Nessie and the loch

My first evening in the abbey I got a tour of the place and explanation of how everything works. Then I hauled my suitcases up four flights of stairs with the extremely appreciated help from the caretaker, Charles. It was 8:00pm by then and I hadn't eaten since 11:00am, so I walked just down the path to the Boathouse restaurant that sits on the shore of the loch.
I am not a fan of salmon at home, but Scottish salmon is really good. It does not have that overpowering fishy taste that the salmon in the US has. The Boathouse is run by two gentlemen from Turkey, so the menu has a Middle Eastern flair to it that really complemented the salmon nicely. They dressed it in a light lemon sauce with a lovely salad, some lightly cooked carrots and zucchini and finished it off with some pan seared potatoes. (That description was for you, DiscoJen) Add a nice glass of Shiraz, and it was a good way to start my Scottish holiday. Charles came in for a pint as I neared the end of my dinner, so we sat and chatted for about an hour. I love talking with the local residents when I travel, it's the best way to get to know the real character of the place and to find out where to go and what to do that you wouldn't find in the guide books.
My first day at the abbey was really uneventful as I did really domestic and completely unexciting things such as;unpacking, grocery shopping, and a massive amount of laundry (behind those fab cabinets in the kitchen are a fridge, dishwasher, combo washer/dryer and microwave). Just being able to look out the window at Loch Ness and the glens made the mundane work much more enjoyable.
I have to say that I am not a fan of the combo washer/dryer. It takes 4 hours and 43 minutes to do a load, and a load is no more than two pairs of jeans or 4 t-shirts. Any more than that, and it errors out. My first few loads didn't even dry, so I got out the drying rack and hung it all up. Then I realized that the radiators put out some good heat, and that's how Anne dried all of her laundry, so I draped the radiators with sox, undergarments and shirts. It worked very well too. The laundry was mostly dried in about an hour. Thank goodness there's a lot of radiators. I also employed the towel warmer in the bathroom to dry clothes, which was also effective. It really makes me appreciate my washer and dryer at home. Years ago a friend from Argentina exclaimed "You have drying machine? What a luxury!" I totally get what she means by that now.

It was a cold and windy day, but I wandered around the town some to get the lay of the land. Even though the abbey looks like it's isolated, it's actually just a few hundred yards from town, which I love. It's fantastic to be able to walk to the grocery store and restaurants. I walked around the Caledonian Locks, up the hills, down the hills and then over to the shore of Loch Ness, just across from the Abbey. It was extremely cold and windy, causing whitecaps on the loch. The clouds were moody and dark over the mountains. The atmosphere really was conducive to Nessie sightings!
After a small dinner and a couple glasses of wine, I settled in for the night and reviewed my plan for the next day as well as the book and movie selections provided in the apt. They have a whole range of books and movies featuring Scotland including Outlander, my favorite historical fiction novels by Diana Gabaldon, and Monarch of the Glen, a series that I found on PBS years ago about a young Laird trying to save his family homestead and his totally wacky family. Oh, and let's not overlook Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Robbie is named for Brave Sir Robin in the movie after all, because he also bravely runs away. I think I need to make Robbie a tunic coat w/a chicken on it, don't you?
The photos below are taken on two different days. The first ones in the dusk were my first day here, the rest were all the day after I went skiing. I was so sore and the weather was really nasty so I decided to stay in and take more pictures of the abbey.
The stained glass windows and floors are totally quilt patterns just waiting to happen. And every time I see the Abbey logo I think that it would look great as a wool appliqué project.

Really, it's Hogwarts!

I'm spending 10 nights at The Highland Club in Ft Augustus, Scotland which is on the southern shore of Loch Ness. Let me tell you, it's the closest thing to staying at Howarts you could get! Several people in the guest book agreed.
I arrived into Inverness, picked up the rental car and proceeded down the shore of Loch Ness in the pitch black night, without my GPS working. Let me tell you, driving on the opposite side of the car and the road, in the pitch black and trying to follow the roundabout signs is NOT fun. Not to mention the road on the map looks fairly straight, but it's not. It's a series of connected N turns, on the edge of the cliff along the side of Loch Ness, and the speed limit is 60. Oh, and there are NO lights along the road of any kind, so you can only see as far as your headlights reach, and I'm convinced mine are aimed too low. I drove that road many times the last time I was here, but it was summer then and the sun didn't set until 10:30pm. Luckily, the road wasn't too crowded. When I saw a few cars behind me I would pull over into the scenic 'parking' spots that are all along the road and let them pass, which made it much less stressful. I didn't go over 45mph. Those people going 60 are freaking nuts, in my opinion. Robert, one of the managers at the Highland Club told me it's the locals going that fast, and that people go over the side of that road all the time.
The Highland club is luxury apartments that are in what was originally a British garrison fort, then a Benedictine Abbey, and finally a boys boarding school. The apt I picked was the boys dormitory when it was a school. The apartment is seriously amazing! The floors are gorgeous, and so is everything else. I loved that the owners used vintage and antique items throughout, such as the bed, light fixtures, chairs and most of the furniture. The bathroom features a rain shower head with fantastic water pressure and a glorious claw foot tub (which came in handy after a day of skiing and a truly spectacular fall yesterday.)
The description says it's on the 3rd floor, but in reality, it's the 4th floor and there is no elevator. The good news is that when I do the stair climber, I do 150+ floors, so it's not too bad. And the views are totally worth the climb!!! The windows in the living area look down the length of Loch Ness. The ones in the bedroom overlook the courtyard which features gargoyles and giant chess! the skylights in the kitchen area look out over the turrets and the surrounding munros (Scottish for mountains). I could sit on the couch and look at that view all day.
The photos are:
Me pushing the cart at Platform 9 3/4 in King's Cross Station in London. (excuse the terrible hat hair, it was super cold and raining/snowing that day).
The kitchen/living area of the Boys Dormitory
The bedroom
The hallway
The bathroom
The view from the living room windows (1st and 2nd)
The view from the kitchen windows
The last 3 photos are from the bedroom windows.

Visiting Hogwarts

My last couple of days in England were marked by, what for them, was a lot of snow. Just like in the US, when snow hits places that usually don't get snow, it shuts the place down.
My plans for Saturday were to attend a quilt guild meeting and lecture by UK quilt artist, Barbara Weeks. I was really bummed when the meeting was cancelled due to the snow and ice because Barbara Weeks does some really interesting modern art quilts. I like her work because the quilting is really what makes the pieces work. As the saying goes 'the quilting makes the quilt' and it really does with her pieces. I can't get the link button to work on this ipad app, so if you'd like to see her work, just google 'Barbara Weeks, quilter'. She has a great gallery feature that shows all of her work by year.
Luckily on Friday Matt and I got to our adventure for the day prior to the snow starting. We went to the Warner Brothers studio where all of the Harry Potter movies were filmed! Anne told me "You and Matt are going to the Harry Potter thing, I'm going to work." She's not a fan.
Matt and I had a really lovely time. It's so interesting to see the props, the special effects and all the work and detail that went into the movies. They even had the dying Dobby there. It was the animatronic Dobby in his blood stained tea towel. So sad, and so real looking! They also had the giant Aragog spider hanging from the ceiling. I got out of that room fast. Between the model Dementor and Aragog, I have chills just thinking about them!
Matt and I had Butter Beer at the concession stand. It was awesome. It was like a cream soda with butterscotch in it. The foam on top was like whipped butterscotch, yum!
By the time we got to the outside area, it was really snowing. I have to say though, that it added to the feeling of being there because in the movies, the Hogwarts bridge and Potter cottage are in snowy winter scenes. We had to hurry through the last few exhibits because Anne had called and said they sent everyone home because of the snow. We could have easily spent a few more hours there taking it all in.
The second to last room was the model of Hogwarts that they used for overall aerial shots. It stopped us both in our tracks. It's really impressive in person. After the castle they send you through the inside of Olivander's Wand Shop. There are 17,000 wand boxes, and they are all hand lettered with people's names. The girl in that room pointed out some of the actor's and film maker's names on the boxes.
And finally, just like Disney, they dump you in the gift shop, where I found Hogwarts parchment and a Gryfindor sealing wax set for DiscoJen's daughter! She is going to be over the moon about them!
I won't bother naming the photos, if you've seen the movies and read the books, you know what they are. If you haven't you don't really care! Plus I totally have to get to bed because I'm going to go skiing tomorrow! I haven't really skied in about 20 years, other than a trip to a hill 2 years ago where I spent the whole time falling down. I'm going to take lessons again tomorrow though. Wish me luck!