Skye Now, Skye Now!

Not surprisingly, the Isle of Skye is fantastically beautiful. We actually had wonderful weather the entire time (65-80 degrees and SUNNY), but I seem to have taken most of the pictures from Skye on the one foggy morning. Also, most of the things I bought there are presents that have not yet arrived in the mail.



This was the view from the front yard of the B&B we stayed at. Our hosts, Chris and Janet Mitchell, were just wonderful. Mom and I got in really late (I over scheduled how far we could drive, natch) but Janet had gluten-free biscuits (cookies) and tea all ready for us. It was so sweet I almost cried. Janet staked out a permanent place in my heart (as if the biscuits weren't enough!) when she unveiled a hand-made gluten-free loaf of bread the next morning for breakfast. I brought that loaf with me all over the rest of Scotland and it kept wonderfully. Thank you Janet!

Everyone kept telling us that the sheep were everywhere in Scotland, but I didn't quite believe it until I saw it. Seriously, the sheep are everywhere. They run wild on Skye and the Western Isles, but the farmers slop a big color mark on them to keep ownership straight. Most of these sheep, as explained to me, are raised for meat so they're never shorn and some develop some damn mangy fleeces.

We were travelling about a month after lambing, so there were plenty of these everywhere:



Cute, eh? I know, I wanted to hug every single one of them. And the noises, the *noises*. Little plaintive "baaaa"s and "bleeet"s echoing off the hills. It was enough to break my heart a million times a day.

I dropped a *ton* of money at Shilasdair (Skye Yarn Co.). Unfortunately, the fruits of my wallet's labor are still in the mail. So you'll have to be satisfied with a picture of the place:



I would go back to Skye (and Chris and Janet's) in a nanosecond.