June 3, 2011: Games and Results

Highland Games in the Rain

Anne went with Jacky to Ailsa’s Speech Day at Strathallen School, the awards day at a high academic private school.  I chose to go to the Highland Games in Blackford village near Auchterarder.  Highland Games are held all over Scotland starting in May and going through September or October.  The biggest games are those held in Braemar which are usually attended by the Queen who spends much of the summer nearby at Balmormal Castle.  The games consist of .... well, games.  Running games, bicycle races, piping contests, Highland dancing competitions, and the heavy events, like tossing the caber, shot put, or hammer.

What I found most interesting at this year’s Blackford Games was how everyone reacted to the strong rain shower that came over.  Races were being run and dancing was being done until a black cloud passed over, the wind picked up, and the rain started sheeting.  Without haste the games just sort of folded into themselves--people gathered into tents, under trees, in the lea of stone walls.  When the shower was over, the games unfolded almost as smoothly and slowly as they had folded up.  It was almost as if the runners had just slowed down and stopped until the rain stopped and then started again in the next stride.  

Obviously, the Scots have learned to live with the rain.  

Spring 2011 Scotland Trip Summary

In the first two days home from Scotland, besides waking up at 3 a.m., what is most noticeable is how dark it is at night.  Even though we were in central Scotland and not the far north, it stayed light enough to play golf even at 10:00 p.m. or later and the birds started singing at about 3:30 a.m. as it was starting to get light.  Here in Oregon it’s dark by nine and not getting light until 4:30.  Daylight, though, isn’t our summation of the trip;  the following lists serve that purpose.

We drove our rented Vauxhall Astra automatic 2540 miles getting about 25 miles to the gallon which costs (factoring in the exchange rate) an average of a little over $9.00 per gallon--do the math!  We played 16 rounds of golf (we didn’t play more because Anne is recovering from shoulder replacement at the end of January), played 270 holes (a few of them well), and walked 75 miles on the courses.  Six of the courses were new to us.  We visited 15 coffee shops or tearooms, 6 new to us, four pubs, and 12 restaurants (7 new).  We visited 5 shopping areas, 6 museums or galleries, 7 gardens, 4 castles, 5 other historic sites, 10 standing stones or stone circles, 8 waterfalls, 6 churches or kirks, and 2 distilleries--I’m sure we saw a partridge in a pear tree (or it might have been a pigeon in an apple tree).  

Some of our favorites of the trip are: Peterculter Golf Club near Aberdeen, the Acorn Bank Gardens Tearoom where we had Hotbed (lettuce) Soup, The Log House in Ambleside for dinner (Anne had the best Herdwick lamb shank), the Seafood Chowder at Mussel Inn in Edinburgh or the Crab Soup at Creel Inn in Catterline, 

either Kailzie Garden in Peebles or Branklyn Gardens in Perth, Dunnottar Castle (setting for Zeffirilli’s Hamlet), 

Rosslyn Chapel (setting for part of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code), The Grey Mare’s Tale (waterfall) near Moffat, 

a visit to Balmoral Castle (the Queen’s Highland residence), Mountain Cocoa in Auchterarder, and our most favorite, the people we met on the trip in the B&B and on the golf courses.   

The End (for now)