I couldn’t walk in them this morning. I laced them up, threw on my raincoat and headed outside to pick up breakfast food for the train ride home, and after just a couple of steps, I knew it was time for us to part ways. I bought these boots in Charlottesville, Virginia, circa 2001 (I think) and they saw me through many …

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I have never before seen a tree with such personality, such sleepy menace, so old, leaning heavily on its crutches, the last soldier standing, who once rumbled up its roots from the earth and lumbered to Dunsinane Hill. Yes, I know that Birnam wood doesn’t really come to Dunsinane, and that Macbeth, as usual, takes the …

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We walked through Glen Tilt today (about 6 miles we think) just north of Blair Atholl. It was an adventure in map reading, trespassing, and hiking over and around enormous downed trees. As Sam remarked, “This forest is a tree graveyard!” But on the other side of the graveyard was a gentle path flanked by a gorgeous …

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Yesterday the cashier at The Sheep Shop in Pitlochry told us that it’s a lovely walk to Strathtay, a village to the southwest of Pitlochry. He also mentioned that there’s a chocolatier there. That was all I needed to hear. We set out. Sam’s magic boots required an adjustment early on. And then we came to this neat …

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We walked back to Edradour distillery today–Scotland’s smallest distillery–via a slightly different route through the Black Spout woods. A tour, a tasting, and now I know much more than I ever did before about how whisky is made. Sam thought it all noisy and smelly (she didn’t get to taste any of course– “Come back in …

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Coronation bridge, which crosses the river Tummel, was built to commemorate the coronation of George V (1911). We crossed it as part of our ELEVEN mile hike today. Even we are stunned at the distance we covered. Sam walked 10 miles by herself and rode on AC’s back for the final stretch back into Pitlochry. It took us …

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Here it is, showing some of its 150 feet: This is the viewing podium: View from near the top. I was standing on a grassy precipice when I took these photos.

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Greetings from Scotland! It took us three trains and 9 hours to make it from Brighton to Pitlochry in the Perthshire highlands, but here we are, ensconced in a cute little cottage with WiFi and an electric heater with 1£ coin meter. We do have the heat turned on. But it’s a pleasant chill, and green green all around, …

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This November we made a Thanksgiving tree. We started with twigs from the back yard, dirt and twine. Then we added felt and brown paper “leaves.” On the leaves we wrote things that we are thankful for. Sam is crazy about writing these days and insisted on writing her own gratitudes (with me spelling the words for her). …

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