On the Tuesday evening, Mac1 and myself drove down to Dornoch to attend a vocal concert in the cathedral; thankfully I had checked online before going up as to anything that may be happening, which is why I knew about the pipe band for the first night and this on the Tuesday... it is actually a very happening and hip wee toon, is Dornoch and we all were in love with the place.
The performance was by Index Cantorum, ran for an hour, and was tremendous. Everything from sacred plain chant, to secular madrigals, through to Scottish ballads. Mainly solemn, there were also wonderful moments of joy and comedy, both in the singing and in the narrative from the leader.
Wednesday dawned and it proved to be the best day of the week, in so much as the sun came out and stayed out. Which was great, as that was also the day we had visitors, in the form of the father's younger sister and her husband, who live half an hour down the road at Alness... remember, the father was born in those there parts and grew up there ... and... we discovered... began his life-long career with Balfour Beatty at no less a place than Skelbo!!! (He kept that under his hat till the second day there, and much of the rest of the holiday was referenced by what he remembered from those early days as an apprentice engineer.)
When the aunt and uncle departed late afternoon, it was still glorious, so we decided to go back to Embo beach for another attempt at finding the geocache the father and the YAMster had failed to find by themselves the day before... Macs 1 and 3 had to clamber rocks to locate it... which meant that the 'easy' tick on the clue was rather misleading. We had actually been standing within a metre of it - but no way could have reached it.
The beach at Embo is outstanding. What with that and Hope Cottage (which I shared with you earlier), my heart and mind got a bit preoccupied...
The performance was by Index Cantorum, ran for an hour, and was tremendous. Everything from sacred plain chant, to secular madrigals, through to Scottish ballads. Mainly solemn, there were also wonderful moments of joy and comedy, both in the singing and in the narrative from the leader.
Wednesday dawned and it proved to be the best day of the week, in so much as the sun came out and stayed out. Which was great, as that was also the day we had visitors, in the form of the father's younger sister and her husband, who live half an hour down the road at Alness... remember, the father was born in those there parts and grew up there ... and... we discovered... began his life-long career with Balfour Beatty at no less a place than Skelbo!!! (He kept that under his hat till the second day there, and much of the rest of the holiday was referenced by what he remembered from those early days as an apprentice engineer.)
When the aunt and uncle departed late afternoon, it was still glorious, so we decided to go back to Embo beach for another attempt at finding the geocache the father and the YAMster had failed to find by themselves the day before... Macs 1 and 3 had to clamber rocks to locate it... which meant that the 'easy' tick on the clue was rather misleading. We had actually been standing within a metre of it - but no way could have reached it.
The beach at Embo is outstanding. What with that and Hope Cottage (which I shared with you earlier), my heart and mind got a bit preoccupied...
What fun and all that sunshine!! You all soaked it all and stored some I hope
ReplyDeleteHugs HiC
Great family bathing photos! How nice to have at least one day of sunshine.
ReplyDeleteCheers, Gail.
Wow, what a marvelous day! I bet that concert was so beautiful too!
ReplyDeleteYour Pals,
Murphy & Stanley
I love seeing the short sleeves and water fun! Such a fun family vacation!
ReplyDeletethat is summer... how great! I love the window of the cathedral and I can only imagine how overwhelming it must be to listen to a concert there...
ReplyDeleteWhat a really lovely family vacation. The window and the kite are wonderful.
ReplyDeleteYour sister on that rock reminds me of the little Mermaid in Copenhagen!
ReplyDeleteYour holiday sounds fantastic and the view of your cottage: so pretty.
This is delightful. Why is it men are so sparse in their comment and conversation???!!!
ReplyDelete