Quips from Kay

    I begin this with photos of the Highland cattle that are so different from the Herefords I used to raise.  They call them "coos" and I really like the way they look. We left for Lake Windermere, as in Lady Windermere's Fan, which is in the Lake District of England.  This is in a lovely part of England and it is so very green with lots of water, unlike my dry South Texas. After much delay in terrible traffic on the M25 we finally arrived at the Hawksmoor B&B in Windermere. Completely opposite of the previous inn, this one is very modern with a heated towel rack, heated bathroom floor, skylight and deep tub with all sorts of nice locally made scents to bathe with. However, I have come to the conclusion that they sell only lumpy mattresses in the U.K. since this one was as bad as the one at the lodge . I had to wrap myself up in the duvet to keep from getting a backache. Maybe it's like their teeth, they just don't know what it's like to have nice ones. W...

This is a continuation of the June 10th blog; we stopped at St. Conan's Kirk on Loch Awe. It clings to the rock above the loch and appears to be ancient, but, in fact the original church was started in 1881 by Walter Campbell. He had eclectic taste and wanted it to look very old. Well, he succeeded. That evening we had a light supper in our lodge and I had a dessert ("pudding" is their word for dessert) It was called sticky pudding and was rather tasteless and was the only thing I've eaten on this trip that I didn't like. The next day we had another good breakfast and left to go to Loch Lomond. Again, unrivaled beauty all the way. Had a late lunch outside at a place called Wayfarer's and I had prawns wrapped in smoked salmon with a nice salad. The fruits and vegetables are so fresh here that it's a great joy to eat them and know they have not been soaked in pesticides. We stopped in a town called Callendar on the way and walking down their charming streets...

 In 2014 I made a trip to England to visit my daughter and her husband. They had a trip to Scotland planned and I was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of seeing the country of some of my ancestors. We left Cobham, Surrey at 6:36 a.m. and drove until about 3:30. Made really good time in my son-in-law's Saab convertible even though we stopped at several places for potty breaks and photo-ops. The entire drive was one big photo-op! The countryside is fantastic so just use all the fine adjectives you know to visualize what I saw.  They are so organized in the British Isles! Every few miles on the motorways there is an oasis where you can pull in, visit the TOILET, get information and a snack. Not so commercial as our stops and very convenient and clean. We arrived at our hotel/inn, Suie Lodge Hotel, Glendochart,Nr, Crainlarich and found it to be a lonely old lodge in the middle of nowhere. We laughed and joked about it because compared to places all of us have stayed, this was a...

During my visit to England there was no way I was going to miss seeing Windsor Castle so I joined a church group on a bus and away we went. Of course, we wouldn't see the Queen because she was up in Scotland trying to hang on to that independent bunch. Her absence was of no consequence because her castle is phenomenal. We walked from the bus parking lot, past the train station, got into a lift (elevator) and passed a bunch of small shops and cafes before we actually reached the castle. Since I had only seen castles in movies, etc, I was not prepared for the enormity of this building. It is spread out over many acres of beautiful landscaping. There was one man strapped to a turret with a rope and he managed to cut the grass on the side of a very slanted hill upon which rested part of the castle.  The chapel of St. George was the most impressive with marble statues of past kings and queens and fantastic stained glass windows. The "chapels" I had seen in the past were tiny c...