While Anne and Brian were with us we went down to the harbor and watched the surfers enjoying these beautiful waves. There were a few 6 to 8 feet high, I'm sure. I will miss the ocean when we leave. I can be at this spot in 15 minutes of walking or 3 minutes by car.

This is the St. Peter's Parish church in Peterculter, Aberdeen, Scotland where my ancestors attended church from 1750 to 1850. There are a number of them buried in this churchyard. It is no longer used as a church but has been made into a heritage center and houses much information about the paper mill that my 6th G.Grandfather Bartholomew Smith started in 1750 and which ran until 1982 and provided a living for many of the residents of the area.

This is just one pretty scene as we travel about Scotland. So many I can't get as we are whizzing by. I convinced Elder Watson to stop and let me get this one. It was still summer and I think we were coming back from our trip to the temple.

These are the graves of my Smith ancestors who started the papermill in Peterculter, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Elder Watson is standing beneath the statue of Rob Roy in the Heritage museum in Peterculter. Rob Roy is lauded in this town because he leaped over a wide gully with a stream while being pursued. Usually his statue is situated above the place of the leap. This one is an old one, refurbished.

This is Naz Ali Mohammed, our neighbor whom we helped move. I wrote about him in the email before Bob's last one. We have become good friends.

This is a picture of us with Anne and Brian Webster. I spoke of their visit with us over Thanksgiving.

This is the old historical church in Canisby, near the Castle of Mey where the queen mother lived while in Scotland and attended church. Our choir sang for Prince Charles in August in this church.

This is the front of the Rosyln Chapel, made famous by the book "The Devinci Code" It is about 20 minutes outside Edinburgh. Right now it is undergoing huge restoration. It is an amazing building. The stone work inside (which we were forbidden to photograph), is very intricate and beautiful. I have never seen anything quite like it. It is still shrouded in mystery and beliefs by many that there are secrets hidden within and under it.

This is Bob standing accross the river from the tallest tree in Britain. Guess what it is. A Douglas Fir.

We stopped at the Hermitage, outside of Pitlochry, on our way home from Paisley. It is a beautiful forest hike. This is the upper part of a water fall there.

I thought you would get a chuckle out of this. It is a picture of the traditional Scottish breakfast, consisting of eggs, baked beans, sausage, bacon, mushrooms, and roasted tomato. Porridge can be added too if you are extra hungry. They abhor sweet with savory and find our syrupy pancakes awful.

This fellow was mascarading as William Wallace, Brave Heart, to raise money for children with leukemia. He says he has raised 3 million by doing this and going around the country to schools etc. His motto is the truely Brave Hearts are these kids. I also saw on the same street in Edinburgh a mime whose costume was a dapper man in tuxedo, but his head was only a hat and a pair of glasses. The whole thing looked like his head was invisible. As I passed and his glasses wobbled, he raised his hand and waved at me. I was startled because I thought it was a maniquin.

This is a famous street in Edinburgh, the "Royal Mile". It runs from the top at the Castle to the bottom at the Holyrood Palace, the residence of the Royal family when in Edinburgh. Holyrood is also the place where Mary Queen of Scots lived. The buildings are all very old and charming.

On the Edinburgh Castle grounds I ran into Sister Griffiths our mission MOM and Sister Bednar (in the middle). Sister Carr, the wife to the Area authority visiting insisted on taking our picture. This is an unusually warm sunny day.

This is Tabitha holding one of Anne Duncan's puppies. Anne breeds and trains gundogs. This is a little black Lab. There were 12 in this litter. Tabitha loves dogs.

We took the youth on a hike around the "stacks" at Duncansby Head to learn about the wild sea birds. Jamie and Tabitha Loughlin are in the foreground.

The Heather is in bloom again so Tabitha took this picture of me on our way out to Tongue to visit Anne Duncan.

We are having a weenie roast for the youth activity. It was a first for this group. They especially liked the Smores.

The entrance to the old parish cemetery in Reay where we are transcribing all the readable inscriptions and making it ready for publication. The stairs going up and over the other side were believed useful for the spirits to go and come when the gate was locked. This cemetery dates back to the 1600s.

Elder Watson resting after clearing off moss and lichen from the old stones.

A view of the old parish cemetery in Reay. It is virtually neglected and over run with weeds.

Here I am scrubbing the dirt and lichen off the stone to prepare it to be read. Some of them are virtually so eroded and weathered they are impossible, but others like this one just look that bad until we work on them and do our magic trick with baking soda. It works ten times better than "rubbings".

This is what the stone looks like after cleaning off the moss and brushing with a stiff bristle brush to remove lichen and dirt. The letters are almost invisable until we spred the stone with baking soda.

The barely readable words on this badly eroded stone are revealed by spreading baking soda accross the surface, then gently brushing off the excess. This stone took about 30 minutes to clean and dicipher. Alexander Handson died in 1771.

This is Vincent Wilkinson, our newly baptized member and his fiance Tori Stone from West Valley, Utah. They will leave here next week to go to Utah where they will settle after their wedding in November. He has been a joy to teach. He has been so faithful, diligent in his studies and so pure hearted. We will miss him.

Graham Winkle working with one of his horses out on the croft.

Rebecca Winkle and son Zack mending the gate to prepare for winter. They have 5 children who all help on the croft. They raise their own meat, eggs and vegetables and try to be very frugal and provident in their living. It is hard work though, especially in the Scottish clime.

Sister Watson in Rebecca Winkle's herb garden, harvesting the herbs for her which she uses in making her soaps and lotions she sells at tourist shops.

Elder Watson helping Graham Winkle creosote the inside of his newly constructed stables. Smelly job! I made Bob undress immediately upon returning home and threw everything into the wash, including him.

Brother Kirk on the occasion of his rebaptism. It was held in the Thurso swimming pool. Fraser, a recently returned missionary, his son, and his wife Elizabeth. A joyous occasion!

We with our new mission president and his wife, the Griffiths. They came up and visited us the same weekend the Websters were here. (PS I am not as fat as this photo makes me look. Holding my arms out made me look like a baby whale.)

One day on a hike on Scrabster Head. This scene is only about 5 minutes from our cottage.

Each town and hamlet in Scotland puts on a gala week in August to raise money for town improvements. We attended the parade and gala night at Wick. The whole town participates in the fun and they raise a good sum of money.

The costumed people went around to all the spectators and collected coins. The cuter the costume the more they got, so people really went all out on their costumes for the parade.

One of my favorite costumes - a Sumo wrestler.

The MP for the area, (like a state representative to the state legistature in the US.) strutting his stuff in front of the pipe band to start the Halkirk games.

The man in maroon, seated and the woman standing were from Kentucky, and won a few events. She was a female in the "heavies" competitions, including shotput, hammer, and others. She holds the 2nd place in the USA, for women.

Two lassies who had competed in the Highland Dancing at the Halkirk Highland games.

Brian Webster, from Dundee and Kenny Miles pose on the Sunday Anne and Brian spoke in our branch, while visiting us.

Jake Eller and his father getting ready for his baptism in the Castletown harbor.

Shaking hands with the Bretheren after being confirmed.

The following few pictures are of our beach party we held on the 4th of July. This one shows Barbara Haywood and Kenny Miles at the table and Bob in the background. Robert Roper is in white wearing the glasses. He is not yet a member but fully supports his wife as R.S. Pres. We really like him and hope to get to teach him before we leave. So far he says, "Not yet."

We are just getting ready to eat our picnic lunch at the Branch beach party. Sitting in the chair is Gillian Tolworthy and Waggy her dog. To her left is Shoana Tolworthy, her daughters, Rachael and Alice. Caroline Roper and just the head of her daughter Tilly.

A group of members getting ready to enjoy the beach at Dunnet Bay. Rebecca Winkle is on the left. Paul Etough and Owen are standing. Sheila Lewry is sitting in their shadow. We work Family History together. Then in the flowered dress is Caroline Roper and then Una Etough and the little castle maker is Zachery Winkle.

Simon Eller putting sunscreen on his baby boy. Simon is a successful editor of a magazine here in Scotland, called the Bushman. It is for the pack packer and outdoorsman. He and Olivia have four children. Great family.

Some of the Sisters wading. On the left is Caroline Roper, a very proper English lady. She is always in a dress, as is her three year old daughter. Caroline is our R. S. President. Rebecca Winkle is behind Una Etough.

This is a picture on the door of the Victorian Room in the school where we meet for church. In this room we hold several classes on Sunday. The actual room looks exactly like this photo with the fireplace, and wooden desks an the same kind of blackboard. It is really charming, but dreadfully cold in the wintertime.

I opened the desk to show that the old fashioned slates and chalk are still in use in this particular classroom where we meet for Young Womens on Sunday. It is called the Victorian Room and I think it is kept in this old antique mode for the nostalgia. Science is taught in this room. The desks are just as I had as a child. Note the ink well hole.

This is the room in the school where we hold our Sacrament meetings. Gordon Winkle is our only active young man. Elder Watson stood at the podium for me to take this shot about 10 minutes before meeting began.