castles, gardens, and monsters. oh my.

I've just returned after about 40 hours travel, returning from Scotland. It should have been about 22 hours, but let's just say that I'm not very happy about United Airlines right now. It's been an incredible 10 days, and about 800 photos. There are, of course, too many impressions and experiences to put into words, but let me be trite and just say that it was incredibly gorgeous. I'm not going to post much right now, since I'm 8 hours jet-lagged. I'll have to post more photos in the future.

Yes, that is my photo of Eilean Donan Castle (above), claimed to be the most photographed castle in the world. Yes, it was as striking as the photo shows, except of course, more so in person. And quite chilly. I wore two layers of fleece and a wool hat.

I haven't read much about the gardens in Scotland. It doesn't seem like the gardening world looks at Scotland, but focuses on England. But let me tell you that there are many, many fine gardens in Scotland. The flower borders at Cawdor Castle (below) were just like the borders seen in the photos of English borders. The natural landscape in Scotland is just as striking, with lushly green mountains and valleys.


Of course Scotland is known for the Loch Ness monster (which I think is rather silly, since there is so much more to recommend Scotland).


Here's my photo out the window of the boat, with a shot of nessie (a decal on the window of the boat). Even without the mystical nessie, the loch is amazing, and during our cruise, one end was shrouded in layers of fog, bringing to mind the book The Mists of Avalon. I wanted to stand on the prow of the boat and bring the mists down as in the book, so that we could dock in Avalon. But of course everyone would think I was truly crazy, even for an American, standing on the prow of the boat flapping my arms around.

And one word about kilts...yum.