1087 Scotland re-experienced

Recreating my experience of holidays in Scotland was the purpose of a visit made to a new location this week, and unexpectedly it immediately brought back memories of my first. Rabbits scampering close up from every window viewpoint and earlier this evening as I went out to the car, although they rushed away at speed, one stayed. At one point there were twelve into two areas. My mother once attempted to breed rabbits in post war rationing, but the pair just became more and more fat, at her expense, and were taken to the butchers, and although we had rabbit stew from time to time, they went to the table of others. After Watership Down, the book, the radio play and the film, I can look back to her enterprise with humour, and pleasure that we need not eat them

In the mid 1970's the first holiday visit to Scotland was to an isolated hillside cottage in the Tay valley, reached by a grassland track from an off road drive and every evening after a meal until dusk, the rabbits feeding and scampering, provided nightly entertainment over a gloriously warm May week. So far the weather this May week has been mixed, as it was some thirty years ago when a second visit was made to a different property on the same estate and there was opportunity to explore further afield beyond the Tummel Valley, north to the Cairngorms where the chair lift was taken to the top, and then along Glen Lyon , and to the Trossachs and Lake Katrine, and Rannoch moor, with regular visits to Aberfeldy, to Kenmore and Killin, There was also a yearn to conquer my fear of heights and attempt the climb of Ben Lawers. A decade later there was a return to the Tay to a lodge and reaching the top of the mountain.

Last week I arranged this trip on impulse, somewhere in Scotland, not too far, somewhere like Loch Lomond, North of Glasgow or around the Trossachs, north of Edinburgh. My first choice being unavailable I accepted the suggestion of an alternative, a location which shall remain a secret except to family and trusted friends because of its peaceful location and the quality of the accommodation unit. Purpose designed by its owner there is comfortable seating and dining for six, with an ensuite double, a twin and one with bunks and sufficient clothes hanging and storage for the entire wardrobe of a family should care to bring. The main bathroom has a wall to wall surface and with drawers enabling a parade of every ones toiletries and the kitchen area is better than all my previously owned properties.

Instead of touring I am enjoying working, thinking and being. You can feel isolated in a home in the midst of a city, but with no one occupying any of the other lodges, I am at one with myself and the universe in this isolation.

Since my first holiday to Scotland I have stayed at Lodges and other forms of accommodation at Aviemore at Loch Oich and Loch Lochy and Loch Goil, at Hunters Quay Holy Loch in Christmas New Year snow time, on the west bank of Loch Lomond, near Pitlochry and Loch Earn, in Dumfries and at the top end of Loch Long. I have stayed in a hotel at Oman and camped all over with a week at a Forestry commission site, note sure where, and will have to check when I return home, long tours visiting other lochs and glens, and up and down the peninsular.

I give thanks for these experiences, for being in harmony, and for not feeling guilty.