Alfie

 

This is Alfie in costume for the play "A Doll's House".  It was written in 1879 by the Norwegian playwright Ibsen - hence the old-fashioned costumes.

Back Home In Sunny Glasgow

Left Montjoi at 7 am this morning .... it was 9C and raining heavily all the way to Carcassonne airport.  When we landed at Prestwick, it was wonderfully warm ... exactly the opposite of how things normally are.  Apart from one nice day at the seaside, it was pretty horrible weather all the time we were there.  Plus I felt rotten the whole time, which didn't help.  In fact, if Sunday hadn't been forecast to be so sunny, we would have cut our stay short and come home.

French farmers are glad that the water reserves have been topped up but also worries by the fact that it has been so cold that everything - especially the cherries and the melons which are very important in our area - are so late this year.

A little bit of good news: one of the paintings that Marion put in for the competition at the Maclaurin Gallery in Ayr has been accepted.

Biarritz Beach

       

She's No Dummy

 St Enoch's Shopping Mall today.  Thought I was seeing things .... and then she winked at me! 

Cloned!

Phone call from Royal Bank credit card this morning to tell me our credit cards had been cancelled and were now useless. The reason?  Someone had cloned my card  and they wouldn't tell me how they knew. The woman in the call centre checked over all the recent entries with me and they were all OK.  The only one that I didn't know about was a deposit taken by the car hire company in France.  Turns out Royal Bank have refused this charge so we are going to have trouble tomorrow morning when we go to pick up the car in Carcassonne!

'Don't worry' they said 'we'll sent you new cards with a new account number to your home address in the next 7-10 days'.  Fat lot of use that'll be in Montjoi.

Iona Lambs

 There were lots of little black lambs on Iona.  The funny thing was that all their mothers were white.

More Videos At Sea

The first one is taken with my phone right at the mouth of Fingal's Cave.   The second clip is of the boat coming to pick us up.  It was very tricky because of the waves and the tide - we had to time it just right and leap onto the boat from the jetty!  Below are a couple more photos to show what it was like on the boat.

You had to hold on at all times, the sea was so lumpy

Not only was it raining but we also got soaked by sea spray

Lord Macleod by David A Donaldson

George Macleod was the man who raised the money to restore the Abbey on Iona and also founded the Iona Community Centre.  He was given the title of Lord Macleod of Fuinary in recognition of his work. 

When he retired, the Iona Community commisioned David A Donaldson (my father) to paint his portrait.  It is no secret that George Macleod and his wife both hated the painting, probably because it showed what he was really like.

The boatman who took us out to Staffa told us that the original painting was hanging in the Abbey in a part that was not open to the public.  I had only ever seen a photo of it so we went and got permission to see the painting.  The man that let us in assured us that it was an excellent likeness of Macleod - he had known him really well -  and it captured "one of his three faces" as he put it.

Inside Fingal's Cave On Staffa

This is a short movie clip taken from inside the cave.

Island of Iona

On Saturday we are going off to Iona for the weekend.  Iona is a tiny island off the tip of a much bigger island called Mull.  To get there, we have to drive up to the port of Oban , take the car ferry to Mull, drive another 30 miles and then take a 10-minute ferry to Iona.  Visitors aren't allowed cars on the island so we leave our car on Mull.  You can see from the photo that it is a tiny island.  The hotel is right beside the ferry.

From Iona, you can get boat trips out to the legendary Fingal's Cave island which is made of black volcanic rock in hexagonal columns.  There should be puffins nesting there at this time of year.

Many famous Scottish painters have been to Iona - this painting is by Cadell.

And this is an aerial photo of where we will be staying.

Walking On Hot Coals Vs Lego

 

Your Flights To France In July

Booked Easyjet flights to Bristol and then on to Toulouse for 24 July.  Glasgow flight leaves at 8:50 am.  Return flights are on 5th August.  Can't go hone via Bristol because they have changed the flight times, making the connection too neat.  Instead travelling via Gatwick by Easyjet.   When you get to Gatwick, you have to take the robot shuttle train from the South Terminal (where you arrive) to the North Terminal to get the Glasgow flight.