#230 Three Stories and Lots of Photos

#230 Three stories and Lots of Photos

In recognition of National Parkinson’s Disease Awareness Month (September) let me begin with some of the current facts about PD:

1. Parkinson’s is an incurable progressive neurological disorder that affects movement and other bodily functions,
2. It is characterized by more than 40 motor and non-motor symptoms, including tremors, stiffness, and falling or balance issues.
3.  It is the fastest growing brain disorder in the world.
4.  Currently more than 1.2 million American suffer from Parkinson’s, a number which grew by 400% since 1990.
5. Now each day in America 250 new cases are diagnosed and 100 Americans die of PD.
6.  New research is showing that more than 80% of PD could possibly be prevented.

Thank you for the commercial interruption, now to this Blog to[pc.

Craigallachie Bridge, Highlands Scotland

Stairs to Royal Mile, Edinburgh. Sells as a back and white print, but not in color.

Path in the Birks of Aberfeldy, Scotland. Won Best Black and White in a show and sold there as well.

Cartridge Packhorse Bridge, Highlands. Always a good seller.

After we had several books about golf, travel stories, and a photo book of Scotland selling on Amazon we decided to take our goods to local highland games and festivals in the form of a vendor’s  booth. We had for sale copies of our books, mounted 8x10 and 11x14 prints, and some framed photos of various sizes. We set up our booth, a 10’ x 10’ tent frame with walls if we were outside, and displayed our wares, visited with people, and generally had an exhausting but glorious time. There were a few standout incidents that come to mind—these are the three stories for this blog. The photos in this post are our Best Sellers from our vending days.

Everybody loves a Hie'lan Coo.

If one highland cow is good, two might even sell better.

Crail Harbour, Kingdom of Fife, is quintessential Scotland.

People often don't believe Crovie Village is real. It is a real Clearance Village where displaced crofters and their families were moved to make more room for sheep--more profitable than crofts for the Lairds. Uniqueness sells.

Story 1 Damaged Goods

At a Fall Celtic Festival in Salem one year the vendors were fit tightly into an interior space for the show. There was no room for the usual tent or frame to wall off our goods. Our spots were marked off with masking tape on the floor. We are friendly folk and glad to not have to set up in the rain, so we made the best of it. It was a hassle for us to keep one of our art stands within our boundaries and out of traffics way. We had to put signs up to indicate that certain areas were not public space. The particular thing one patron wanted to see was in our private area and we told him the area was closed. He stood around until I got busy with a customer and then made a quick dash for the back of our booth. On the way he stumbled over a tripod leg and knock over our big display print—a printed on metal landscape of clouds and beach in Scotland. The print hit the floor with a clang and a corner of the print broke. I kept my cool but pointed out that it was a $120 print he had ruined. His only reply was that it shouldn’t have been in his way of where he wanted to go in the middle of our booth. Before I could say more he walked out to an exit of the building without even a “Sorry.” In more than ten years of vending this was our only loss and one of our few rude customers.

We still put the damaged photo up for display at our house, not for public consumption.

Drummond Castle Formal Gardens in Crieff, central Scotland.

Drive way into Drummond Castle from the highway, I've taken many different photos of the 2 mile long beech tree lined road, but this is the one that sells.

One of many varied views of Dunnattor Castle near Aberdeen on Scotland's east coast.

I like the moody look of the black and white image of Eileen Donan Castle in the Scottish highlands.

Story 2 Shortbread Cookies

At our first big show, the Portland Highland Games, we were set up in a space on one side of the Mt Hood Community College gym and we noticed across the room was a shortbread seller and the booth was called Granny Fi’s Shortbread. During quiet times Anne or I would wander over and sample some fine shortbread cookies. We made a purchase at the end of the two day games and became hooked, especially with the vendor discount. As luck would have it, from that show on we would see Fiona, Granny Fi, next to or near our area at almost every show. We always kept our larder filled with shortbreads. 

Soon after we quit attending shows because of my advancing Parkinson’s Fiona opened Granny Fi’s Shortbread, 21336 Pacific Hwy E, Aurora, OR [www.grannyfis.com  971825-4500]. We don’t see her at the shows anymore (she still goes), but even better is the full shortbread store and tea shop just seven miles from our door. I’ve even set up a mini-booth at some of her events at the shop, where I will sell photos and donate the proceeds to a first responder relief fund.

The printed on metal version of this image of Balnakeil Beach by Durness in the northwest corner of Scotland is the one that got broken (first story). I took dozens of photos of this particular storm, with and without rainbow, but this is always my pick to print for sale. 

The after a rain fall colors in Glen Lyon, the longest glen in Scotland at about 25 miles, is a good seller.

This is a good image of the Glen of Weeping, Glencoe, in the highlands.

This photo of a peacock at Blair Castle at the edge of the highlands is the image I've sold more than any other.  

Story 3 Surprises from Customers

Every once in a while we get customers who are, in polite words, having a bad day. More often we got very positive comments from our customers whether they bought or not. Sometimes we really got good surprises from the people we met at shows. Two examples come to mind and both happened at the McMinnville Celtic Festival. One year a fellow and his lady came up and he said, “I know you. Your my fraternity brother, Bob!” Sure enough, Ron and I had been in the same fraternity at Linfield College, where the festival was being held. We had a nice chat catching up with each other and fellow Omega Delta Phi brothers. 

Surprise two was quite different. A lady came up to me at our booth and said, “You probably don’t remember me, do you?” She might have looked familiar, but I really had to say I didn’t remember her. [At least I knew she wasn’t in my fraternity.] She told me she had bought one of my photos the previous year and wanted to show me the photo on her wall. It was a real treat to see how she had framed and hung the photo.  A surprise treat I seldom get.

Kilchurn Castle

This is the most dramatic rainbow I've ever photographed--near Nairn on the northeast coast of Scotland.

This view of Stirling Castle rivals Eilean Donan Castle in sales.

The 8x10 version of The Red Phone Box is my second best seller. It's from Penzance, Cornwall, England.

The dramatic view of the Wallace (Braveheart) Monument with the Ochil Hills in the background was taken from Stirling Castle and is a top five in sales.

NEXT: The photos that didn’t sell as much as I thought they deserved. 

#223 Coos and Sheep

 

#223 Coos and Sheep

This post is dedicated to two iconic animals associated with Scotland. Besides the well known castles, kilts, and wild highland haggis, Scotland is known for its highland cows (hei’lan coos) and its abundant sheep with their darling lambs. The long-coated highland cattle and fuzzy sheep are particularly favorites of tourists—including myself. So, this post brings you a couple of stories from my travel book and many photos from my files. I sincerely hope you enjoy both.

These two weren't friendly as they guarded an ancient stone circle near Loch Ness.

Near Bushmill Distillery in Northern Ireland.

One of the more unusual varieties of highland sheep--Boreray, I think.

Saw these two lambs on our way to Machrie Moor on the Isle of Arran off Scotland's Ayrshire coast. They were as interested in me as I was in them.

First a little background. Scottish highland cattle are considered a rustic hearty breed effectively bred to withstand the harsh highland winters. The cattle are characterized by their long double coats and long horns. They generally are gentle by nature, but you should still always approach warily. The colors vary from an off-white to pure black (reds are often the most photographed). 

As for the sheep who outnumber the Scots, they are everywhere—most usually in the road—and the breeds are almost as many as there are hills in Scotland.

On the hills in Glen Clova, central highlands.

Typical. We're hurrying to a tee time on Fife near St Andrews and the sheep don't care.

In Sma'Glen, central Scotland, about 20 minutes away from Crieff where we spent most of our time.

The sheep keep the grasses cropped around the Kilmartin Valley standing stones.

Cows and Sheep on the Courses 

We knew something special was going on when the first green at Narin and Portnoo GC in County Donegal, Ireland, was surrounded by electrified fencing. We discovered that the land on which the first four holes of the course are sited was leased in the winter to a local farmer. To keep the sheep and cows off the greens, the club has surrounded the greens with electric fencing. The second time we played the course a couple of years later, the fencing was gone. The farmer’s lease had run out. Narin and Portnoo is not the only course where electric fencing is used to keep the animals off the greens. Brora GC, a championship track north of Royal Dornoch in Scotland, Achill Island, a beautifully sited nine-hole sheep pasture course off the west coast of Ireland, and Pennard GC in southern Wales still use the electric fencing to protect greens. It makes for an interesting round having to step over a live wire to get to the putting surface. Achill Island GC has another interesting feature. To break up the sheep droppings throughout the course, the grounds crew of one drags an old bedsprings behind a tractor. It does the job as well as fertilizes the fairways.

 

At Leadhills GC, the highest course in the UK at a little over 1200 feet elevation, in the southern uplands of Scotland has no fencing around the greens, but it has plenty of sheep. When we played no people were on the course except us, but there were sheep on practically every green. There were droppings from the sheep and their friends the rabbits on every green as well. At home we brush away droppings from our local oak and fir trees with our hats or hands. At Leadhills you cleared a path with your shoes or you moved the ball to an unobstructed location. It was a little difficult to play to a sheep infested green when your playing partner is saying, “Don’t hit them; they’re so cute.” Anne eventually had to hit right at a couple of sheep, but they quickly got out of the way. The sheep must get very good at dodging golf balls on their course. 

Tourists have to get used to sharing the road with locals at Staffin Bay, Isle of Skye.

Glen Quaich, southern highlands.

The same, evidently, wasn’t true at Southerndown GC in South Wales. The club’s centenary book contains a story of an early competition where a player’s shot hit a sheep and lodged in the wool at the animal’s posterior. The offended sheep bolted forward toward the green. The ball fell out much closer to the green than it would have had it not been carried. The argument then ensued about where the ball should be played--where it hit the sheep or where it finally came to rest. We’ve heard this story told at several other courses. Either sheep behinds have a magnetic attraction for golf balls in competition or it’s a Celtic golfer’s version of an urban myth. 

Black Angus cattle have the run of the northwest beaches near Durness.

The Black Angus do share the dunes with the lambs.

The St Fillans Cow Incident 

St Fillans Golf Club, a club where we are the only international members, is not a cow pasture course--most of the time. The course is a nine-hole gem in the Perthshire hills about 12 miles from our home-in-Scotland base in Crieff. St Fillans is nestled in a small valley surrounded by Highland hills and crags. Running along one side of the course is the small River Earn which flows out of Lochearn. Along the opposite side are cow and sheep pastures which butt up against the hills and an ancient walled off graveyard of the Stewart clan. Although quite flat, the course has interesting holes highlighted by the 3rd which is the only hole with any elevation. It plays from the top of a crag down toward the green about 280 yards away. With wind behind, I’ve driven the green. With the wind into us, a trap and rough on the right are seriously in play. The next two holes play around the edge of the crag which affects shots considerably. The course may be short and flat, but it’s definitely not easy. This sets the scene for our adventures at the sixth green. 

We were playing the course one day with our American golfing friends, Helen and Grady Morgan, who spent four days traveling with us on their tour of the UK. We had all teed off on the 220-yard par 3 (par 4 for ladies) 6th and were half way to the green when the course greenskeeper jumps off of his mower and starts yelling at us to stop the bulls from trampling the green. We quickly turned around just in time to see three young bulls or steers (I didn’t stop to look, but could tell they weren’t Bessies) who had broken through the fence and were heading for the green and us. Neither Grady nor I are farm boys and we didn’t want to start then, but we did what we could and jumped and yelled to try to turn the herd away from the green. We stalled the animals long enough for the greenskeeper to reach us with his mower and he herded them back into their field. We basked in our glory of a job sort of well done and finished our game. 

Scottish White Face, I think.

A Glen Quaich rancher is semi-famous for coloring his sheep in oder to thwart rustlers.

Several years later Anne and I were playing the course and caught up with a couple of women on the sixth who wanted to let us through. As we waited for the group ahead to clear the green, the ladies told us a story they heard about this hole and the day the whole herd of cows got out. Anne and I looked at each other and giggled and said, “We know that story. We’re the ones who corralled the herd, but it was only a herd of three young cows.” 

Galloway belted cattle (belties) are a hybrid breed of highland cow bred to survive on poor upland or highland moors. We saw these examples in Dartmoor Park in southern England. Remnants of a tin mine form the background.

Evidently our story has a life of its own. 

Shop on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

A mom calling for her second lamb.

NEXT: I'll hunt up something.

Missing Our Travel to Scotland

 

Footbridge over the River Tweed in Peebles.

When we think about Scotland (which is often), what first comes to mind is Crieff in central Scotland. This is our second home, but as nice as Crieff is, I think of Peebles in the Scottish Borders an hour south of Edinburgh as a more iconic village. It was the first village we stayed in and our base until we were adopted by our family in Crieff. When I decided to tell you about Peebles as part of this post, I found that my supply of photos was woefully lacking—converted early print and slide photos from bad cameras, lost files of photos from early travels, and an inexperienced photographer (me). I think, though, I can still give you a feel for the typical Scottish village despite the weakness of the photos.

High Street, Peebles

St Andrews Tower is the oldest building in Peebles. The rest of the church was destroyed by Henry VIII.

Peebles (Na Puballen in Scottish Gaelic) is an ancient village at the confluence of the River Tweed and Eddieston Waters dating as far back as 600AD. The village, now of about 9,000, was made a Royal Burgh by King David I of Scotland in 1152. The town’s wide High Street attests to it being a market town. It was strong in the woollen trade in the 19th and 20th centuries—the last mill closed in 2015. Tourism developed in the late 1800s and continues to be the most important industry along with agriculture and particularly sheep farming.

Kailzie Gardens along the River Tweed is one of the main attractions in Peebles.

On our first day in Scotland (September 2000) we stayed in a B&B in Peebles (Lindores House) after visiting our first Highland Games just down the road. 

The annual Highland Games in Peebles ends with a clan parade from the playing field to central High Street.

That night we ate our first pub meal and were befriended by all the locals in the pub who were as curious about us a we were of them. Walking into town (about 10 minutes) from the B&B the next morning we were introduced to Scottish village life—shopping at the local butcher’s and bakery for the day’s fare, 

and watching from a pub as the school children dressed in classy uniforms visited downtown for their lunch of chips and Irn Bru. Dinner the second night was at a local hotel, The Crown, where we ate at one table while a lady and her Yorkie terrier ate at the next table, the dog in his own chair. A mile out of town is Niedpath Castle, built in 1370 and now lived in by the Earl of Wemyss.

Tour guide and print-maker, Amy, explains the older printing process at the nearby Robert Smail's Print Shop in Innerleithen village next to Peebles. Now under the care of the National Trust, the print shop has a copy of all printed material since the 1850s, including receipts for tickets on the first sailing of the Titanic.

Over the years we’ve visited Peebles several times, always reinforcing to me the friendliness of Scottish villages and towns.

A Walk too Far (from 16 Years of Travel in Scotland, Ireland, England, and Wales, available on Amazon)

Sometimes we bite off too much and too often I think I’m younger than I am. Such was the case in Cork, Ireland, on our first visit. That morning we played golf at the wonderful Cork Golf Club, known as Little Island. The course is a lovely forest or parkland track which is fairly easy to walk, but a round of eighteen holes is still an average of five miles of walking. When we got back to the B&B in the afternoon, Anne, smart person that she is, decided a little rest or nap before dinner was in order. I, being the dummy that I am, decided I would not waste the afternoon in frivolous rest, but would instead wander down to the main shopping area of Cork. A mile of pavement walking to town, at least a mile of wandering the downtown area, and a mile back to the B&B put my day’s total up over eight miles. Done yet? No. For dinner our B&B hosts suggested one of a couple of good Italian restaurants in the downtown area, but said it was best to walk since downtown parking was poor. Besides, it’s only a mile to town. By now my feet were beginning to hurt just a bit, but I was game for a walk to dinner. As I limped toward town, Anne asked what was the matter. I had to fess up that my feet were on the sore side. What I really should have said was that my feet were absolutely killing me. Dinner was delightful, but the walk home was excruciatingly painful. Even after a good soaking, my feet throbbed all night. 

By morning I could count the blisters on top of blisters with both hands. We searched the local chemist’s (pharmacy) for the best blister plasters they had. Even doctored up, at Waterford Castle Golf Club I had to take a buggy (electric golf cart) to make our round. Back in Cork for dinner I drove to downtown and to hell with the poor parking. 

    The Rest of this Post is a small compilation of some special Scotland photos that I haven't posted before. I hope you enjoy the eye candy.

The River Braan near Amulree at the foot of the Highlands

Harbour light at the village of Anstruther on Fife.

A birch forest out of the Highland village of Ballater near Balmoral Castle, the Queen's Scottish residence.

A picture of a small Highland church shot from the Harry Potter Train--the Jacobite Express which has daily runs between Fort William and Mallaig. The trip is considered one of the best steam rail trips anywhere. 

Hie'lan Coos (Highland cows)

Dunnottar Castle in Stonehaven near Aberdeen

Glen Etive and the mountains of Glen Coe. The mountain on the right is Buachaille Etive Mor, 1021 meters.

Barn on the Isle of Skye.

The Quiraing (Old Norse for "round fold") is an attraction on the Trotternish peninsula of the Isle of Skye.

Kirkmadrine Church in the Rhins of Galloway (southwestern Scotland) holds a collection of early Christian stones, thought to be the oldest in Scotland.

NEXT: We will be taking a four day trip to the Oregon coast soon and I am giving myself a photo challenge: each day I need to take at least three presentable photos. The photos should have some artistic merit and should be of a variety of subjects (little repetition). The blog will be about how well I meet my challenge.