A CELEBRATION OF SCOTLAND
My Scottish father spent the last 63 years of his life in Bermuda, which is, of course, a beautiful island. But he never stopped longing for Scotland. It’s a Scottish thing, I guess.
As a child he taught me his Scottish songs. ‘Let the Irish sing of the Emerald Isle… let the English praise their valleys and their braes, BUT [pregnant pause here always] give ME the land of the heather and the kilt, the mountains and the rivers, where the blood flows in my veins when I hear the bagpipes strain, SCOTLAND, dear old Scotland, forever...’
And, of course, ‘A Scottish Soldier’ as well as the very funny ‘Donald where’s your Troosers?’ He also used to rail against the local newsreaders when they referred to ‘the Prime Minister of England’ and reminded us constantly that Queen Elizabeth isn’t QEII in Scotland. Yes, he was a real Scot.
My son is now living and working in London, and recently spent a weekend in Scotland, sending me the most wonderful photos of his trip and raving about the scenery. My first thought was how happy his grandfather would have been to hear this and how pleased I was that my son has a Scottish middle name (Fraser) which hopefully helps him feel a connection to the land of his grandfather (s). He sent me this message about his experience:
‘With a second lockdown on the horizon my friend and I planned a weekend canoe and camping trip on the beautiful Loch Ken. We left Edinburgh after lunch and had a short twohour drive to Castle Douglas via the Devils Beef Tub. Living in London I am always blown away by how breathtaking the scenery is so close to Edinburgh. We picked up supplies and found a perfect spot to camp right on the edge of the Loch.
'We called the farmer who owned the land and he allowed us to stay for a small fee on the promise we cleaned up afterwards; he also warned us about the rain the next day. Having set up camp we were treated to the most incredible sunset and we went for an evening paddle and a swim before making dinner. As the friendly farmer predicted, the next day it didn't stop raining and so the longer paddle to Threave Castle was called off but we stayed warm and (mostly) dry and opened the whisky early. Waking up on the Sunday it was like the downpour never happened and the Loch was glass-like once again. A perfect weekend despite the rain and am looking forward to more in the future.’
I asked him how he got to Edinburgh and he said they 'took the train up for £17. The way back down was £70 but was delayed by 40 minutes so I got it all back.'
Our own trip to Scotland this year was cancelled – hasn’t everything this year been cancelled? But we are very much hoping to be able to travel next year and have booked a cruise down the Caledonian Canal, a journey that started with reading the article Morag wrote about her trip on the Majestic Line’s Glen Shiel [Life on the Ocean Wave, October 2019, p50].
Keep up the good work – we love everything in the magazine and eagerly await its arrival each month.
Elspeth Weisberg, Bermuda