We returned to Moffat last Thursday, the day of the
Referendum. Maybe a little historical perspective from a non-Scottish
person might be helpful here.
When I met Gordon way
back in 1985 and began to get to know him, Scottish politics became a
part of our discussions. I knew nothing of the politics in Scotland. I
knew Scotland was a part of the U.K. but kinda thought of Scotland as
separate. Turns out I was right.
So, there's a Labor
Party, a Conservative party (currently in power under Cameron) and the
Scottish National Party. When people in the U.K. vote they vote for
their party....not for the person. After the party is elected they
bring forward their leader. Not that no one knows about the "head" of
the party just sort of takes the pressure off the leader of the party to
get the party elected instead of her/him. Did that make sense? I
don't know.
Anyway, it's the Scottish National Party
that brought forward the Referendum to secede Scotland from Britain. Gordon, since I met him, has always been a supporter of the
Scottish National Party. I've endured years of "we're Scottish not
British" - "300 years of rape and pillage by the English", etc., etc.
So now is the big chance for Scotland to once and for all take matters
into their own hands. Ahhhhh, if only Gordon could vote. As I've said
before, only currently residing citizens could vote in this Referendum
which is very weird to me being a U.S. citizen and able to vote in ANY
election or referendum based on the fact that I'm a citizen of the U.S.
Britain recognizes a British subject whether they have a U.S. Passport
or not, but for matters surrounding the Referendum, you had to live in
Scotland. Do I think the vote would have turned out differently had
Ex-Pat's been allowed to vote? YES! They didn't leave their country
because they were happy did they?
So long story short,
when Gordon arrived he was a YES voter but his and my thoughts on the
matter gradually began to shift as we spoke to people here in Moffat and
as we traveled in Ireland and Wales and England and listened to the
news and heard the YES campaign people being interviewed. The problem
for us was, there were NO facts. None. And when YES campaigners were
repeatedly asked questions like, "what happens to the pound and banking
if we secede from the U.K." no one, not one had an answer. They were
pretty good at dodging answers though! The Royal Bank of Scotland,
really the only bank in Scotland, said they would move to London. What would the currency be? No one would say. AND, it's not guaranteed that
Scotland would get into the European Union. You have to apply to the EU
and it could take 10 years to get in. Anyway, there were WAY too many
unanswered questions to make an informed decision. Passion is one
thing, reality another. As Gordon said, he's "got skin in the game"
here in Scotland with two properties and who knows what would have
happened to property prices. Now we're talking about our own pocketbook!
As
we know, the Referendum went to the NO voters. I'll just add here what a
frustrating experience it was to be interested in the vote and get
absolute NO NEWS ALL DAY. All you people in the U.S. know that polls
open at what, 7, and from then until the polls close you get results
updated continually throughout the day with news crews out at polling
stations and reporters speculating on which way the vote will go ALL
BLOODY DAY LONG!!!! Here, there's nothing. NO THING. Not until
morning after all the votes are counted, by hand! There's no electronic
voting here. The Islands in the West of Scotland have to have their
votes picked up by boat and brought to the mainland to be counted by
hand after 10:00 pm. So all night long I was getting up and turning the
TV on to see what was going on and it wasn't until 6:00 am on Friday
until we officially knew which way the vote was going. What a waste of a
good nights sleep. If I had only known.
Here in
Moffat there were no repercussions that we were aware of but in Glasgow
that carried a YES vote, there were riots. In fact, Gordon went down to
watch local Rugby on Saturday and the game was called off because the
local boys were playing the police whose team was decimated because of
the Glasgow riots. Game called off!
Well enough about
that. Gordon and I were exhausted upon our return from
Ireland/Wales/England and spent Friday and Saturday doing laundry,
shopping, in home cooked meals and recuperating from our 1,400 mile
drive. We took a walk up to the Moffat Well along the sheep fields and
spied a funny cow who spent a good deal of time cleaning her mouth and
nose. She cracked me up!
It was another beautiful and warm day.
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| This is a view
of Gallow Hill from below. We walk this hill every year only this year
ALL the trees in the forest at the top have been chopped down leaving
this very sad sight. Boohoo |
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| The fabulous petunias and begonias that I photograph every year. |
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| Glorious! |
On Monday Gordon and I researched a local castle that we've never seen and decided to take a short drive to go see
Drumlanrig Castle owned by the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch.
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| The approach to the castle..... |
Turns
out the castle was closed for the season even though their website said
they were open as well as the sign out front. We were none too happy.
However, it was a nice drive and the grounds are fabulous. Some day
maybe we'll see the Castle too.
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| The long driveway approaching the Castle. |
And we have enjoyed some beautiful evenings sipping wine on our verandah just the two of us and with Maureen.
We
had a lovely meal with Maureen and her daughter Stacy and Stacy's two
daughters, Ella and Freya on Saturday evening. Maureen popped over to
return some dishes the other day at 5ish and the three of us sat outside
drinking wine and gabbing, ordering Indian food and eating and gabbing
until midnight on Monday night!
Today we decided to
bite the bullet and do the annual trek up the Gray Mare's Tail. After
popping 3 ibuprofen, we headed out. Another beautiful day though it
was quite windy and a bit "fresh" (the weather people's word not mine)
at the top.
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| The long staircase up.... |
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| A look back through the valley and the parking lot where our tiny car awaits |
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| Lamby friends |
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| A warning to dog owners....please don't WORRY the sheep! |
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| A sweet, sleeping goat |
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| The windy top at Loch Skee |
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| The tiny white dot clinging to the cliff is a crazy goat across the waterfall |
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| The crevasse looking back toward the distant parking lot and our little car. |
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The next few days will be busy. We have to run into
Dumfries tomorrow for a little home project shopping Gordon has been
working on. Plus our microwave blew up so we need a new one. Can't get
one locally.
On Friday we are having another dinner
party here and looking forward to it. Dinner date on Saturday night at
Claudio's Italian in town and Sunday we are meeting Maureen and her
granddaughters at the
Sun Inn
for Sunday Roast just outside of Edinburgh before Gordon and I head to
North Berwick to spend a couple of days. Gordon is playing golf with an
old friend on Monday at
Gullane Golf Club and I'm heading off for a spa day at
Archerfield House Spa. We'll return to Moffat on Tuesday evening.
This
week has been very leisurely and we're getting kinda antsy. Just a
couple of weeks to go now before we head back to Pleasanton and I can
definitely say we are looking forward to being home. I miss our girls
and the kitties and I miss watching our yard change from summer to fall.
