A treat for Dave

When Dave read about the Edinburgh National Gallery online, he saw that they have a collection of watercolors by J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851). But when he got to the gallery, he learned that they are only displayed for a month or two out of each year. The paintings are available in the archives, and each day only one person is allowed to go in to see them. (I snuck in with him.) In the rack you can see in the photos, all the paintings vertically inserted in the rack are Turner watercolors. There's a book of photos from the exhibition of the paintings that describes each one. Dave pored over the paintings and the book for a couple of hours, analyzing Turner's techniques. A real highlight for him. I stayed about 45 minutes, and I thought many of them were beautiful.

Scotland: Edinburgh Castle

The old town of Edinburgh sits on the top of a hill, and the ancient castle is on the highest part of the hill, easily defensible. Today I wandered around taking pictures of the castle from various angles.

Scotland: St Andrews

On our way back to Edinburgh from our trip north, we stopped by St Andrews for a few hours. We had been there 33 years ago, and it was fun to see the cathedral ruins and castle ruins again. I have to confess that 33 years ago, I didn't appreciate the architecture at all. This time I was charmed by the buildings, as I have been everywhere we've travelled in Scotland.

Scotland: Dornoch

We spent a couple of days in Dornoch, four hours north of Edinburgh, with our friends Margot and Jimmy. Dornoch is a charming seaside town with a medieval cathedral, an accompanying bishop's palace, many charming houses and a famous golf course near the beach. For Rosamunde Pilcher fans, Dornoch appears in two novels (Winter Solstice and Wild Mountain Thyme) as Creegan. Pilcher has a holiday home in Dornoch and still comes and stays there, according to local folks.

Part of the bishop's palace, now a hotel

More of the bishop's palace

The golf course hotel, where we ate dinner. Fabulous view of the sea.

With Margot

Scotland: Iron Age Broch

The northernmost place we stopped on our trip north of Edinburgh was Carn Liath, a small fort (called "broch") dating from 100 BC to 100 CE, about five hours north of Edinburgh and a couple of hours south of the north tip of Scotland.

Scotland: Dunrobin Castle

About five hours north of Edinburgh is Dunrobin Castle, with medieval sections and newer parts as well, the seat of the Duke of Sutherland. At one time the Duke of Sutherland owned more land than anyone else in Europe. One of the noteworthy details about this castle is the saying "sans peur" ("without fear" in French) below many of the windows. Jimmy and Margot told us that it's not a particularly common saying in Scotland. Larnarch Castle, in Dunedin, has the same saying here and there, which made us wonder if William Larnarch (1833-1898) had ties to Dunrobin Castle. Larnarch was born in Australia of Scottish descent.

Scotland: countryside north of Edinburgh

North of Edinburgh is a mix of farmland and hills high enough for skiing. We were lucky that the heather is blooming now. I always thought the heather on the hills of Scotland was some kind of exotic heather, but it appears to be identical to the heather we had in our yard in Seattle and the heather we have in our garden in Dunedin. Just nice purple heather. There's a lot of it (you can see it on the hills in the first photo and well as in many of the other photos), as is a tall purple flower called willow herb, which you'll see in the fourth photo with heather in the background.

Scotland: Pitlochry

On our third day in Scotland, we drove north with Jimmy and Margot. First stop was Pitlochry, a charming little town. We continued our love affair with the lovely old buildings.

Scotland: Leith and Newhaven

We arrived in Edinburgh on Tuesday the 23rd of August. We're staying with our friends Jimmy and Margot, who we met in Israel when Jonathan was a baby. They live in a cool row of houses in a neighborhood in Edinburgh called Leith, which is right next to Newhaven, a harbor. Our first afternoon, in an effort to stay awake after flying all night, we walked to Newhaven with Jimmy.

That's Jimmy and Dave walking toward Jimmy's front door.

A cool curved row of houses in Leith

The lighthouse at Newhaven with a great view back to the buildings along the harbor

An old fish market turned into shops at Newhaven