THIS WEEKEND I spent time with naked men (see above) at the Albert Polasek Museum/Gallery   http://www.polasek.org/  where we wander the gardens (the naked man didn’t join us but the cutest half grown kitten did (http://www.polasek.org/   )    then on to the Morse Museum  (http://www.morsemuseum.org/  )                     of all things Tiffany.   Also did a Turkish Restaurant (http://www.turkishbarandgrill.com/?gclid=CjwKEAjws5CrBRD8ze702_2dyjYSJAAAJK9yo3c-9DJBR6j4xhRYFI6Zf-wPDWkYC7CTx1Ei1rjZ6RoCPKbw_wcB) that I like lots   (http://www.turkishbarandgrill.com/) and a Birthday Party plus an evening with Friends for drinks and another with other friends for BBQ.  

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here, My heart’s in the Highlands a chasing the deer; Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe; My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go. Robert Burns

 

 

 

No I didn’t have time to watch the Outlander Marathon this weekend..I will re-watch in the next Droughtlander which will began on May 31st.

The most patient people grow weary at last with being continually wetted with rain; except, of course, in the Scottish Highlands, where there are not enough fine intervals to point the difference. Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 

 

 

As my regular readers know I’m addicted to Outlander

So I thought this week my subject will be Scotland generally as well as how all this is related to THE show.  But even if you’ve never seen Outlander or don’t like it…try my offerings as I hope to please you all.

In the Highlands, in the country places, Where the old plain men have rosy faces, And the young fair maidens Quiet eyes. Robert Louis Stevenson

Scotland is part of the United Kingdom along with Northern Ireland, and Wales.   The UK’s size is closest to Alaska in the US.  In addition to the isle it’s self there are close to 1000 islands surrounding it.  http://www.ask.com/geography/u-s-state-comparable-england-size-2e236730e7d98a61

Give me but one hour of Scotland,
Let me see it ere I die.
William Edmondstoune Aytoun

 Scotland lies (on the same Island) to the North West of England and is about the size (almost) of South Carolina and claims some 787 UK islands (130 of which has inhabitants).  http://www.scotlandinfo.eu/scotland-facts-and-figures/

Green grow the rashes, O;
Green grow the rashes, O;
The sweetest hours that e’er I spend
Are spent among the lasses, O.
Robert Burns
Green Grow the Rashes, O.

 

EDINBURGH is the capital (one of my all time favorite places) and the Castle Rock (see the castle looming over everything to the rear left) has been occupied since 1000 BC.   Oh and you never say Edin-Burgh, it’s Edin-Burrow.). given it’s vantage point over the surrounding territory all the way to the Firth of Forth  (not seen in picture)  that was pretty much a given.   Of note Edinburgh plays a part in one of the later Outlander novels–but I’m trying not to have spoilers so that’s all I can say.   Given all that you’d have thought it was a shoo-in for the capital but that didn’t happen until in the late 15th or early 16th center (before the Outlander Story begins.).

Lay the proud usurpers low!
Tyrants fall in every foe!
Liberty’s in every blow!
Let us do – or die!
Robert Burns
Scots, What Hae.

This first book of OUTLANDER and the first season takes place in the Highlands.   When we (Americans especially) think of Scotland our images are of the Highlands with their clans and tartans, whiskey, bag pipes and heather (the first time I was in Scotland there was a blight on the heather and there was some concern about loosing it) . In other words what we visualize as Scotland is most likely the highlands.  http://www.roughguides.com/destinations/europe/scotland/highland-region/

From scenes like these old Scotia’s grandeur springs.
Robert Burns
The Cotter’s Saturday Night.

Scotland’s topography is generally extremely mountainous with wild heather and moorlands in the north and west, pine forests mixed with quality pastures in the middle, fertile farmland in the east and, south the rounded, grass covered hills of the Lowlands.  (Scotland: Eyewitness Travel Guide  Cough et al.
Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro’ the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?
Robert Burns
Comin thro’ the rye.

The Northern Highlands with great lovely mountains, the glens, lochs and burns.  Inverness and the densely populated strip to the north; and the far north–barren undulating moorland and pet bog.  Around Scotland Slavin.

 

The Scots are steadfast – not their clime.
Thomas Crawford

 

The story starts in Inverness     http://www.inverness-scotland.com/ where Claire and Frank Randall stay at a bed and breakfast (I don’t think they called them that then but…..) and do research on his ancestor in 1945.   This city is the unofficial
“capital” of the highlands and the largest city in the Highlands.   There were two castles here  one which would have been there when our couple made their visit (Inverness Castle) built in Victorian times and second one–well really the first–never mind time travel is too confusing–blown up by  the Young Pretender which was there for our 18th century group.   Inverness is Celt for Inbhir Nis pronounced [iɲɪɾʲˈniʃ], meaning “Mouth of the River Ness”   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverness   to which Catholic missionaries came in the 6th century to convet the Picts.

 

Scottish by birth, British by law,
Highlander by the grace of God.
Anonymous

 

Two sites you may have heard of near Inverness are”

LOCH NESS (of Monster fame–I took a tour but didn’t see anything but a few ordinary fellow tourists) which is mentioned briefly in one of the novels where one of the regulars sees the monster surface–and there is some indicated that it too may have gone through some stones to get there.

No one in Scotland can escape from the past.
It is everywhere, haunting like a ghost.
Geddes MacGregor

and

Culloden    http://www.nts.org.uk/culloden/  lies a few miles from Inverness and will meet its destiny with history later on in our stories.

Glencoe. A gloomy, eerie place, a valley of sorrow
hewn out of mountains of guilt.
Geddes MacGregor

 

Fort William:  http://www.visitscotland.com/en-us/info/towns-villages/fort-william-p236531. (Scottish Gaelic: An Gearasdan [ən ˈkʲɛrəs̪t̪ən] “The Garrison”)   If you remember in Outlander this is where Claire was taken the first time willingly, the second under arrest.  This was long a clan center but grew greatly in size as a settlement when the fort was constructed (the first in the area to be built in 1698) to control the population after Oliver Cromwell’s invasion during the English Civil War and then at the time of our story (18th century) when it was enforced to suppress the Jacobite uprisings.  I’m not sure if it was still there in Claire and Frank’s time as the town’s railway station was built on the site.

The rose of all the world is not for me.
I want for my part
Only the little white rose of Scotland
That smells sharp and sweet – and breaks the heart.

• Hugh MacDiarmid, The Little White Rose

 

Outlander uses real historical places for their fictional ones:  Check out this site to find out more about the places and the reality of same as well as their actual locations    http://www.visitscotland.com/en-us/about/arts-culture/outlander/

I’m William Wallace, and the rest of you will be spared. Go back to England and tell them… Scotland is free!
William Wallace

 

For a list of romances set in the Highlands check this out:    http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/4095.Best_Highland_Scotland_Romance_Novels

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now the summer’s in prime
Wi’ the flowers richly blooming,
And the wild mountain thyme
A’ the moorlands perfuming.
To own dear native scenes
Let us journey together,
Where glad innocence reigns
‘Mang the braes o’ Balquhither.

• Robert Tannahill, The Braes o’ Balquhither.