Slowly but surely I'm getting to this!

The Friday before I came home, I made a point to go on the Loch Ness tour. Hearing it would be a 12 hour round-trip at the start sounded a bit daunting, but as we stopped many times and just getting to see a small chunk of the countryside in Scotland, it actually did not seem like that long, in spite of being on a cramped bus. I made a friend, a girl (well, okay, woman) named Kimberly from California. We kept each other company and chatted through the day and she seemed pretty cool.

Picking us up at 8am, our coach driver Kenny seemed a bit stern to start with, driving home the rules of the bus, namely to not be on your cell while he was talking - giving us fun facts, and some historical context for the places we were seeing that day, as well as local info ("I don't like Inverness. It's a crappy town. The men are mean, and the sheep are afraid." Now read that in your head again with a Scottish accent!). He also stressed that we needed to be on time getting back to the bus whenever we stopped, that we were on a very tight schedule and he wanted us pulling up back at the Royal Mile by 8:05pm.

Kenny softened up a bit as soon as we loaded back on the bus - his stern lectures served their purpose, that was the most punctual bus tour I've EVER been on!

As we were so good about getting back on to the bus in a timely fashion, Kenny said that we could squeeze in a couple of more stops along the way. Our first extra stop was at Ruthven Barracks.

From there, after a very brief, but beautiful, stop, we rushed off through Inverness. Incidentally, "Inver" means "mouth of". So Inver-Ness means Mouth of the Ness. So... would Inverarity mean rare mouth? And very close to Inverness is Loch Ness.

Loch Ness is 56.4 square kilometres. Not that wide or long really (only about 36km long), but it is 1000 feet deep because as lies on a natural fault line. Kenny asked us how many of the 32 of us believed in Nessy. He was quite distraught to learn that only 2 passengers do/did. No, I was not one of them. But according to this article, she's been found! *Gasp!* I guess Kenny must have been right. Unbelievers will face judgement when the time comes.

which more or less just took us from the hotel site over to Urquhart Castle. Total tourist trap, but the sun was shining (not that you can really tell from this picture) and Kenny mentioned that this was very odd. We had patches of sunlight for most of the trip, and I've decided that this is (obviously) because God loves me, and God clearly wants me to take pictures without damaging my camera.

Truthfully, the weather was unseasonably warm most of the time I was in Scotland. Kenny assured us that the Scotsman melts at 20 degrees, so I guess it's good it hovered around 17 most of the time!

Because we'd run into some construction on the road, we were unable to get many extra stops in, but our last stop, a scheduled one, was at Glencoe. The most... stupidly beautiful area on the trip, in spite, or perhaps because of being shrouded in mist, Glencoe is not terribly far from where scenes of Hagrid's property were filmed for Harry Potter and the latter part of "Skyfall" were shot.

The only issue with it was that, as it's pretty much IN the clouds most of the time. Kenny had mentioned they have three types of weather; Heavy Rain, Torrential Rain, and Heavy Torrential Rain. While it may not be evident from the photos, it was raining small and sideways when we dismounted the bus, more misting really, so I was just able to get out, get a couple of pictures and get back on the bus.

Our final stop, because it was getting dark, was to see the "Harry Coos." Which is to say, is Scotspeak, Hairy Cows. (Kimberly agreed with me, Harry Coo just sounded somewhat dirty).

I actually purchased a postcard for family with a Hairy Cow, with a caption "The Highland Cow, ready to head-butt yet another photographer." So maybe it's just as well I didn't get to be any closer to them.

All in all, the Loch Ness tour, ripping through the Highland's narrow roads on a coach and seeing the sights was not super cheap, but it was well worth the time. Kenny played and relayed history lessons, where we learned about why Campbells are not well liked in the area, about William Wallace (or Braveheart, as you might know him, in spite of the fact the Braveheart nick-name should actually be attributed to Robert the Bruce who fought after William Wallace... and so long as we're getting persnickety, William Wallace was allegedly 6 foot 7 inches tall! That's tall by today's standards, never mind back then! How in the hell did little old Mel Gibson get to play him?!) and of Rob Roy, who as you would know, created Blackmail, in that he and his clansmen basically went around telling other farmers that they should pay them to protect their cattle. If the other farmers wanted to opt out of the program, Rob Roy McGregor and his brethren explained that they couldn't guarantee their cows' safety. Way to make a living hey?

So if you're in the neighbourhood, check out the Highland Experience Tours. Tell 'em Andrea sent you! Then give them your credit card, cause they won't know what you're talking about.

Dramatic as this sky was, it was nothing compared to the dreamscape I visited last night... Hellscape more like... Tornadoes, people. Tornadoes that would have obliterated the house, Dorothy, Toto, and half of the land of Oz.

So instead I'm going to try to focus on this picture of my baby... Buster! Though I miss him already and I haven't even left the country yet. In the meantime, if you have a moment and the inclination, please send good vibrations people. I could certainly use them. Thanks.

So the stress levels are still pretty high, though admittedly not as high as they were earlier in the week. I leave for the UK in TWO DAYS... AAAAACK! I'm not normally a nervous traveler, I just don't like being stuck in a flying tube for hours and hours at a time. At least in a vehicle you can stop, get out, stretch your legs, look around at stuff. Admittedly though, last time I did a long-haul sort of flight, the other passengers were... Well, frankly, a bunch of pretentious and entitled bitches! There's nothing to say that each person I meet won't be fabulous in between here and there, and of course there are dear friends on the other end of the trip.

For others who may be suffering a bit of the blues, or stress in anyway, I hope these flowers are helpful. For those who have experienced our sudden change in the weather around here, these flowers will remind you of better days to come back.

It's been a busy couple of days, and I've found my stress levels are still pretty high even though the two busy days were yesterday and Friday. I have a feeling they're going to be pretty high until I arrive in the UK actually.

Plus I went ahead and watched Eat, Pray, Love today. While in principle, it's a chick flick, and has a lot of the pitfalls that a typical chick-flick would, there were parts of the story that felt very much like things I've been going through in the last several months. I may, or may not, have gotten somewhat weepy, though I reserve the right to say it's because my eyes are irritated from having worn make-up yesterday.

At any rate, I found another article from The Tiny Buddha that I felt was a pro pos. Check out A Powerful Lesson in Self-Compassion. It's a good article, though of course, reading and putting it into practice  though... #WorkingOnIt.

Well, after a couple weeks of very warm weather for Regina (and I think pretty much the whole province of Saskatchewan?) the temperature has finally cooled down. When I was leaving this morning I noticed that the slight cold snap has turned several leaves yellow. It's coming people!

And while I'm excited for fall (it's my favourite season) I really hope I'm not going to miss the prime autumn colours outside as I'll be out of the country for awhile. At any rate, it got me thinking about landscapes from the last year.

Took a road trip to Lumsden one evening. This summer there's been a lot of haze in the air, lots of dust and smoke... but it does help make things really pretty at the right time of day...

One of the things that I always love about going to my Aunt and Uncle's place, is the photo opportunities. Nestled in the foothills, there's always pretty things to capture and share. Especially in the golden hours. Plus, this year, I had my new lens with me to play with.

Central Alberta - Summer Showcase Weekend. Every summer they have Country Drive (check it out if you'd like to hit it up next year, at www.countrydrive.ca) including a festival in Historic Markerville. The website describes it thusly;

    Sunday is our annual Cream Day! This open house event will run from noon to 5pm. Try your hand at making         butter and ice cream. Enjoy local, live entertainment while the kids participate in tons of activities such as the         petting zoo which features local farm animals – always a favourite! The concession will offer homemade pies         and ice cream along with hamburgers and hotdogs. Guided museum tours will be offered at no charge. Lots of     fun for everyone!

It's true. It was a good time. A little hot out, but good fun for the whole family and we saw some pretty cool stuff. Didn't try our hand at making cream, but saw some other neat things...

One thing we saw was the miniature village - as Markerville was in 1907. I thought the church was cute, mostly for the little wedding couple (that kind of looks like they're already fighting, actually!

As soon as I saw this owl, I ran over. I recognized this one (and did not confuse it with a monkey this time) as Otis. Otis is a resident for the Medicine River Wildlife Centre, a place I'd been to in the summer of 2010 where I'd met their resident porcupine, Charlie. Like Charlie, Otis seems to love attention (and allegedly gets his nose in a snit when he and Charlie tour together because he doesn't get as much attention when there's a friendly porcupine in the area!). Weighing in at a mere 2 pounds (due to hollow bones), we were allowed to pat Otis, who had some of the softest feathers I've ever touched. You can see how his mouth is open in this photo, because Owls, it turns out, pant just like dogs. Owls are unable to sweat, so they do like our four-legged friends. Definitely the highlight of the day.

From the Markerville festival, we headed out to White Treasure Farm, a goat farm that produces wool for spinning, which the owner dyes and uses to knit or crochet and sell in bulk for socks.

Here's the description of the farm operation...
    Make White Treasure Farm one of your stops on Country Drive. This is home to one of the finest herds of                 angora goats. See first-hand how the fibre is processed from lock to yarn. Spectators will have an                             opportunity to experiment with colours in the dying process. For your children, Sunny the farm pony is                     available for picture taking. Bring your camera. Hiking socks, saddle blankets, yarn and hides on display                 and for sale.

I will post the pictures from the Danish Canadian Museum tomorrow. But I highly recommend checking it the Country Drive out if you happen to be in Central Alberta next summer. They also have the Fall Showcase, in late September too. Check it out!

Woooooooooooo!!!

As the title implies, there's some interesting stuff in my (current, at the moment) neighbourhood up in the wilds of Central Saskatchewan. Lots of rocks and mosses, spiders and webs (ones that you run into then spend the next 5 minutes trying to get it all off you until you give up because there's JUST NO END TO IT!) and leaves that you would normally pass right by. But the way the light shows off the texture, particularly when you have a new lens to play with, makes you stop for a moment...

Please note; I am terrified of spiders. I could regale you with a tale of the showdown I had with a 7 legged spider in my home. But in spite of my fear, for some reason, when it comes to opportunities to photograph them I am weirdly drawn to them. Perhaps it's a subconscious way of trying to overcome the fear. Perhaps it's a rebellious sort of way to say "eff you spider! I'm stealin' yer soul!" But one thing... there's a bunch of them up here.