The sound was a week earlier than what I am use to: the symphony
of the katydids! On Monday evening, I stayed outside late with the wonderful
light we are blessed with in the summer. I had mowed, pulled weeds, and took a
quick, refreshing dip in the swimming pool before getting ready for bed. As I was drying
off beside the pool, I heard a familiar “katy-did” up on the mountain behind
our house. I couldn’t believe it! Thirty minutes later I took our dachshunds,
Buddy and Sophie, outside for their pre-slumber jaunt, and I heard a symphony of
katydids. Like the whippoorwills, the music of the katydids brings back so many
childhood memories. We had air conditioning, but our household enjoyed open
windows and fans during cooler, summer evenings. I cannot count the nights I
was lulled to sleep to the musical masterpieces of the katydids. Now, like I
said about the color of dogwood tree’s flower petals predicting the type of
winter/snows for the next year, in a bygone era, there were predictions that katydids announced that it would be 10 weeks before the first, pre-fall frost; we will see! ;o)

Loch Ness

Hey
I didn’t catch up on Saturday. LOL . We had a great day at sea on Saturday. It’s a little cool, but so it is this time of year in the British Isles. On Sunday we made our visit to Edinburgh, Scotland. It is so beautiful and unique, but it is often gloomy. The first time I was ever there it was in 2007 in August with Sean, and we had one sunny day out of 5! I love Edinburgh Castle. The most famous resident was probably Mary Queen of Scots, but she mostly lived in the castle, Holyrood a mile down the hill from Edinburgh Castle. The whole day was breezy and cool, but we enjoyed the city.

Edinburgh Castle

Monday we were in the Scottish Highlands. In a previous blog from April, I mentioned the Cherokee encoding for the love of nature. The Scottish part of me has that encoding of mountains. My family members such as the Alexanders, the Wimpys, and the Browns were immigrants who had come from Scotland and settled in the Virginia mountains and the North Georgia mountains. Oral history from our family says the Alexanders came from Scotland during the 1600s. As we traveled through the Scottish Highlands around Loch Ness on Monday, I felt as though I was “home”. We had a lovely time, and I know I want to go back and spend lots of time there and hopefully Carter and Ammon will feel as I do and learn about their Scottish heritage as well.

Tuesday has been spent in the Shetland Islands. We are ported at Lerwick, and we got to see some Shetland ponies today. However, we were told not to pet them. Ammon and Carter enjoyed seeing them none the less. Hoping all is well in your worlds today and God bless you all. Chat soon. Haven