Blown Away (Day 16)

This year we took a cruise down to the Caribbean during hurricane season and didn't see any bad weather short of cruising out of New York in the rain.

We have been deep into hurricane Katia ALL DAY!  Starting last evening with wind and continuing on into today.  When a woke this morning, way too early, again, it was pouring.  But the rain hasn't been the problem today, rather the wind.

Gordon was lucky enough to sleep late today.  I'm still struggling with sleep and almost believe I've lost the ability!  I'm getting at least four hours a  night but I'd like to have a good long sleep....at least six hours would be good.

We left the house today about 11:30 and drove to Castle Douglas to look for Wellies for me.  Wellies, or Hunter boots, are all the fashion in the states.  Last year while we were in Keswick (the Lake District in England) we bought a pair for each of our girls and once we returned I wished I had purchased a pair for me.  They are sold in Nordstrom but I'm unwilling to pay the price for something I know I can get for a lot less here.  So I asked Stacey and Ken where I could get them and they suggested Castle Douglas.

Castle Douglas is about 40 miles south of Moffat past Dumfries....where the Tour of Britain finished it's first leg yesterday.  Another 50 miles or so you would be in Stranraer, pronounced stren-war, which is in the southwest of Scotland and the point where you catch the ferry to Belfast, Ireland.....something Gordon and I have threatened to do repeatedly.  119 minutes on the car ferry and you are there!

I forgot my camera dang it.

Castle Douglas is a really nice little village - a bit more "upper crusty" than Moffat with some wonderful shops.  They have a hardware/kitchen store to die for and a whole foods shop that's really, really nice.  Clothing shops; three butcher shops; several bakery's and antique and gift shops line the long narrow main street. So we got blown up and down the shops for awhile, didn't find a store that sold Hunter's and then headed off to the Haugh of Urr for a bar lunch at the Laurie Arms Hotel.

On the way home we stopped by the Moffat Woolen Mill to pick up a cashmere sweater for both of us and each of the girls.  While standing at the counter these two older women walked by and one of them had some horrible gas and she let out a real zinger of a noisy fart.  LOUD AND LONG and Gordon and I and the lady at the counter waiting on us and the couple with the young son behind us couldn't help but start giggling.  The lady walked on like nothing had happened and left a wake of giggles behind her! 

Home we go with lovely sweaters in hand.  I make homemade soup; made our bed with fresh linens; dust and clean the glass and take a long bath where I promptly fell to sleep.  Fortunately I laid my Kindle down before I dropped it in the tub!

Tomorrow we are off to pick up our friend Charli at the airport in Edinburgh.  She is flying over from Amsterdam where she has been visiting a friend the last week.  We're planning on heading to the Roslyn Chapel and then back home to Moffat to get her settled in.

A rude crossing sign on the Old Edinburgh Road.  I've yet to see an elderly Scotsperson who looks like that!

Shops on the High Street, Moffat.

In 1875 the businessman William Colvin decided to present a statue of a Blackface Ram and a fountain to Moffat. The sculptor was William Brodie R.S.A. 1815-1881. Brodie also sculpted "Greyfriars Bobby", another well-known Scottish animal sculpture which stands in Edinburgh. The Ram was cast by William Brodie without ears - 'it has nae lugs' - an omission that led to a strange myth that William Brodie committed suicide from shame. However, William Colvin did die in 1881 after an illness. The Ram has stood on its sandstone fountain ever since, an attraction to the town and a memory of agricultural success.

Old Jail in Moffat now the local butcher.

My "blogging seat"