Ireland / Scotland # 36-38 ~ on and on it goes ...

Amsterdam airport ~ Amsterdam, Netherlands • click to embiggen
Caledonian Sleeper dining/club car ~ on the rails, Scotland • click to embiggen
cleaning house / Granny Kate's Cottage ~ Ardara, Donegal, Scotland • click to embiggen

The end is almost in sight. 201 Ireland / Scotland final pictures and about 50 more to completion. However, it's starting to feel like it will never end.

Ireland / Scotland # 33-35 (diptych # 214) / picture windows # 70 ~ touch not the cat

Cragganmore Distillery ~ Ballindalloch, Banffshire, Scotland • click to embiggen
Coat of Arms / Cragganmore Distillery ~ Ballindalloch, Banffshire, Scotland • click to embiggen
Gents / Laddies • Conway's ~ Ramelton, Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen

The first distillery we visited in Scotland was Cragganmore, one of many distilleries in the Speyside region - hence the name Speyside Malts. At the finish of the tour, one is treated, in the office of the founder John Smith, to tastings of various expressions of Cragganmore Malts. And it was in that office that I pictured the Coat of Arms which adorned a wooden cabinet. I was drawn to the weird, to me, motto of "Touch not the cat but a glove" not to mention the wreath-clad guy with a club.

They say that curiosity killed the cat but, since I am not a cat, my curiosity about the Coat of Arms and the motto therein caused me no harm. What I discovered was that the motto is, according to the curator of the Clan Macpherson Museum, that of Clan Macpherson which in turn was a member of Clan Chattan along with Clan Macintosh, et al. Furthermore, an "ungloved" cat - in this case, a Scottish Wildcat, the mascot of Clan Chattan - is one that has its claws extended. Therefore, be forewarned and "Don't mess with us".

Alternately, according to other sources, the motto could be interpreted to mean. "Touch not the cat without a glove." Either way, it would seem that it is best not to mess with the cat.

That settled, the Gents / Ladies signs in the diptych, while not a Coat of Arms, is one of many like-minded (potty humor?) gents / ladies signs found on many Irish pub restroom doors. I like them. I wish I had pictured more of them.

Ireland / Scotland # 32 ~ watching / being watched

watching the street ~ Ramelton, Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen

Ireland, Scotland and I assume the entire UK are loaded with the eyes of Big Brother. PS - Jimmi Nuffin - that's not a complaint, it's just an observation.

Ireland / Scotland # 30-31 ~ cemeteries

tombstone detail ~ near Inverness, Scotland • click to embiggen
OUR BABIES ~Ardara, Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen

Ireland / Scotland # 26-29 ~ brown Ireland

rugged ridge / on the road to Port ~ Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen
road / rugged mountain / on the road to Port ~ Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen
The Poisoned Glen ~ Dunlewey, Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen
sheep / Atlantic Ocean ~ Port, Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen
countryside / on the road to Glencolmcille ~ Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen

Relative to not-what-I-thought Ireland would look like in yesterday's entry, I submit, as evidence, the below pictures. Although, I have included another picture, re; the green, green and more green of Ireland. Read about The Poisoned Glen HERE.

Ireland / Scotland # 23-25 ~ unexpected surprises

Irish landscape ~ Dunlewey, Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen
Irish landscape / Benbulben Mountain ~ Cashelgarron, Co. Sligo, Ireland Ireland • click to embiggen
sheep overlooking Atlantic Ocean ~ near Glencolmcille, Donegal, Ireland • click to embiggen

While in Ireland, I encountered a number of unexpected surprises. Prominent amongst them were a handful of not-what-I-thought Ireland would look like landscapes. Most notable in that surprise category are the top 2 landscape pictures in this entry.

Each of those landscapes truly messed with my (apparently) cliched expectations of what I would see, landscape wise, in Ireland. You probably know what I mean - green, green and more green. Not that green, green and more green was not in evidence. In some parts of Ireland that we passed through on our drive from Dublin to our chosen designation - County Donegal - were indeed green, green and more green.

However, large swaths of County Donegal featured quite bit of brown / dirty green - if not more than actual green - and rugged stone hills / mountains. A landscape which I found to be very much to my liking. In fact, a landscape in which I would be happy to live for the rest of my life.

As for the sheep in the bottom picture, all I can write is, what a life.

FYI, I have changed the Landscapist theme once again. The simple reason for the change is that the previous theme mangled posts - image and text alignment - on post made prior to the implementation of that theme. This change represents my last attempt at salvaging a working relationship with the 'old' Squarespace platform.

As of this entry, the resize thing is working. This is a good thing because: 1. I can control the size of the popup window, and, 2. the resize function creates a main page thumbnail image without resizing or messing with the original popup sized file. Not so the previous workaround method which resized the original image resulting in a significant loss of image sharpness for the popup image.

If the resize function continues to work, this is the theme / format I will stick with for now. Although I am experimenting with the new Squarespace platform which allows me to have a bodies-of-work gallery website together with a blog. That platform and theme has a much cleaner look than this platform and theme. So, if I like how the new one functions, I will change to that platform and theme in the near future.