000 Lochs (lakes) in the country….

Some were tiny. As a kid in Texas, we would have called them a “stock tank”. But others were enormous and the far bank seemed to disappear magically into the distance…..

Many areas were covered in forests….

…. others were rocky plinths with no vegetation to speak of…..

…..and some were simply rolling hills of scrubby grass…..

One of the most interesting things that we stumbled on was this rock hut, high up on one of the mountains…..

(Don’t you love the sheep in the background?)

The builder of this hut uses it as a spiritual retreat, and we could see evidence of his shrine inside the hut…..

Apparently, he is now well into his 80’s, but he still comes here often!!

He also erected this Gaelic Cross that is visible from many areas of the Highlands…..

I will leave you with one of my favorite phtos……

This is Bruno, next to a rock cairn that our guide, Martin, is building. He adds a new stone to it every time he is at the top of this particular mountain.

Many cairns are built as a marker of gratitude and I have to say that I am truly grateful for our days in this glorious area of the world!!

There’s lots more to see, so keep coming back!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

Sun-downer in the desert

I wanted to devote a little more time to our stay in the Kalahari Desert area of South Africa.

The photos don’t really do it justice…..’

Between the red dirt and the clear blue skies, it is truly a magical place!!

How can you not love this image of a group of Oryx…..

…or this video animals fleeing from the truck…..

We were interested in these “watermelon”-type of fruits…..

Nicolai, our guide, cut one opened and said that they were often sweet….

After he took a big bite, he did several spit takes and declared that this particular one was NOT sweet!!

We were also intrigued by the desert cucumbers…..

Apparently, all of the “deer” type animals love the fruit and the Rhinos love the vines!!

The weather this year has been unusual and there were large meadows of tall grass…..

It made a beautiful contrast to the red dirt.

And, look at these tracks in the dune….

….not only the large mammal tracks, but the tiny bird feet as well!!

On our last night, they drove us to one of the stable dunes for our “Sun-downer” farewell.

The night was gorgeous…..

One of our waiters, Belus, had gone before us and set up a campfire and all of the trimmings for a fun evening….

I loved the design that the lanterns made on the ground…..

Belus added a grate on top of the flames, and grilled Barbecued sheep’s Tail….

After I got over the thought of WHAT I was eating, I enjoyed the spicy flavor!!

Sadly, we had to leave early the next morning, and it was hard to leave our home at Kalahari-Oryx!!

We have visited twice and I truly hope that there is another one in our future!!

After leaving, there was a flight to Johannesburg, an overnight there, and then the 16-hour flight back to Atlanta.

This was one of the nicest trips that we have ever been on. Everywhere we went, we met wonderful people who took amazing care of us!!

I can’t wait for our next adventure….wherever it may be!!

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!

Fun in the Kalahari

Our final destination in Africa was the Kalahari Desert, staying at the Kalahari Oryx Lodge.

We visited here in 2023 and spent several wonderful days darting and moving Rhinos!! You can see the video here….

We were supposed to be doing more of this, but various things happened that prevented us from working with the Rhinos. Consequently, we had tons of time to relax and view the amazing animals.

NOTE….there are LOTS of animal photos here!!

Adding to my “first time seen in the wild” list, I was so excited to see this grouping of giraffes…..

It was so fun to watch them….

This one was the youngest in the group…..

I absolutely LOVE how these guys walk….

There is a wonderful comedy sketch about giraffes…..

Okay….I got distracted…. back to the animals…..

We saw numerous pairs of ostriches as we drove the property…..

We scared this pair off of their nest, but it was fun to be able to see the nest up close ……

Later we saw a female actually sitting on a nest….

It was SO cool!!

As we traveled further around we saw more Rhinos….

Look at the horn on this one….

We also saw a Bonte Buck….

….a Tsessebe…..

….Steenbok…..

….Sable…..

…Harteeest…..

….and Impala…..

I had planned to end the trip on this post, but I have to tell you about our last night in camp!! Come back tomorrow and we will finish it out.

Michael and I love to travel and see new parts of the world and then I love to take those memories and turn them into quilts!!! I hope that you enjoy traveling along with us!!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog so you don’t miss a single trip!!