Message from Pitlochry
Jul. 27th, 2025 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Well, we have set off on our travels, and it's so far so good:
durham_rambler has left his razor behind, and I realise I didn't quite clear all the perishables from the fridge, and there will be half a lemon, half lime and a red chilli festering in the door on our return. These things happen.
I have been mentally compiling a post with the title 'Things fall apart...', because they certainly do. I decided it was too negative a title for this actually perfectly cheerful post, but in other respects it is quite apt. I think I already mentioned that my phone is in the process of becoming obsolete: I have not yet managed to replace it. A week ago my food processor refused to function, so that's something else I need to replace. Waking this morning, I consulted my watch, and realised it was losing time badly: only (I hope) the battery, but another thing to be sorted. I broke a dinner plate in the washing up, and there's nothing can be done about that.
But the reason for listing all these casualties here is that last night's news carried a report that the cable carrying the internet to the Northern Isles (and beyond, to the Faroes) has been broken. The company responsible says it should be fixed by next weekend, but in the interim, we will be without internet. Also without plastic money, but we can stock up on paper before we reach the ferry tomorrow. I will miss it, of course - I love my internet. But we will have fun regardless.
Two good things from the drive north. First, it appears to be peak season for rosebay willowherb: the roadsides a draped in great patches of intense pink. (Also, in Northumberland, meadowsweet, but Scotland is all about the pinkness).
Second, we took a comfort break on the Edinburgh bypass, pulling in to a random service station. Where we were greeted by the Parish Clerk; yes, Durham's Parish Clerk. He had been on some endurance hike, 25 miles in the pouring rain to what he described as "Britain's most isolated pub" (possibly The Old Forge, but anyway, he didn't think it was worth it) and was on his way home. So much for holidays and getting away from things: we ended up discussing Parish Council business anyway.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I have been mentally compiling a post with the title 'Things fall apart...', because they certainly do. I decided it was too negative a title for this actually perfectly cheerful post, but in other respects it is quite apt. I think I already mentioned that my phone is in the process of becoming obsolete: I have not yet managed to replace it. A week ago my food processor refused to function, so that's something else I need to replace. Waking this morning, I consulted my watch, and realised it was losing time badly: only (I hope) the battery, but another thing to be sorted. I broke a dinner plate in the washing up, and there's nothing can be done about that.
But the reason for listing all these casualties here is that last night's news carried a report that the cable carrying the internet to the Northern Isles (and beyond, to the Faroes) has been broken. The company responsible says it should be fixed by next weekend, but in the interim, we will be without internet. Also without plastic money, but we can stock up on paper before we reach the ferry tomorrow. I will miss it, of course - I love my internet. But we will have fun regardless.
Two good things from the drive north. First, it appears to be peak season for rosebay willowherb: the roadsides a draped in great patches of intense pink. (Also, in Northumberland, meadowsweet, but Scotland is all about the pinkness).
Second, we took a comfort break on the Edinburgh bypass, pulling in to a random service station. Where we were greeted by the Parish Clerk; yes, Durham's Parish Clerk. He had been on some endurance hike, 25 miles in the pouring rain to what he described as "Britain's most isolated pub" (possibly The Old Forge, but anyway, he didn't think it was worth it) and was on his way home. So much for holidays and getting away from things: we ended up discussing Parish Council business anyway.