Holiday Picspam
Vaguely Age of Sail related holiday picspam below the cut....
So this year for out summer holiday we took our VW camper down to Dumfries and Galloway where, shock horror, we had two whole weeks of almost uninterrupted warm sunny weather, which is almost unheard of in Scotland. Mind you, we went so far south we were nearly in England which may have had something to do with it. You could tell we were almost in England because all the kids on the campsites were playing cricket!
Solway Coast
Marram Grass
We are extremely lazy when we're on holiday and spent most of the time sitting by the beach reading while daughter played with random campsite children. Partner read three O'Brian books and I read: an essay on the Quiberon Bay fiasco which painted a horrific picture of a bloody and pointless affair and suggested that John Borlase Warren was badly let down by Bridport and the Channel Fleet; an essay on the use of prison hulks to house convicts and the use of convict labour by the navy; a beautiful book on Admiralty artist J. T. Serres given to me by nodbear, half of the Naval Records Society's 700 page tome on the Channel Fleet and the blockade of Brest which includes many fabulously snotty exchanges of letters between Bridport and the Admiralty and I also read a book called The Happy Return by some Forester guy ;) Although I had virtually no internet access I did manage to get my phone to connect often enough to enjoy reading nodbear's beautiful Laid Up In Ordinary, eglantine_br's dreamy On Going Home and esmerelda_t's Modern AU (again), of which Backdrop made me cry.
We did occasionally manage to drag ourselves away from the beach to so some sightseeing. The first place we visited was the quite ridiculously picturesque Castle Kennedy Gardens which is surrounded by gorgeous landscaped grounds inspired by Versailles. The castle, which was gifted to the Dalrymples of Stair by one of the Earls of Cassillis, was destroyed by fire in 1716 and never rebuilt, instead it was replaced by the much grander Lochinch Castle which is still the family home to the Count and Countess of Stair and is not open to the public.
White Loch, Castle Kennedy
Victorian Lilly Pond, Castle Kennedy
Castle Kennedy from the Walled Garden
Lochinch Castle
Castle Kennedy
Castle Kennedy
We also went to visit the birthplace of John Paul Jones at Arbigland where there is a tiny but fascinating museum dedicated to his life and memory. There's a model of Jones' ship the Bonhomme Richard and a beautiful reconstruction of the ship's cabin, complete with cannon. I could have sat in that cabin all day letting my imagination run riot! Before we left I picked up a copy of a illustrated account of the battle of Flamborough written by one of the Bonhomme Richard's midshipmen. I'll try and write a post on John Paul Jones and the museum when I get a chance.
John Paul Jones' birthplace, Arbigland
Bonhomme Richard model
Bonhomme Richard cabin reconstruction
The Battle of Flamborough Head
As recompense for dragging daughter round various AoS related sites we also took her to a farm park to feed the animals. There I fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful white cashmere goat. Have you ever stroked a cashmere goat? They are just impossibly soft. I stood stroking it for so long that partner eventually dragged me away claiming he was jealous.
The Cashmere Goat!
As if I hadn't taken enough books with me I also bought another pile while I was away. The first campsite we stopped at had half a shelf of CSF paperbacks in its donnated book room so I liberated a 1965 Penguin edition of The Happy Return and left a donnation for the local lifeboat by way of payment. Partner also very kindly took me to Wigtown for the day which is a town devoted to book shops. I was in heaven. I was very restrained though and only bought three books: St Vincent & Camperdown by Christopher Lloyd, Freedom & Revolution: A Pictorial History 1763 - 1815 by R.J. Unstead and a 1909 edition of The British Tar in Fact and Fiction by Commander Charles N. Robinson R.N, both of which have wonderful period illustrations.
The Happy Return, 1965 Penguin edition
St Vincent and Camperdown
Freedom & Revolution: A Pictorial History
The Ships Company by Thomas Rowlandson
An English man of war taking a French Privateer
from The British Tar in Fact and Fiction
A Man-of-War Towing a Frigate into Harbour
from The British Tar in Fact and Fiction
We also spent most of our holiday being entertained by daughter's audiobooks of How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse and How to Speak Dragonese, read by David Tennant. They are both highly entertaining and I am considering buying them for esmerelda_t for Christmas ;)
On the way home we stopped off at Culzean and daughter insisted on visiting the castle again. On our way round we got stuck behind a tour and overheard the tour guide pointing out a couple of portraits of male Kennedy heirs dressed as girls. He claimed "it was the fashion at the time" and also that female children were less likely to be kidnapped than male heirs. Sounds like a likely story to me!
Arran from Culzean Castle
Sorry to disappoint you but I haven't got a pic of the portrait of young Archibald Kennedy in a dress!
On top of all that I also saw some of the clearest dark skies I have seen for years and some breathtaking shooting stars. Not a bad holiday all in all, and although I have to go back to work tomorrow it's not quite over as we have tickets for two performances of Latin American baroque music at the Edinburgh International Festival over the next couple of days :D
Of course I really missed you guys when I was away though!
So this year for out summer holiday we took our VW camper down to Dumfries and Galloway where, shock horror, we had two whole weeks of almost uninterrupted warm sunny weather, which is almost unheard of in Scotland. Mind you, we went so far south we were nearly in England which may have had something to do with it. You could tell we were almost in England because all the kids on the campsites were playing cricket!
Solway Coast
Marram Grass
We are extremely lazy when we're on holiday and spent most of the time sitting by the beach reading while daughter played with random campsite children. Partner read three O'Brian books and I read: an essay on the Quiberon Bay fiasco which painted a horrific picture of a bloody and pointless affair and suggested that John Borlase Warren was badly let down by Bridport and the Channel Fleet; an essay on the use of prison hulks to house convicts and the use of convict labour by the navy; a beautiful book on Admiralty artist J. T. Serres given to me by nodbear, half of the Naval Records Society's 700 page tome on the Channel Fleet and the blockade of Brest which includes many fabulously snotty exchanges of letters between Bridport and the Admiralty and I also read a book called The Happy Return by some Forester guy ;) Although I had virtually no internet access I did manage to get my phone to connect often enough to enjoy reading nodbear's beautiful Laid Up In Ordinary, eglantine_br's dreamy On Going Home and esmerelda_t's Modern AU (again), of which Backdrop made me cry.
We did occasionally manage to drag ourselves away from the beach to so some sightseeing. The first place we visited was the quite ridiculously picturesque Castle Kennedy Gardens which is surrounded by gorgeous landscaped grounds inspired by Versailles. The castle, which was gifted to the Dalrymples of Stair by one of the Earls of Cassillis, was destroyed by fire in 1716 and never rebuilt, instead it was replaced by the much grander Lochinch Castle which is still the family home to the Count and Countess of Stair and is not open to the public.
White Loch, Castle Kennedy
Victorian Lilly Pond, Castle Kennedy
Castle Kennedy from the Walled Garden
Lochinch Castle
Castle Kennedy
Castle Kennedy
We also went to visit the birthplace of John Paul Jones at Arbigland where there is a tiny but fascinating museum dedicated to his life and memory. There's a model of Jones' ship the Bonhomme Richard and a beautiful reconstruction of the ship's cabin, complete with cannon. I could have sat in that cabin all day letting my imagination run riot! Before we left I picked up a copy of a illustrated account of the battle of Flamborough written by one of the Bonhomme Richard's midshipmen. I'll try and write a post on John Paul Jones and the museum when I get a chance.
John Paul Jones' birthplace, Arbigland
Bonhomme Richard model
Bonhomme Richard cabin reconstruction
The Battle of Flamborough Head
As recompense for dragging daughter round various AoS related sites we also took her to a farm park to feed the animals. There I fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful white cashmere goat. Have you ever stroked a cashmere goat? They are just impossibly soft. I stood stroking it for so long that partner eventually dragged me away claiming he was jealous.
The Cashmere Goat!
As if I hadn't taken enough books with me I also bought another pile while I was away. The first campsite we stopped at had half a shelf of CSF paperbacks in its donnated book room so I liberated a 1965 Penguin edition of The Happy Return and left a donnation for the local lifeboat by way of payment. Partner also very kindly took me to Wigtown for the day which is a town devoted to book shops. I was in heaven. I was very restrained though and only bought three books: St Vincent & Camperdown by Christopher Lloyd, Freedom & Revolution: A Pictorial History 1763 - 1815 by R.J. Unstead and a 1909 edition of The British Tar in Fact and Fiction by Commander Charles N. Robinson R.N, both of which have wonderful period illustrations.
The Happy Return, 1965 Penguin edition
St Vincent and Camperdown
Freedom & Revolution: A Pictorial History
The Ships Company by Thomas Rowlandson
An English man of war taking a French Privateer
from The British Tar in Fact and Fiction
A Man-of-War Towing a Frigate into Harbour
from The British Tar in Fact and Fiction
We also spent most of our holiday being entertained by daughter's audiobooks of How to Cheat a Dragon's Curse and How to Speak Dragonese, read by David Tennant. They are both highly entertaining and I am considering buying them for esmerelda_t for Christmas ;)
On the way home we stopped off at Culzean and daughter insisted on visiting the castle again. On our way round we got stuck behind a tour and overheard the tour guide pointing out a couple of portraits of male Kennedy heirs dressed as girls. He claimed "it was the fashion at the time" and also that female children were less likely to be kidnapped than male heirs. Sounds like a likely story to me!
Arran from Culzean Castle
Sorry to disappoint you but I haven't got a pic of the portrait of young Archibald Kennedy in a dress!
On top of all that I also saw some of the clearest dark skies I have seen for years and some breathtaking shooting stars. Not a bad holiday all in all, and although I have to go back to work tomorrow it's not quite over as we have tickets for two performances of Latin American baroque music at the Edinburgh International Festival over the next couple of days :D
Of course I really missed you guys when I was away though!