Stroll into Town

-
I took a walk into town to check out a sale at one of the High Street shops. I snapped some pics along the way to share with Mom. Her useless internet provider can't seem to manage to get emails with attachments to work, so I'm posting them here so she can see the pics.








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Inverewe Gardens

-
Image
We stopped at Inverewe Gardens on our way home at the recommendation of one of Steve's work mates. It's a property within The National Trust for Scotland, so admission is free to Trust members. We had been pondering joining since we first moved here and decided to just bite the bullet and sign up whilst we were at the gardens. We only have to visit about four more places to have the membership pay for itself. Since the Culloden Battlefield near us in Inverness is part of the Trust, and our membership also grants us access to England's National Trust locations, we figure our membership will end up saving us quite a bit within the year. Inverewe Gardens was once the estate of Osgood Mackenzie. He built his mansion house on a rocky promontory overlooking Loch Ewe in the mid-19th century. He dreamed of having a walled garden of flowers and vegetables and set about excavating a raised beach and building retaining walls and terraces. By 1870, Osgood had created a productive gar...
Read more

The Clootie Well at Munlochy

-
Image
Munlochy is a village nestled in the Black Isle northeast of Inverness. The clootie well there harkens back to an ancient Celtic tradition where people would visit holy wells and springs in search of healing. They would take a strip of fabric or a rag (known in Scots as a clootie), saturate it in the holy water, and tie it on a nearby tree. Originally, the pilgrims prayed to the local spirit or god. After Christianity arrived, Christian saints supplanted the local deities. The Munlochy well was dedicated to St. Boniface, who served as a missionary in Scotland circa 620 AD. Today, the Clootie Well attracts tourists who festoon all manner of fabric-esque items all over the trees in the area. Steve and I visited the well early on a Sunday morning. I found myself of a divided opinion about the perpetuation of the tradition. On the one hand, I love keeping old traditions alive and like that so many people want to be involved. On the other hand, it's obvious that many people are doin...
Read more

Grad School

-
I posted something on my MySpace blog and then completely forgot about this one. I received a reply from UF a couple of weeks ago. It was a very slim envelope, so I knew as I pulled it from the mailbox that it was not good news. Sure enough, it was a notice that I had not been selected for UF's history grad program. I was devastated. My professors were as stunned as I was. I couldn't rest on my laurels, though. So I began the process of applying to UNF's master's degree program within days of the news. UNF is a smaller state university in Jacksonville. It doesn't offer a doctorate program, but it has a decent master's degree one. And while the opportunities UF offers are superior, I think UNF's program may be a better fit for my needs. For one thing, it has a more balanced approach, so I'll have an equal dose of American history to go with my European history focus. I like that. Plus, shortly after starting my application process, I got an email from the...
Read more