Baltic, Iceland, Norway and the U.K.on a cruise

[scubacruiserx2]

9 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Those fox gloves makes my beat faster. Great photos.

 

The foxes can keep their gloves  - we brought our own . 😎

[scubacruiserx2]

Our next stop was on Loch Shin to hear about the "Wee Hoose"which is best explained in the video

 

https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/the-true-story-of-the-wee-hoose-on-the-loch-1-4578454

 

 

 

When I saw the bird sitting on it I thought of it as a wee bird house .

 

 

There some wee flowers growing there

 

 

[dogs4fun]

14 hours ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

We saw these Foxglove flowers in Chile also . Very pretty to look at but they produce the heart drug Digitalis .

 

 

Yes, very pretty but Foxglove is poisonous - can be deadly if ingested. If you make your own brew from the leaves or eat parts of the plant, you are, in essence, taking an unregulated dose of digoxin (type of digitalis) which can cause the heart rate to become irregular.

Years ago I had several poisonous plants growing in my garden - I was clueless until a relative with more botanical knowledge than I clued me in. I got rid of all the poisonous plants as I had puppies that liked to chew on plant leaves in the garden. Yikes!

Edited January 16, 2020 by dogs4fun

[scubacruiserx2]

50 minutes ago, dogs4fun said:

Yes, very pretty but Foxglove is poisonous - can be deadly if ingested. If you make your own brew from the leaves or eat parts of the plant, you are, in essence, taking an unregulated dose of digoxin (type of digitalis) which can cause the heart rate to become irregular.

Years ago I had several poisonous plants growing in my garden - I was clueless until a relative with more botanical knowledge than I clued me in. I got rid of all the poisonous plants as I had puppies that liked to chew on plant leaves in the garden. Yikes!

 

It seemed to be like a weed just growing in random places .

[dogs4fun]

10 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

It seemed to be like a weed just growing in random places .

Yes, I have seen them in the wild. The foxglove that was in my garden was planted by me - a package of wildflower seeds. At the time, I was not aware that it was a poisonous plant.

Weird story - a few years ago a woman in my area (Castle Rock, CO) was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for poisoning her husband's salad with foxglove. The poor husband was hospitalized after consuming a spaghetti dinner & a bitter tasting salad prepared by his "loving" wife. Nice, huh? 

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, dogs4fun said:

Yes, I have seen them in the wild. The foxglove that was in my garden was planted by me - a package of wildflower seeds. At the time, I was not aware that it was a poisonous plant.

Weird story - a few years ago a woman in my area (Castle Rock, CO) was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for poisoning her husband's salad with foxglove. The poor husband was hospitalized after consuming a spaghetti dinner & a bitter tasting salad prepared by his "loving" wife. Nice, huh? 

 

Yikes ! They should have a warning on the package Do not feed flowers to pets ( or husbands  ) .

[scubacruiserx2]

Our next stop was on Loch Shin to hear about the "Wee Hoose"which is best explained in the video

 

https://www.scotsman.com/news-2-15012/the-true-story-of-the-wee-hoose-on-the-loch-1-4578454

 

 

 

When I saw the bird sitting on it I thought of it as a wee bird house .

 

 

There some wee flowers growing there

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

I'm not sure where we stopped next except to enjoy scenery and wildlife

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the open shallow area it was a good place for birds to fish and where they could see you approaching

 

 

Unless they were busy

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Dunrobin Castle

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunrobin_Castle

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were a couple of buses here already and Matthew suggested that we go through the castle and down to the zoo

 

A huge tree

 

 

It's also called the Museum

 

https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/golspie/dunrobincastlemuseum/index.html

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The Castle

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

Beautiful pics.

[scubacruiserx2]

11 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Beautiful pics.

 

Thanks Mic , we had nice weather at a beautiful place .

[scubacruiserx2]

We first saw flowers like these in Chile

 

 

 

 

But not these

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

There was a group of people seated in the garden to learn about and watch a demonstration of Falconry

 

http://www.dunrobincastle.co.uk/garden.html#falconry

 

After showing and teaching about the Falcon he unmasked the bird and sent it flying 

 

 

 

In a dive the Peregrine Falcon is the fastest animal in the world attaining speeds of 240 mph !

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peregrine_falcon

 

The bird circled overhead before diving on a target that the handler would swing around his head at the end of a rope . 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

One last photo from the grounds before ascending to the overlook of the castle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The green plants at the bottom of the photo are Rhubarb standing 6 feet tall . We have also seen and eaten some while in Chile .

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

There are 189 rooms within the castle, making it the largest in the northern Highlands.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunrobin_Castle

 

 

 

 

 

Just like on the Zuiderdam

 

 

Not like the Zuiderdam

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The Zuiderdam room

 

 

 

 

The way up

 

 

 

 

 

[MicCanberra]

Lovely grounds and the castle is impressive.

[scubacruiserx2]

5 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

Lovely grounds and the castle is impressive.

 

It was nice to see one intact and being lived in . So many were ruins .

[scubacruiserx2]

We left the castle before the large group and had an early lunch at the iconic UK staple . The fish and chips that we had in Iceland was a square piece of chopped fish like the Mc Donalds Filet O Fish . This was the real deal .

 

 

We walked just across the parking lot to a beach with a picnic table

 

 

The company , beach and food were all excellent

 

 

Moving toward our next stop we encountered some wildlife on the way

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Next up was Dornach Cathedral

 

Dornoch Cathedral is a parish church in the Church of Scotland, serving the small Sutherland town of Dornoch, in the Scottish Highlands. As a congregation of the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, the church is not the seat of a bishop but retains the name due to being, historically, the seat of the Bishop of Caithness.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dornoch_Cathedral

 

Matthew wanted to show us the gargoyles there but when we got there  it seemed like the church was in use

 

 

I felt a bit like a paparazzi lurking in the bushes - but this was good stuff Scotland the Brave on the pipes and a wedding !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strangely , we would run into this car later

 

 

As a footnote , this church was where Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX fame was married in 2010 . Madonna was also married here .

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

When the wedding began we moved around to the side of the cathedral to have a look at the gargoyles

 

 

Since they were back lit and I didn't bring my flash it's hard to see the detail

 

 

 

 

The Castle , now a hotel

 

 

The cathedral

 

 

and the Charities Shop

 

 

[MicCanberra]

I think weddings are a sign of good luck when touring.

 

Although some say it is a bit like bird poo on your shirt.

It is good luck for everyone else.😋

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, MicCanberra said:

I think weddings are a sign of good luck when touring.

 

Although some say it is a bit like bird poo on your shirt.

It is good luck for everyone else.😋

 

We felt like wedding crashers but poo less ones .

[scubacruiserx2]

A visit to Glenmorange

 

 

The meeting area

 

 

 

They claim to have the tallest stills in Scotland - as tall as a giraffe !

 

 

We we're not allowed to take photos inside . It was quite hot in the still room and it vented to the outside 

 

 

Here's the herd of giraffes

 

 

The last photo came from wikipedia and was taken by Jack Shainsky

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenmorangie_distillery

 

And the final product

 

 

The screen shot was taken from their web site

 

https://www.glenmorangie.com/en-us

 

The parting shot

 

 

That's a 1962 Coupe deVille Cadillac . My dad had a 1961 Sedan de Ville colored pink that we used to call the Pink Panther .

 

After the tour we had a wee dram of  scotch and made a few purchases for medicinal reasons . As we were leaving the wedding party pulled up in their cars for some photos . As it turns out , the Father of the Bride is the Still Master there . That must have been some wedding party !

 

 

Edited January 18, 2020 by scubacruiserx2