True to form, what I thought was an underscheduled and "relaxed" vacation turned out to be a mad dash from one end of Scotland to the other. Oops. Hardly surprising, though, considering that that is my usual M.O. Mom was a good sport and logged more than 1600 miles on the little VW Golf+ that we rented. It was certainly the trip of a lifetime and we had a ompletely awesome time being Mum and kid, on the road. We did some birding, looked at a lot of neolithic sites and bought lots and lots and lots of wool.
The pile of shit stuff I brought home was truly astounding. What's even more astounding was that it all fit in my suitcase! Mom could barely believe it when I announced that we wouldn't need to be stopping by the post office; I had it all jammed in my carry-on-sized rolling bag.
This is, of course, an edited pile because I didn't include the multitudes of gifts I brought back.
I think the best way to go about showing y'all pictures of the trip is to take it region by region. I'll progress the way our trip did, so you can witness the full extent of my wool madness. The best thing to come out of this trip were the people I met and what I learned from them. All of the wool I brought home came from small independent farmers who in many cases dyed their own stuff using natural dyes. I now have an excellent (and easy!) indigo recipe and am contemplating moving my dyepot to a firepit in my backyard for ease of smell on poor Jon's nose. (It's really awful when I get to microwaving vinegar...) I saw breeds of sheep I never knew existed (the North Ronaldsay being chief among them) and learned about their wools and processes in a way that most people could never dream of.
Now, though, the jetlag is making me want to pull my eyes out, so I am off to make a pot of tea and try to stay up until 10. More to come!
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