Bits and Bobs 4 - The Last One

In an effort to offer comment on another handful of Scottish observations before we leave, here is Round 4 of Bits and Bobs.

SHEEP

We have never lived in so rural an area before. Thurso is not so big. It has the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the rest is surrounded by fields of sheep and cows. It has been wonderful to be sewing in my upstairs room with the window open and hear the sheep bleating in fields nearby. And now that we have been here over a year, we have seen the full cycle of sheep life. All this time, I thought I would write a whole post on sheep, but I was waiting for the spring when the lambing started - and for more knowledge and/or understanding of what I was seeing. But since that didn’t happen, I don’t want to leave Scotland without a few comments.

1.   Did you ever see sheep eating on their knees?   Seriously. My friend Leah grew up on a farm and raised sheep and she had never seen sheep eating on their knees. It is the funniest thing. Their hind ends are raised up in the air and their chins are down on the ground. I do not have a picture of this, unfortunately.

2.   I did hope to go to sheep dog trials while here, but sadly, we missed the local ones. That is where the shepherd?/owner gets to show off his dog’s skills in rounding up sheep and taking them to where he directs.

3.   The funniest thing to me, though, has been the marking of the sheep. It IS a business, after all. The sheep are marked on their backs to identify ownership - most of the time with a colored dot but sometimes with a number. 

However, in the fall, we started seeing sheep with additional colored markings on their backsides.  Now, I have not talked to a farmer about this – the following is all observation and speculation:

In the fall (in mating season), I think the male sheep must be given a sachet of sorts to hang over their necks. As they ‘service’ each ewe, the powder from the sachet gets left on the ewe’s backside, leaving the wool colored there. The males must have different colors so that the farmer can not only identify which ewes have been serviced, but also which male serviced which ewe.  Brilliant!

But oh so funny!  Especially as this fall we saw a ewe in the field just about completely covered with red. She had red on her hind end, her back side and her shoulders!  We laughed so hard as we thought about some young, inexperienced male trying to do his job…..and failing miserably!  You can imagine from there all the comments we passed back and forth.

4.   In the spring, the sheep start losing their wool and they can start to look pretty ragged, making me think of leprosy. Yeah, they look pretty bad. And as we walked along paths, we would see chunks of wool caught on the gorse bushes and on the  barbed wire on top of rock walls. These would be natural ways to lose the extra wool.    And then in the early summer, the farmers would shear the sheep. And then the poor animals looked so pitiful!  If you have ever seen the Pixar short about Sean the Sheep, you can now know that is a pretty accurate portrayal. The sheep look pretty sad after the shearing. But then, given a few weeks, they start to look fluffy and sheepy again.

CHARITIES

I mentioned once that I think the Scottish people must be the most charitable people I know, and I have come to believe that to be true. They are ALWAYS thinking of others.  EVERYTHING that happens is to support and raise funds for a charity. Every event includes a raffle (which I think is the biggest factor in the money raised). The items raffled are usually things like bottles of wine or gin or containers of chocolates. Nothing big or grandiose, but people like the chance to win, don’t they? Mike always buys raffle tickets (and almost always wins something).

Every Live Jive dance raises money for a different cause. There are Coffee Mornings, the national Macmillan Coffee Mornings. Quiz Nights, dinner/dances – all supporting things from Girl Guiding to Breast Cancer NOW. The ‘charity shops’ here in town each supports different ones as well – the Red Cross, the Cancer Research, etc. Everywhere you go here is an opportunity to support someone else.

But I want to tell you about this one. At all the Tescos, (Tesco is a UK grocery store) are these boxes, "Bags of Help” . When you shop at Tesco, you are given a token to ‘vote’ for the charity of your choice. There are always 3 options and the options are always local to the area, so the Tesco in Wick has organizations that are local to Wick.  And while the ‘winner’ receives 4,000 pounds, it turns out that everyone is a winner because the second place receives 2,000 pounds and the third place receives 1,000 pounds.

Each voting session lasts 2 months, then the options change. Any organization can apply and they can even apply more than once. 

I love this idea that the people here are constantly thinking of someone else and doing something about it. But here is something else I learned about this. The amounts given used to be much larger, but the organizations around here didn't want that much money. They only want what they need – so if they only need 550 pounds, they will only take that amount. Interesting, huh?

RAINBOWS

I have seen more rainbows here in the last year than I think I have seen in my whole lifetime. That might be a slight exaggeration, but not by much. The months of September and October seem to have rainbows every day – and often times, multiple rainbows in a day. And of course, those are just the ones I see. Obviously, rainbows are created from a combination of rain and light, so maybe that combination just happens a lot here.

BUSINESS HOURS

This has been both hilarious and frustrating to us.  Many businesses here in Thurso do not post their open/closing hours.

Our first encounter with this was a few weeks in. Mike likes breakfast and likes to go out for breakfast now and then.  So one Saturday in late June we decided we would do just that. There is a small café in the center of town that looked like a good place to go. We walked there about 8 am to find it closed. No hours were printed on the window or door.  I knew of a small place at the pier, so we walked over there. Also closed. And also no hours posted. So we walked back to the high street, where we ended up eating at a bakery, where we had our first breakfast that included beans and fried toast.

I think it was late in August – or maybe even September when we tried again. The ladies and I walk past a small café near the pier called The Tempest several times a week and one day I noticed that there was a sign on the window – the opening hours!  It said it would be open on Saturday at 9. Great!  I went home and excitedly told Mike and we made our breakfast plan.  That Saturday morning, we walked to The Tempest – it was 9:45 am – to find it closed and dark inside!  What?!?  The sign on the door clearly said “Open at 9 am.”  Mike peered through the dark window and saw ladies cleaning the tables. They looked up and saw us. We hand/mouth motioned confusion about whether or not they were opening. I pointed to my invisible watch and held up 9 fingers. They replied with 10 fingers. ????  Well, we decided we could wait 15 minutes more and wandered over to the pier where we watched young people getting into the water to surf. Brrr. The girls didn’t even squeal when they lowered themselves into it!  The Scottish are a hardy breed!

When we returned to the café – now open - we inquired about the opening times. I said, “The door says you open at 9.”  She replied, “We just changed to our winter hours.”    !!!   LOL  Such is the way things are here. We have learned to laugh and go with the flow.

Also, small business will close their shops from 1-2 for lunch. This is not often posted, either, but if you are finding it closed during that hour, you will know why.

Seriously, though. The coffee shop on the corner of the main street is not open at 9 am on a Saturday for coffee. Can you imagine that??  I know all my friends in Washington certainly cannot. But of course, my Scottish friends say, “Why would you pay for breakfast anyway? Are you lazy?”  LOL

Note the opening and closing times of the train station.....

BOOT SALE

In spite of the words, this is not a sale on boots. This is an indoor yard sale. I’m not sure, but I think it’s meant to be “bring whatever you can fit into the boot (trunk) of your car.”  It’s held at the British Legion and I’ve been to exactly one. Those of you who know how much I love yard sales will be surprised by that. 

SIGNS

Loooove these!  The people here are so polite, that they take the time to have all these extra words to say something nicely. In the US, a sign would just say, “No parking.”  Or “Watch your step.”

LANGUAGE

“AT THE MINUTE” This is another one of those ‘almost, not-quite-the-same” phrases.

We would say, “I can’t think of it at the moment.” Here, it is said “at the minute.” 

We would say, “Go to the hospital” or “go to the University,” but here, it is said, “Go to hospital,” and “Go to University.”

“Dodgy”  Mike loves this word. “That sounds a little dodgy” or “Getting through town was a little dodgy.” 

You take the “lift” in a hotel  (an elevator).

 “Knackered” is Mike’s favorite new word. He heard it in the first couple of weeks here and fell in love with it. He uses it all the time. It really was the right word to describe how we felt last night after going to what was, essentially, a ceilidh (pronounced ‘kaylee’). A ceilidh is Scottish dancing, which we learned takes a LOT of energy and we were knackered by the end!

“Posh” means “fancy” or “upscale” and is used a lot to describe people or events.

We have to be careful when we say ‘pants’ here. ‘Pants’ are underwear. So, when we say, “I had to put on my rain pants today,” it can be met with a smile. If we think about it, we will use the word ‘trousers.’

Also, what we would call ‘suspenders’ – the straps that hold up pants – I mean ‘trousers’ – are also met with a smile because, here, suspenders are ‘braces’ – those straps that hold up stockings. And of course in the US, ‘braces’ are what you put on your teeth to straighten them.  Speaking of braces for your teeth, I’m not sure I’ve seen a single person here wearing them.

For me, ‘sweaters’ is a generic word that covers all types of knitted covering. But here, they are differentiated by style. A ‘pullover’ sweater at home is called a “jumper” here, but a ‘pullover’ here is what we would call a ‘vest.’  In the US, “jumpers” are a particular type of dress that women/girls wear, so to hear that men are wearing jumpers is funny to me. (in fact, even hearing a man use the word  ‘jumper’ is funny to me because that word just would not come up in many conversations with men at home)

 If the sweater is open all the way down the front, it is called a “cardigan.”

“Tablets” is the word for pills. At home, ‘tablets’ are just one form of pill, like capsules or caplets or tablets. But here, ‘tablets’ cover everything from Vitamin C to prescription medications.  However, that should not be confused with the candy called “Tablet.” That is a very sweet candy like our fudge, but grainier.

  

HOT TUBS

Unlike the US, where hot tubs are almost standard and expected at any house rental, hot tubs are not a thing here. Hotels don’t have them, house rentals and Air B&Bs don’t have them. Well, there was that one place in Brussels last Christmas. It advertised having a hot tub. On the second day, after having been outside in the cold all day, I suddenly remembered the advertisement. It definitely was not in the apartment, so I sent Mike looking around the building. No hot tub. So I messaged the owner and said, “The description of the apartment said there was a hot tub. Where would we find it?”  And the reply – to our absolute amusement – was, “There is only one bath tub in the apartment. Are you having trouble with the hot water?”   

So with that in mind,  I thought it was funny to see this in our local Home Base store last year. I was tempted to buy it and put it on the patio outside our bedroom door. It might have been nice to sit out there and watch the river and at the people who would look at us funny as they walked by on the path with their dogs, probably thinking, “Those silly Americans!”

UNLOCKED DOORS

If the mailman (postman) cannot deliver our mail/package through the mail slot in the door, he will open our front door and leave it in the hallway. If the door is locked, he will open our garage door and slip it in there.  At home, the mailman might possibly leave a package on our doorstep, but he would NEVER open our door!   This is life in a small town.

FOOD

FLAPJACKS

At home, flapjacks are a type of pancake. We eat them for breakfast.

Here, pancakes are not breakfast food. Pancakes can be served after dinner as a type of dessert, often served alongside scones and eaten with butter and jam. These two are often offered at the intermission along with coffee and tea when we have gone to local plays.

Pancakes are sold in packages in grocery stores and bakeries. Again, not for breakfast though.

Flapjack here, though, is a bar-type cookie made with rice krispie cereal. It is dense and very sweet.

BACON is not what you expect. The ‘bacon’ here is what we would call ‘ham.’ Sometimes it is called ‘back bacon.’ It is thin-sliced and not smoked, which is fine, if that is what you are expecting. It took a little while to learn that what we wanted to buy at Tesco was ‘smoked streaky bacon.’  THAT is what we know and love.

HOT DOGS

Hot dogs are not much of a thing here, either, although you will find them in the canned food department. Ugh. (Do WE have canned hot dogs as well?)  Now, I don’t eat a lot of hot dogs, but I sure do enjoy a good one now and then – grilled or roasted over an open fire, but never – let me repeat -NEVER from a CAN!

BEANS

Baked beans are really big here for some reason. While I can only find a couple of different cans of beans like red beans or black beans, there is a BIG section of baked beans. And I just learned something about them recently. Apparently, the Heinz baked beans do not taste the same in the US as they do here. Now, this is interesting because we have noticed that we have eaten quite a few American brand foods that do not taste quite the same here as at home. After his third try at a KitKat candy bar, Mike said, “I’m done. They don’t taste the same.”  We have Hellmen’s mayonnaise here, but it tastes a little different, too. And if you look at the labels, you will see they have actually been made in the UK, which helps us to understand that there could actually be a different taste to a familiar food.

But I was surprised to learn from a Scottish friend recently that he buys the canned Heinz baked beans here and takes them to his daughter in the US when he goes to visit her because she says, “They don’t taste the same.”     Too funny!

PIGEONS

There is always something interesting happening here. Often, we just happen upon them. Like the pigeons. Last summer, as the girls and I were walking along the pier, we saw a truck parked there. There were noises coming from inside and it sounded like birds were being kept. I inquired of the driver and learned they were pigeons. This summer, I saw this truck again. A few days later, it was still there as Mike and I walked along the beach, so we stopped to talk to the driver to find out what it was about. Turns out, they go around and gather up homing pigeons around the UK and drive up here (the most northerly town on the UK) and release the birds. It’s a race and the birds are timed to see how long it takes them to return home.

But it seems that the weather has to be just right to release them. So, this year, they were here for 4 days waiting for there to be an opening in the bad weather and it looked as though it was just about to happen when we walked by. They were using the weather app on their phones to track the cloud covering. Apparently, when they release them, the birds need to be able to see the river because they will follow the river inland. Mike and I took our walk along the beach and cliffs and returned just as they were getting ready to release them. 

GOING HOME

I don’t know where 18 months have gone, but they have. One day at a time, I guess, but oh so quickly!  And now we are down to the last few days. At the time of this writing, we have less than 2 weeks left here. If everything goes according to plan, we will land in Pasco on December 2.

The ‘lasts’ have started.

Bryan was the last visitor and as we took him sightseeing, we found ourselves saying to each other things like, “This will be the last time we see the Stacks.” We got together with the other Americans for the last time for dinner and games (before they left to celebrate Thanksgiving in the US). We went to our last Live Jive dance at the Park Hotel. The last quilting days at Murkle with the Fat Quarter Quilters have come and gone. 

As I walk in the mornings and see the stone walls and buildings and walk along the beach and hear the sounds that come with living by the ocean and smell the smells of the sea. I walk along the river and hear the rushing of the water and the smell of the woods. I look at the skyline that includes chimneys and tall church steeples. I drive past the green fields dotted with sheep. And I tell myself, “Now remember this.” But sadly, I know that will not happen. Very very shortly, it will all just be memories. And, when it’s all over,  I’m afraid it will feel like it was all a dream.

At the same time, we are excited about going home and living in our own house and re-engaging  with our ‘old’ friends. My friend Sandra said to me this week, “I know you will miss your new friends there, but your old friends miss you here.”

It will be good to be home. 

I leave you now with a couple of fun pictures:

This is almost the only popped corn you can find outside of the movie theater.