Scotland Vacation June 2007

[starbkjrus]

Great photos, Dee, and to think I missed you by only a few days! The 'Hamish MkII' is pretty darned good - the kick is not quite high enough, but you are both working very well together. The arms, I am afraid to say, are not right - both arms should be extended symetrically in line with the shoulders. Get those right and I can see I'll have two new chorus boys for the new show: "Hamish - the Musical"!!!!

The others are right: you must get Ron into the kilt. He'll not be admitted to The Storrington Gathering next year if he wears t------s or j---s!!

That was I think the third or fourth take of the MKII. You should see the other pictures!

Getting Ron into a kilt... Not being able to come to Storrington may do it but I dunno. He's pretty stubborn. I'll try again though.

[starbkjrus]

Ok, a few more while eating lunch at my desk.

The first morning we were in Dumfries I woke up early and went for a walk about town. Here are a couple of pics of the river. (Warning it was overcast and 6:00 AM so these are a bit dark.)





And flower beds at Greyfriars Kirk. Note the Scottish Country Dancing in the first pic.







And this one is later in the day when we were coming from dinner. (At the fountain in the High Street.)

[starbkjrus]

Next on the agenda is Caerlaverock Castle on the Solway shore just south of Dumfries. I know there are many pictures of XMarks forays to Caerlaverock so I'll not post too many pics.

First we hopped into our trusty rented Vauxhall and headed to the shore parking lot on the Caerlaverock grounds. If you look over the hood of the car and over the berm (across the Solway Firth) you can just see the hills of Northwest England in the distance.



The plan had been to park here and hike the few miles to the castle but alas the trail was too muddy thru the marshes so we er....drove.

Front gate of the castle:


The Lairds Apartments:


And a side wall with the moat in the foreground. (This was a large castle for its time.)



Here's one of me looking "through" the back wall across the moat and "back 40". Note my brand new Tilley Hat that alas is now lost deep in the horrible depths of Heathrow Airport. No worries though - I replaced it as soon as we got home.



Thats it for now. I'll try to add some more tonight.

[Panache]

This a great picture and for some reason it reminds me in some odd way of the "Everybody Ought to have a Maid" scene from the movie A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with you two as a Scottish version of Pseudolus and Hysterium.

More pictures please!

Cheers

Jamie

[starbkjrus]

This a great picture and for some reason it reminds me in some odd way of the "Everybody Ought to have a Maid" scene from the movie A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with you two as a Scottish version of Pseudolus and Hysterium.

More pictures please!

Cheers

Jamie

And Jamie THAT is just too funny.....I think everyone should have a maid, and a valet, and chauffer (Ok, spelling) and er...Cadbury and Irona. That should give some a pause....

Ok, some might be bored but we continue....

it's KILT NIGHT!!!

Some of you who haven't been there need to realize that before you approach Ferintosh that you should be prepared for a Kilt Night / Pub Crawl. here are a couple of pics:

This is a quick pic of Robertson, David (Dalglish) & Helen and Ron while we await Emma (Mrs. P1M) to join us at the Waverly (just around the corner from Ferintosh).



And now a shot of us all at The Globe in Dumfries. Sorry to cut your face off David. oops



While we're in The Globe it's imperitive that we post a pic of the most prominent of The Globe fixtures - Crabbit Jack - this is Ron and I with Crabbit Jack in the "Snug" bar:



Let me tell you...since this is the third time I've met the man in The Globe he is :

1. A permanent fixture
2. Practices his Crabbitness

He's good at it.

And one last kilt night one from The Last Post - Inevitable last stop on the way back to Ferintosh from the High Street:



A nice pub all in all and a good night was had by all.

Next up: A day in Carlisle, England

[starbkjrus]

Ladies & Gentlemen, Again I say that if you are bored then don't read any further......but I will continue.... (We've only gotten four days into a two week vacation...)

Next stop on Saturday was a sort of spontaneous trip down to Carlisle England. I cannot say enough here to thank David & Helen Dalglish and Alex & Ann Cunningham (Ok, David Dalglish and Cessna51towser and spouses).

This was one of the highlights of our vacation. We started out from Dumfries in our trusty rented Vauxhall and I managed with only minor mishaps to navigate driving on the right side of the car and left side of the road to get us somewhere in the vicinity of Carlisle, England. (Remember this is the day that we invaded England so I went in stealth mode and wore no kilt.)

After getting somewhere close to Carlisle (or rather somewhere close to England) I called David who gave directions and arranged a rendevous point. From there we proceeded to wander about the completely charming city of Carlisle.

Here is a shot of David D & I chatting as we wandered around Carlisle itself.



As we wandered up the street from parking we came upon the old gate in the city walls:


Its just gorgeous. If you look just to the right you see the other side of the "gate" "



Beautiful Norman architecture. (Carlisle is really a lovely city.)

Then, gee, in the High Street we ran into...guess what??? A pipe band..in ENGLAND They were quite good:



Pause before I lose all this....next post...more Carlisle...

[starbkjrus]

Well all, we're still in Carlisle so next is the obligatory of David & I in front of the Town Hall. I think David has posted this already but (cough cough) I'm posting it again:



From the High Street we headed for Carlisle Castle. I had no idea there even was a Carlisle Castle. Again a beautiful example or Norman architecture. This is the approach:



One more that came out pretty well:

This howeve is a more formidable approach angle to the castle. I can't imagine seeing this if I were to be imprisoned there:



We did not have time to go in but here is a map of the castle. It's a pretty big layout for the time. If I recall correctly this castle (David, keep me honest here) was built by William Rufus - William the er....II (?) son. Take my word for it...it's old.