Robert Burns and the Birks of Aberfeldy

Bonie lassie, will ye go
Will ye go, will ye go.
Bonie lassie, will ye go
To the Birks of Aberfeldy!

Well, this "Bonie lassie" had just that opportunity today, and it was fabulous, but I'l get to that later.

By now you might have realized that I am, once again, back in Scotland with my husband.  But this time we've brought our youngest daughter, Amy along, to make our gallivanting adventures even more fun!

I did throw this trip together very last minute, and I will admit, that things were looking a bit dire last evening when we found ourselves in the airport, watching the departure time for our flight change from 8:10 to 9:10 to 10:10 to 11:10 due to some sort of mechanical issue with the plane.  At least that is what we were being told.  And, the suggestion was made that we just might have to wait another day to fly, but the flights for Thursday were all full!   What to do?

So, Marty made the decision to have our flights changed to the "red eye" flight.  The attendant was quite adamant that once the decision was complete, there was no going back.   So, wouldn't it figure, that once the change was made, the red-eye flight arrived late, delaying its departure for an hour and a half from the original schedule?

Obviously, all worked out fine, since I am now posting from Scotland.  Would you believe that both flights ended up departing just minutes apart, and arriving at nearly the same time, with the luggage for both flights directed to the same carousel?  All's well that ends well, as they say.

We left sunny, 85 degree temps and arrived to 50 degree chilly rain, but, honestly, who cares?   We were prepared for the weather after so many trips here over the years.

Our rental car was waiting for us, and we soon found ourselves heading out onto the highway, several hours later than expected, but ready for an adventure.

It appears that a LOT can change in two years, because the long awaited Firth of Forth Bridge was now complete and here we were, driving over it!

How cool is that?  I only wish I had managed to catch the side view so that you can see how awesome it looks.  But there should be time towards the end of our trip for me to capture a photo from a different perspective.  

Our first destination was Dewars Distillery in Aberfeldy.  

There's just something about copper stills and distillation columns that Chemical Engineers find fascinating, and both Amy and Marty were obviously excited about the tour.

We walked through the doors just as a tour was beginning, so we quickly caught up to the group, and went through the process of learning about Dewars and the single malt whiskey that this particular facility makes.    

After the tour, we were directed to the museum, which was really quite fascinating.  We learned all about John Dewars who established this business way back in 1805.  The museum held many personal items that Dewars collected, including the table where Robert Burns was known to have penned some of his poetry. 

He is portrayed as a man who loved to offer his opinion, and a couple of his quotes had me chuckling.

"Experience is what you get when you are looking for something else."

"Never invest in a going concern until you know which way it is going."  Sage advice, indeed.

As part of the museum, there was a "sniff and guess" table, where one pushed a little button, and a puff of an odor would be emitted.  Then, one was supposed to try to determine just what that odor was.

Some were fun like different types of flowers, but this one stood out as a bit unusual.

Not exactly something that one would want to smell in regards to whiskey, if you ask me.

But, then again, I'm not much of a whiskey connoisseur.  

The experience was certainly a lot of fun, as you can tell by these smiling faces!

By now, we were ready for a bit to eat, so we headed to a place called the Millhouse, which is actually a bookstore in combination with a lovely cafe, which makes one awesome Broccoli Stilton soup, which I chose for lunch.  And, it was refreshing to see that they served Perfectly Drinkable Tap Water, don't you think?

Aberfeldy is a lovely little town, and I took just a couple of shots as we were walking back to the car.

Just on the edge of the town, stands The Birks of Aberfeldy,  a wooded waterfall walk that Robert Burns had been fond of, and is where he penned the famous poem by the same name.

The walk is easily spotted. Look closely, and you will notice that Burns bust is afixed to the top of each of those columns.

It didn't take us long to see just why this would be a favorite of just about anyone, Burns included. The rushing waterfalls were spectacular.

And, then, much to our surprise, look who we spotted sitting on a bench in the middle of the forest!

On a side note, one might not realize that "Birks" are actually "Birches".   The woods were filled with Birch trees here.

By now, we were pretty tired, having gotten very little sleep on the plane, so we decided that it was time to drive to our destination for the evening.  But I managed to get this shot just as we were heading out of the town.

Now, let me mention here that when we arrived in Aberfeldy just a few hour earlier, the weather was foggy and rainy and it appeared that there would be absolutely no chance of sun.  So, imagine our surprise when the blue skies appeared out of nowhere, allowing us the opportunity to enjoy the walk through the woods so much more than in the soaking rain!   Now, how lucky was that?

We are now in Kingussie, where we are once again staying at the Arden Guest House, a lovely facility that we have visited twice in the past.  We walked into town for dinner and had a lovely meal at the Tipsy Laird.

Who by the way, serves up a rather tasty Brewdog Punk IPA.  Well, at least that's what these two think. 

Well, it's time for bed!   Here's hoping I catch up on the sleep I missed last night! 

As always, adventure awaits us in the morning!  I'll be sure to keep you posted! 

spot where Burns was inspired to write the ballad"

Laboring on Labor Day

Well, actually, I'm not laboring today.  I'm finally relaxing a bit before hitting the road home.  And, what better place to take in the beauty of the day than here, at the Robertshaw Country Guest House?

The sisters who run this place were so excited to show us the new decor, complete with a new "old" set of fall dinnerware.

Everything that they have here is donated, and there are some very creative spirits here, as I always feel as if I've walked into an edition of "Home Beautiful" when we stay here.

As I've mentioned in the past, we find this place to be a comfortable, spiritual haven to help rejuvenate us.  I am so glad that I stumbled upon the Robertshaw three years ago.   And, they are probably glad as well, since we've visited so many times,  they consider us to be family.

So, you're probably wondering about the "laboring" part of the subject line, aren't you?  Well, sad to say, our purpose for the weekend visit was to, once again, tackle my in-law's house in order to get it to sell.  Honestly, I really did think that the Memorial day weekend of work was going to do the trick.

But, we had some issues with a leaking roof.  And, the sewer line didn't pass the Township requirements, which is actually of no surprise, as it appears that the lines that they originally installed don't meet their new standards, so anyone selling a house in that neighborhood is going to have the same issue.  And, the municipality required a certified document at closing.  So, there was no choice than to have them brought up to standards.  

Of course, that was beyond our abilities, so after some varied estimates, Marty hired someone to complete the task and I'm happy to say that we now have that certificate in our possession.

We decided that it wasn't worth trying to fix an ugly roof that was leaking, so he had an entire new roof put on.

And, Marty decided that he was going to remove anything in the basement that might be an issue, under any circumstances, so he has actually been driving out nearly every weekend and sleeping at the house.  I had to laugh when we fell into bed the other night here, and he said, "This is SO much better than sleeping on an air mattress on the floor".  You betcha it is, and exactly why I was NOT going to even consider that option,  Plus, let's face it, we've taken everything out, so there isn't even a pot to boil water, and forget about a microwave.  

So, my job for the weekend was supposed to be aesthetics, but I will admit that I worked doggone hard!  First, Marty wanted four shrubs trimmed so that the windows they were hiding could be seen.

In retrospect, I don't know why that was so important, considering that it involved quite a bit of effort on my part using a lopper, but I succeeded in the task in a few hours, using no less than 7 large refuse bags to clean up the clippings.

Then, I moved onto this area near the front of the house.

It seemed to me that people wouldn't want to see grass where a garden probably should be, so Marty mowed down the grass, and I laid the weedblock. pulling up whatever  grass and weeds were loose enough to come up.

I managed to finish the entire left side and part of the right side, when the rain began to fall quite heavily, so I moved inside.

In the kitchen, when I began this renovation work back in January,  if you recall, I had to remove panelling from the lower part of the walls that had been glued on with liquid nails.  I nearly ruined my wrists attempting to sand it off.  Marty tried using a hot gun, which melted part of it, but not all.  But I thought it was sufficient enough, so I put on a coat of primer.   Then, I used paint that included a primer.  Four coats.

When we came back for the Memorial day weekend work, I noticed that some "stripes" were bleeding through the paint, so I applied two more coats of the paint/primer.

Well, that pesky stuff just won't die!

It looked like someone had a terrible accident with a cup of coffee.....only along the entire wall.

So, I had to buy a new can of paint, as we had scraped the bottom of the 5 gallon canister on the last go around, and even though it was the same color, I found myself having to repaint the entire wall as I could see where I stopped if I just tried touching up the bottom half.  Two more coats. 

I moved into the bedroom where the roof had experienced the leak, on the lovely ceiling that I had repaired and painted back in February.  That repair took 4 coats of primer before  I could touch up with the ceiling paint.  Since the roof has been replaced, I sure has heck hope that stays looking white.

Then, I painted the front door.  "Why?", you might ask.  Because every article that I have read on what to do to make your house look appealing enough to buy, said to paint the front door.  I didn't have a problem with the white door.  I thought it was fine.  But hey, I'm getting desperate here.  So, after looking into what people might like, and ruling out most of them, because lemon yellow and turquoise just didn't cut it in my book, I decided on a green door.

And I even went out and bought a pretty fall wreath to hang on the front.

And although I wasn't crazy about it at first, I can see where it certainly does look different than the white door.  Now, I'm not naive enough to think that painting the door is going to sell this house, but I sure as hope that it helps!

Moving on, I had to scrub the front hallway and kitchen floors, which did NOT make me happy as they had been newly installed on the Memorial Day weekend.  But the front hallway was horrid.  I'm not quite sure what people were doing, as there are sidewalks around the house, and a mat for your feet at the front door.  So, I decided to move the carpet from the dining area of the house to the front hall, just to protect the floor.

Kind of fits in with the fall theme anyway.

Then, I really tackled the hardwood floors. And,  by that, I mean that I scrubbed, scraped, steamed, and scrubbed again, every floor in the house, except one bedroom that we had done last trip.  I even redid the living room as scuff marks showed up there as well. 

I even did every inch of the LONG hall, and believe me, it is long (this is an 85 foot long ranch house). 

In the dining area, we had these two sliding glass doors replaced.  The originals had lost their seal, and you could only see through parts of them.  I had never noticed, until one day, when my father-in-law was sitting by the window in his chair, I decided to "clean" them so that he could actually see something out there.  I soon found out that no amount of scrubbing was going to do a bit of difference. 

So, replacing them certainly made sense.

And, we also had the deck repaired and painted, which, of course, was a great idea now that one has a perfect view out of  those sparkling windows.  

We worked 12 hour days, picking up dinner at a local restaurant and bringing it here, to the Robertshaw as I was way too exhausted to even think about sitting in a restaurant.  Plus....the advil was in the room here.  And, Lord knows, I needed a LOT of that!

Marty made the mistake of asking me if I thought I'd ever look back and laugh at this, (as I was scrubbing scuff marks off the new floor....not good timing on his part.)  I'll let you guess what my answer was to that.  

So, now I'm just about ready to hit the road for home.  Marty is back at the house.  Kind of seems like an old record, doesn't it?

We've had the house off of the market while these repairs were being done, but tomorrow it is supposed to go back on.  We can only hope that someone will love the door enough to want to make an offer.  (that was a joke, by the way.)

So,  here are just a few things that I've learned:

1.  If you buy the cheap mulch at Lowes, they stick rocks in the bags.  And, they aren't little rocks.

    (That could explain why they can be heavy.)

2.  When you think you are done with a project, another one always comes up.

3.  People don't like green bathtubs.  But, we still left it green.

4.  People will use the toilets in the house even though the water is turned off.  (Believe me....it isn't pretty when we come back for the weekend and find this problem.  I wrote notes and left them on the toilets this time.....and I did not use the emojis that my children were more than happy to share with me.)

5.  Some realtors do not offer the best advice.  I won't elaborate here.

6. Believe it or not, you can have fun while doing doing work.  I'd say that Marty and I are proof of that one.

And, finally 7:  Nuns can be extremely welcoming and offer some very wise advice.

Hope you had a great Labor Day weekend!  I'm heading home! 

Rest in Peace 2nd Lt Charles E Carlson

Those of you who follow my blog know that the content generally describes my gallivanting adventures, whatever they may be.  I tend to write a "happy" spin as I have the opinion that people see enough of the opposite in the news media daily.  And, since I publish these events for my future entertainment,  why would I want to dwell on depressing events?

However, today's blog diverts from my usual postings, and shows an entirely different aspect of my life.  Many of you might not realize that I am an avid WWII MIA research analyst and that I have been responsible for finding relatives of men whose bodies have been recovered.  But I have never attended a reinterment, despite being invited,  primarily due to schedule conflicts or distance.

But, on Monday of last week, the opportunity presented itself, as 2nd Lt. Charles E Carlson was scheduled to be buried on Friday, Aug. 4, at Ft. Indiantown Gap Cemetery.

 One of my team members, Jana, had informed me of the burial, and since she was instrumental in finding Charles' maternal line, she wanted to attend herself.  Since she was driving from her home in Rocky Mount, I invited her to stay with me,  which gave us the perfect chance to finally meet face to face.

Although we had left with plenty of time to spare, we ended up arriving at the cemetery just 5 minutes prior to the scheduled ceremony, due to Keystone Pipeline construction delays along the highway.

And, to complicate issues, the funeral procession had departed early and was nowhere in sight upon our arrival.  I will admit that I was driving through the cemetery at a higher rate of speed than one would consider to be appropriate, but I managed to find the chapel location just as the family was entering.

Among those in attendance were Lt. Col Peter Lee, representing the 62nd Fighter Squadron.  He had flown from Arizona specifically to attend the service.  Carlson had been a member of the "62 Spikes" and Lee felt an obligation to offer his respects to this man who had crashed on Dec 23, 1944 in the German village of Buschhoven.  Lee explained that Carlson would have been flying a P47 Thunderbolt, actively engaged in a "dog fight" with a German Messerschmitt, when the two planes met face to face, resulting in Carlson's plane crashed into the ground, bursting into flames. 

Although the Germans had recorded the spot of the crash and claimed to have buried Carlson's body in a specific location,  the US Army Graves Administration was not able to find his body after the war. 

Four years after his death, his wife received a letter stating that every attempt had been made to locate him,  but they had not been successful. 

In 2016, a local German historical society contacted History Flight who sent a team that was able to verify that Carlson's plane had crashed in a particular location. After several months of field work, the group was successful in locating several parts of the plane in addition to Charles' remains.  He was officially declared identified on Jan. 10, 2017. 

As part of his tribute, Charles' family received several medals for his service: A Purple Heart, Air Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with a Bronze Star, WWII Victory Medal, Presidential Unit Citation Medal, and US Army Air Corps Pilot Wings. 

After the medals were presented, a Catholic Priest offered prayers for Carlson and his family.

The flag was lifted  while Father sprinkled the casket with holy water.

Following a final blessing, the honor guard team,  standing at a distance,  fired the three volleys from rifles, a military tradition that indicates that the dead were cleared and properly cared for. 

Then, we all stood at attention while the Bugler eloquently presented Taps. 

Finally,  the ceremonial folding of the flag began.

And as the final fold was complete, four F-35's suddenly broke the silence as they appeared out of nowhere,  flying in formation overhead.   Then one of the planes veered away from the others, symbolic of someone who went into battle and never returned, commonly known as the Missing Man Formation.  Only now, Carlson was no longer missing. 

I must admit, that at this point, I was digging through my purse in search of tissues, as I found myself welling up in tears. I had not been prepared for this type of emotional reaction on my part.  It was as if I could feel the enormity of this family's loss.  It was truly a deserving tribute to this fallen hero.

At this point, the ceremony was complete, and those in attendance quickly departed.  Since I had arrived in a rush, I decided to take this opportunity to walk around a bit.  The casket had stood just in front of this memorial to POW/MIA's that is imbedded in the ground. 

2nd Lt. Charles E Carlson was no longer part of the group upon which that stone pays tribute.

Just outside the chapel, but within the walls of the building, I spotted these markers on the ground. 

There was a cross representing every county in the state of Pennsylvania. 

Here is a close up view of the entrance.

And once through the doors, only the bubbling of the fountains can be heard in this haven of solitude.

This was an amazing experience for me, and one worth sharing.  My time spent with Jana was priceless, not to mention quite entertaining.  We formed a special bond in the few hours that we spent together. 

I would be remiss if I did not mention Patrick, the History Flight photographer who attended the ceremony as well.  

Not only was he able to document the entire service, he was kind enough to take a photo of Jana and me, standing behind the POW/MIA memorial.

It seemed a fitting ending, don't you think?

Rest in Peace 2nd Lt. Charles E Carlson

Photocredit:  Patrick J. Hughes