it's time to start praying

each day from now on that i'm working at the lady lever art gallery, i'm going to start praying in front of this painting called the daphnephoria by frederic lord leighton. leighton liked to paint classical themes and employed a lot of greek and roman myths in his work. this particular work pictures a festival for the sun god apollo. so i figure if i pray in front of it for the rest of the summer there may actually be some sunshine for an entire day.

this weather is totally bringing me down.

i had lunch today with a volunteer who's been working at the walker art gallery, who just happens to live in montreal. i spent almost two hours talking about how great summers are in montreal and how wonderful the weather in canada is....winters and all.

davoud, nick, val, paul and i are going camping in wales this weekend. sam, kel and lou were going to come but have backed out because of the weather. i'm not going to let this rain, cold and unrelenting wind stop me from enjoying myself, but it sure would be nice if we got some sun this weekend.

camping pics

spinball wizard at alton towers, probably one of my faves

cow blocking the road to the campsite wasting precious time to put up the tent before it rained

the final leg of our walk in the derbyshire dales

looking out over the edge of the campground

a double rainbow over port sunlight village on thursday night. it extended right across the sky, but i couldn't get back far enough to capture it all

i just want to sleep in!

it's been a bit of a crazy week.

first off, the camping excursion last weekend was fun. yes, it was wet. there was thunder and there was lightning, but we surivived it and even saw enough sun for a walk in the countryside. alton towers was okay, however, it has *nothing* on canada's wonderland.

monday was a fairly normal day at work. tuesday and wednesday i was promoting the learning offer of the gallery at the cheshire agricultural show - think markham fair - which was good fun. it did mean that i was getting up at 5 am and not getting home until 7:30 pm. needless to say i was exhausted on thursday even though i had another long day with an event on at the gallery that night.

so today is my saturday. cleaned the house, got a haircut and generally lazed around looking at the rain outside. i desperately miss canadian summers. week upon week of rain is starting to grate on my nerves!

so it's raining

well, actually it's *pissing* it down as my fellow country folk would say. but we are still heading out to alton towers in an attempt to enjoy a good day out. and we are still planning on camping for at least one night, but i have told myself that there is no way that i am pitching a tent in thunder and lightening. i don't have a problem with rain, however, there is no way i'm getting hit by lightening this weekend. besides, it's a laughable news headline:

woman struck by lightening as boyfriend pitches tent

i know, it's a litte early for any smutty references, but i couldn't resist that one! anyway. must finish eating my shredded wheat so i can catch my train. it was an insane week at work and next week is not going to be any better.

summer side of life

i think the summer has finally hit the uk. i think. you never know with this lovely island nation though, do ya? it was also beautiful and sunny at the end of april and that all went to pot within a week.

anyway, life has returned to normal post-scotland. i went down to coventry this past weekend to continue to dig out davoud's garden. davoud, nick and i made good progress on saturday and got all of the soil turned over in the flower beds in an afternoon, compost poured on and mixed. oh, i also weeded the front garden.

on sunday i actually got to put some life into the ground rather than pulling out dead weeds. i planted two nice big flower beds with perrenials for the lowest maintenance garden possible.

the plan next weekend is to go to alton towers (think britain's canada's wonderland) on friday since the gallery is closed for electrical works so i can't go to work anyway. then we will camp in the peak district and see how truly great our tent is. because you just *know* it's going to be raining ;)

day five - the last day on islay

i woke up feeling a little bit rough on sunday morning. i think i must have had a few too many drams the day before, but it wasn't anything a little breakfast couldn't sort out. not to mention a little post-breakfast nap.

the big event for the day was the opening of the new port charlotte distillery by bruichladdich it's parent company. so we made our way down to port charlotte to join the throngs of people waiting to toast the the new distillery. but more importantly i was waiting for the appearance of the 49th batallion pipes and drums band from edmonton, alberta. because where else would they be?

(me at the opening of the port charlotte distillery with the pipe band up on the ridge!)

after the ceremony, we made our way to the bruichladdich distillery with what seemed like everyone else who lived on the island. it was packed with people, so we just got some food, had a bit of a wander, and then went in search of somewhere more isolated. it's strange how quickly you get used to being the only people around for miles.

(sangiomore bay: you can just about see davoud in the distance taking photos)

there was one more little bay that ronnie had recommended, so out came the map to decide which of the four roads on the island we had to take to sangiomore bay. once we arrived, we walked down to the ocean and saw loads of rabbits bouncing around in the grass on the way.

we had dinner at the croft kitchen then made our way back to the b&b for an early night thanks to our even earlier start so we could make the 7:00 am ferry.

(oh how i miss the view from our bedroom window. look at all the little sheep!)

drove down to the lake district that night, stayed in a very cute and amazing place called the pheasant inn, went to cockermouth and keswick the next day, and then made our way back into civilization.

you must go see davoud's photos, because they're amazing. one of me looking very shocked to be at the lagavulin distillery on my birthday.

it was an absolutely awesome trip and one that i hope we'll do again. islay was such a beautiful island that the whisky and distilleries were really just a bonus.

day four

my birthday! and i should mention that every night after getting home we would share a few drams with ronnie who would play us jazz, old gaelic tunes, and tell stories about glasgow in the swinger days. absolutely awesome and so amazingly entertaining. we also got to see these lambs run up and down this hill after each other; so very cute.

(god bless the timer shot: davoud and i on the mull of oa)

on my birthday we went for a hike on the mull of oa, which is home to a nature reserve and also an american monument to soldiers who died in WWI crossing the atlantic that died just off of the coast of islay. we took the circular route, which was really beautiful and had to navigate our way through a herd of mean looking angus cows.

(i...can...almost...see...canada!)

after that we drove down to claiggan bay just past port ellen, which was one of the most tropical places i've ever been in my life...except it wasn't warm.

( i swear this is scotland)

then my absolute favourite part of the day: back to lagavulin for a whisky tasting with the distillery manager graham. it was amazing and i couldn't really believe i was there. i had two loads of fresh scallops whilst sitting in the sun with a wee dram after our tasting.

we were smart enough to make a reservation that night at the port charlotte pub and i continued my seafood feast with some scrumptuous mussels and fresh bread. back at the b&b, davoud had arranged for a birthday cake that ended up being baked by the policeman's secretary because the bakery in bowmore no longer did cakes!

(davoud running hasselhoff style)

ronnie and marie stayed up with us for a bit for some cake and a few wee drams before i finally decided i really needed to get some sleep. too much seafood and too much whisky ;)

day three

(the view from kildalton)

we woke up on friday 25 may to wonderful blue skies with marshmallow clouds and a stonkingly good breakfast cooked up by mari. ronnie was there to take our order in tartan pants and a glaswegian twinkle in his eye. after finishing our hearty breakfast and befriending our fellow guests at the b&b, we headed off for some whisky and sightseeing.

(the ruins at kildalton...for pics of the cross see davoud's flickr page)

we started out on our first day heading down towards port ellen and our favourite distilleries. it was an experience driving past ardbeg and lagavulin (two of the best in our opinion) and being in awe at how such small buildings on such a small island produce such goodness. we stopped at kildalton home to an 8th century celtic cross and the ruins of a chapel. it was a beautiful spot and we spotted a few deer wandering nearby. after a few pictures, we drove back to ardbeg for our first distillery tour. ardbeg is perfectly situated and has recently had quite a bit of money thrown its way thanks to its previous owners glenmorangie. it is now owned by the same group who own moet and hennessey. the tasting of whiskies that we'd admittedly tried before was great! it certainly tastes better at the distillery and i was just asked to pass a couple bottles of the shelf to our guide to pour from.
(my comment in the lagavulin visitors book. because everytime i now drink it, all i can hear in my head is jimmy saying "it's like a campfire in a glass!")

after a hearty lunch at the distillery, we drove down to lagavulin for our next tour. it was certainly a bit busier and i could immediately see that visits to the island for the whisky were made predominantly by men. it was my favourite distillery of all because it was even prettier than ardbeg and had a certain class and history about it. we were going to be going there the next day for a special tasting with the distillery manager on their open day, but it was really neat to be there with only a few people.
(two sheep that were definitely posing for his shot on our way to loch finlaggan)

we took a few photos further along so that davoud could get the "l" in his shot and then we went to loch finlaggan the seat of the ancient lord of the isles. extremely beautiful reminiscent of canada scenery that was so full of history.

after working up a hunger during our walk to the loch we sought food in port charlotte. although we didn't actually get a table at the preferred pub in town, we did get a spot at the local's local. it didn't have the greatest atmosphere, but the food was good.

i've eaten more meat in the past week than i have in the last year.