I have just returned from an incredible journey to Scotland! Wanting to go there since I was very young, made my expectations a bit high, but I must tell you it is more beautiful than I ever imagined. Atop the William Wallace Monument in Stirling you can see for miles of this lush green land scape and around every bend there is another panoramic view more breathtaking than the one before. I visited Castles (Edinburgh, Stirling, Tantallon, Urkhart and Dunrobin), some in ruins, some where royalty is still in residence. How amazing these places are, so immense in size and built without machinery! Saw a falconry exhibit ~ beautiful birds! Met people from all over the world who shared my excitement for the wonder of this place. Took the ferry to Orkney where they were having a folk festival....folk as in traditional Scottish folk music and I was lucky enough to be there for it and to play a few tunes. Wandered into some pubs with my guitar and met wonderful musicians. People were playing fiddles, guitars, flutes, and traditional drums called a bodran. Plus the first pub session I joined, I had the pleasure of hearing a bagpiper! How incredibly awesome to be there in the middle of it all!!

Edinburgh Castle

Me with a local Scotsman

Melrose Abbey ruins

Loch Ness is very deep, dark and mysterious...rode one of the research vessels with sonar. No big blips on the screen this day, but the water can play tricks on your eyes. I stayed in B&Bs and met the folks who run them. Each had wonderful stories to tell about their part of Scotland. If you've seen the movie Braveheart, there's a scene in the beginning where a young girl hands young William Wallace a thistle flower...I stayed with her aunt who also had a tapestry that was made by a 10 year old relative a few hundred years ago. The English armies were burning down their homes, killing the men and sending the women to America. This young girl made this tapestry while in a holding cell waiting to be deported. It was smuggled back as a thank you to her family that helped her. Then there's Andrew & Bridgette who set up my trip and made me feel like family...took me out to see a Pictish standing stone, highland cattle and wonderful views from atop the hills...and to a concert. Clan McCool, Pagan Poets and Blue Horses were playing, while folks were dancing and I had a few sips of Whiskey! Just enough to say I did!

Stirling Bridge

The Wallace Sword

Stirling Castle door

Hosts Bridgett & Andrew

Scotland is so rich with history and you can sense it. I hiked up Glen Nevis, a winding mountain pass where families and entire villages hid to avoid the armies. As you get to the top of this part of the trail, it opens up into a lush green field with a river running through it...beyond that are more mountains and one with a waterfall flowing into the river. I borrow a phrase from the place I stayed for this particular spot "Cuil~na~Sithe." Meaning "Corner of Heaven" for it truly is!

Setting my lyrics afloat in the North Sea

Musicians at Stromness Hotel

Before leaving Orkney, I dropped a cobalt blue bottle with a message and song lyrics into the North Sea at a place called The Gloup. I watched it as it started floating out to sea. It was as though someone had cradled it in their hands to keep it safe. My message is for Peace, that we all know this in our lifetime, Joy, that we find it in the simple pleasures of life & for True Love, that one day we will all experience what it is to be that safe in the arms of our partner where nothing else in the whole world matters.

If you ever get the chance to visit Scotland, GO!

Bay Of Borsay, Orkney Isl.

Chris & Fran at Linkhouse B&B

Dunrobin Castle, home of the Duchess of Sutherland

Dancers at Portmahamock

With Alyson Stewart & tapestry

Mountain path, Glen Nevis