Scotland

There was a mistake on Kaitlin’s student visa when she arrived in England. She couldn’t leave the United Kingdom until resolved or she wouldn’t be allowed to return. Her friends were going to Croatia during a school break and she couldn’t go. At the same time, Kristen in Spain was having a hard time finding someone to travel with her to Istanbul during her school break. I thought it was kind of me to pay for a flight for Kristen to join Kaitlin so they could travel to Scotland together. Neither of them was getting what they wanted however, so their grumpiness on that trip can’t be blamed on Scotland even though they couldn’t convince the tour guide to take them on a hike and Kristen twisted her ankle and blamed it on the fae.

Come to think of it, people blame a lot of things on Scotland. Bad luck in the theater is blamed on naming the Scottish play. When Tris played McDuff awhile back, the young actor who played MacBeth didn’t stick with his choreographed moves for the broadsword fighting and cut Tris’ ear in half. Tris kept going. The show must go on!

I didn’t see that performance, but Amy and I saw the same play in Griffith Park last summer and it was excellent! We sat close enough that the witch's clothing brushed against me as she passed, and they put the Cliff Notes on our blanket to make fun of us for having it. That's okay, we had a chance to read it and learned so much. The play can be found here: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1533

Shakespeare’s play isn’t the only freaky story set in Scotland by a British or American author. I love the twists in Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney. I also read the romance series Outlander by Diana Gabaldon years ago, but the graphic portrayals of death in the novels have kept me from watching the show on Netflix. Another book with a dark twist, this time by a Scottish writer, is Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I appreciated these books, but there are other books from my childhood that outshine them all.

I grew up on literature by Scottish authors! Here are just a few examples. There are many more and Project Gutenberg has most of them:

· Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/82

· The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43

· The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1661

· Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16

· The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/708

When I married Allan, his favorite books were the George MacDonald books as edited by Michael Phillips that he would share back and forth with Sylvia. Sylvia is a descendant of Bonnie Prince Charlie whose great-grandfather was a Stirling and grew up in Stirling Castle (see photo below). He told her that the maids in their castle had the best legs because they had to climb the hill every day.

I also need to point out Scottish poetry, first Poems and Songs of Robert Burns: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1279 but also the winner of my nostalgia award, A Child’s Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19722. My mother will remember how many times she read this to me when I was small!

To get out and experience Scotland in California, find one of the Scottish festivals. There is one in Bakersfield in April, in Vista near San Diego in June, in Monterrey and in Blue Lake near Eureka in August, and in Seaside near Ventura in October. I asked Tris to go with me to the one in Pleasanton at the Alameda County Fairgrounds on Labor Day weekend this year. He used to be a vendor there advertising that he teaches Scottish Gaelic. Before we went, I spent an evening with him hearing his stories about the people he taught, the differences between the versions of Gaelic, and about Scottish history and politics. If you want to learn Gaelic, here is a place to start: https://learngaelic.scot/sol/

Suzy, Tris, and I arrived at the Scottish festival at 8:00 a.m. to avoid the heat. For breakfast, Tris had a lamb and rosemary meat pie. Suzy and I had the Scotch eggs and split a spinach and feta pie. Later we ate Welsh cakes with clotted cream and lemon curd, and even later we had ginger lassies – gingerbread with a kick. We saw Scottish country dancing, harping, singing, fiddling, sheepdog trials, the procession of the clans, and reenactors, as well as the games. Rick Steves reviews what the Scottish games include here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDUyqdhqRPU

Tris’s favorite movie from Scotland is Trainspotting, but a story about young Scottish heroin addicts, where modern Scotland as contrasted with the romanticism usually associated with it, might be too much like a cold shower for many people. There are plenty of other options and many of them at the library: https://justinpluslauren.com/movies-about-scotland/

I appreciated both of the food shows I found for Scotland, the more serious Parts Unknown: Scotland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhUf83FtsTI and the fun Gordon, Gino & Fred: Road Trip - The Highland Fling. This link is to the first part. Each of the other parts will follow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-RsH-EoKPs

It’s so easy to find resources to travel to Scotland while staying at home, but I’ll just mention three more:

· Kevin’s favorite Disney movie is Brave, so we watched it with Vonnett on Disney Plus

· The Tigers of Scotland documentary can be found here: https://tubitv.com/movies/687355/the-tigers-of-scotland

· Before the pandemic, I saw a Skerryvore concert at Redlands Bowl and discovered that bagpipes aren't bad when used as part of an ensemble with good music. Here is one of their excellent songs (no bagpipes), “Take My Hand” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOM-TK_4_W4

There are also many great things to do on an actual trip to Scotland: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/top-25-things-to-do-in-scotland/ and yes, I would love to go! I look forward to that time when we can travel broadly again. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Scotland and throughout the world.

Photo Credit: Graham Drew https://www.flickr.com/photos/grahamdrew/27586088437/