Blue Skies, Blue Shoes, Blue Houses and the Bluebird of Happiness

Rabbit's Guy asked if my banner photo might be a picture of somewhere in Spain. You're right that it's not in the U.S. (how can you tell? Well, there are no houses built up to the water's edge, for one thing...) It's actually a view up Loch Duich toward the Five Sisters of Kintail from Eilean Donan Castle in Dornie, Scotland. I love Scotland and am missing it terribly. In the last ten years we've gone approximately every other year, and so this year it would time again. Unfortunately, we agree that it would be wasteful with the dollar so horrible compared to the British pound, and we disagree about Scotland. BF likes it well enough but says we've seen it enough; I say I can never see it enough, never get enough photos, smell the breeze, eat the odd homely food (and yes, Scotland deserves its reputation for difficult cuisine, at least outside of the cities). And the cities--oh, my. Glasgow is my very favorite city, although most people prefer Edinburgh. The skies in Scotland generally aren't blue very long; both pictures were taken within minutes of each other.

Here's a picture of me at the harbor's edge in Portree. I'm wearing my favorite blue hiking shoes. I've learned the reason that many Scots wear hiking shoes rather than running shoes: it's perpetually wet, and running shoes don't do well in the muck.

Closer to home, I caught a photo of this bluebird sitting on my deck railing. He sits here a lot, sometimes joined by his drab-looking bluebird wife. Sorry it's not quite clear--this is shot through the screened kitchen window.

The end of the semester is approaching--two weeks to go--and the work is intense for my accounting course, so I haven't stitched as much as I'd like. This summer will be worse though, so I'm enjoying it where I can.

"Look! I'm the Pinkbird of happiness!"