Kenny Miles, Bob's second counselor. He volunteers as Santa for three weeks in December every year. The beard and long hair are real.

The harbor at Wick, 20 miles east of us and in our branch. This is an example of the beautiful skies we get here in Caithness County.

A hart deer near a small loch out on the moors. His back is to us and he is turning to look at us. It was getting dark so not a great shot.

A scene on the way out to Tongue to visit Anne Duncan and Janet Marshall. There are many such scenes along the way.

John Marshall in the croft in Tongue. This is the tiny living room/ bedroom with the coal fireplace at the end where we teach the family. John and Janet live in a travel trailer next to Anne's croft here.

Anne Duncan with one of her dogs (Spangle). She breeds, raises and trains hunting dogs. This is the inside of their humble croft. They are the happiest of people, a delight to know.

Bob shoveling snow on our first day of real winter. It came in November, but we have had none since.

Our Cottage

This is our new (very old) cottage, built as as double croft house originally. On the back there is a cute lean to type addition which adds a nice kitchen and bathroom.

First weeks in Thurso

On a trip to Pitlochry, before leaving Dundee, we came upon this beautiful scene of an old mansion house near loch Tummel.

Before we leave Dundee, I want you to see a little of the housing and neighborhoods we see here. The homes differ widely depending on the area of the city. This is up the street from us about a block. We live in the west end which traditionally has been the wealthier part of town.

On the street where we live, last spring, this house had a beautiful rock garden all in bloom. This house is typical of the lovely homes in our neighborhood.

This is one of the large mansion houses along Perth Road, just below us. The street is lined with many such houses built around 1900 and owned by the Jute barons. I thought you would enjoy seeing some of the kinds of houses we see every day here and the variance between the rich and the poor. Mind you, this is the city. the homes in the countryside are quite different and are very charming.

This is an apartmnt of flats. It is new construction. The individual flats, complete with their own garage (a rarity in Scotland) sells for a quarter of a million dollars. Whew!

This is called a "multi" and houses families and individuals who are supported by the government. It is a type of Council housing. The local council is like the provisional government.

A typical block of tenement Council housing. They are small flats. The buildings were hastily thrown up in the 1960s to clear the slums out. There are much older ones, built similarly and still in use. Dundee is full of them as a result of the Jute mills which employed thousands in the 1800s and early 1900s. They were all poor as was their housing.

A neighborhood showing an old jute mill in the background which is now tenement housing and the various types of Council housing in the foreground.

This is a magnificent building in Dundee which was built in the 1800s and has always been an academy of learning. We pass it often in our daily travels.

The Library on Perth Road, just down the block from our flat. It has it's own ghost so we were told.

This is the street of apartment buildings we live in. Blackness avenue was at one time very high class living.Our flat is on the third floor up. It is 40 steps to climb and Elder Watson is so happy our new little cottage is on the ground floor.

I thought you would find this interesting. It is a cobblestone street underneath the asphalt that is made from mahogony cobbles to keep the noise down during the late 1800s, early 1900s. The street runs infront of a once posh hotel in Dundee, the Tay Hotel. It is now gone to ruin.

Elder Watson was given this "Sponge Bob Square Pants" birthday cake by the Redford family. They surprised us after our "teach" with them with it and a nice little dinner. He received many cards and remembrances from the members and his family. Thanks everyone.

This is the little town of Golspie on the way up the coast to Thurso. We stopped at this park to eat our sack lunch on the picnic table. It was so chilly we got back in the car to eat. We saw many rainbows on the way up due to being so close to the North sea and all the mists that roll and rise.

This is the wind farm outside Thurso. You can see how flat this terrain is compared to the places we have been before. It is like the prairie states in the U.S.A., except instead of grass, it is peat.

This is the "Royal Hotel" in Thurso where we stayed while finding our place to live. It was built in the 1850s. For breakfast we ate the traditional Scottish breakfast of sausages, bacon, roasted tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs, baked beans and potatoe scone.

October 2008

This is a scene of the beach at Thurso. It was a gray day.

The Braemar Gathering and Highland Games. This has been an annual event since 1832 and is attended by royalty always. The top athletes from all over Scotland and some from other countries compete in racing, high jumping, caber tossing, hammer throwing, weight tossing, tug of war, and Highland dancing. It is done with lots of pomp and ceremony by bands and famous people.

The pipe and drum marching bands begin their march around the arena at the beginning of the games.

This official posed for me. When I asked him he answered "If I must".

Racing wearing kilts! So Scottish.

Tossing the caber. It had to go end over end and land as close to "12 oclock" as possible. This man was from California and won.

Pipe and Drum marching band from the Isle of Skye. I put this one on for Rob who traveled with us to the Isle of Skye in 1997.

One of the officials greeting spectators. There were many older gentlemen dressed similarly in the old Scottish tradition.

Carrying in the huge rope for the tug of war.

Caber tossers, hammer throwers, weight throwers were all in their kilts for the entire competition.

This group of marathon runners ran up a high hill, more like a small mountain and back in less than 24 minutes. There were about 4 men who looked to be over 60 in the race.

The Queen of England

The Queen of England entering the special viewing house. She is in the salmon coat. She comes every year and hands out the first place trophies at the end of the games.

For the kids: Elder Watson about to descend into the ministry of magic.

The heather in Glen Clova was spectacular. I took many pictures. This one shows it in full sun up front. Scotland has the yellow rape fields in spring, the purple heather late summer and then comes Autumn. I can hardly wait.

The sun was not fully out here, but the contrasts are still nice.

I think if an artist had painted this they would have called him a liar. Beautiful!

We had lunch at the Glen Clova Inn, built in the 1800s as a waystop for drovers as they brought their cattle down the glen to town.

Bob and the Manwarings on the grounds of the Glen Clova Inn.

All this and heaven too!

On the left you can see one boy standing up high, about 60 feet on a cliff watching another who just jumped. Much was written in the newspapers warning the youth not to be doing this, but boys will be boys. (Don't I know it).

Two youth about 14 jumping off the rocks near Arbroath into the North Sea. The officials call this practice "tomb stoning" for obvious reasons. There were 6-8 boys doing it and this scene is off the lower rocks. The previous scene is off the highest cliff.

We attended the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which is comprised of performances of military bands from around the world. It has as its backdrop the entrance of the Edinburg Castle.(far left and out of the picture.) It goes for three weeks and 20,000 a night watch it. It was spectacular. I kept wondering if Dad (a Scotsman by heritage), was looking down and watching it with me. The heads in the front are the Elders. The mission treated all of the missionaries in Scotland to it.

This was one of the pipe bands that performed. The many colors of kilts and accompanying trappings were just beautiful. I love bagpipes!

Scottish dancers doing the sword dance. There were about twelve such circles on the floor.