life on the farm; iona

since we’ve been at barndromin farm, i think we’ve both felt really lucky to end up in such a great place with such amazing and thoughtful hosts.  and dogs!

 our 24hr stint as B&B and farm owners went well as the guests left happy and well-fed and no sheep were harmed.  yesterday in particular was of note because most of my work for the day involved helping at morag’s annual church luncheon.  there were nearly 200 guests for a lunch and raffle and i was running around being a waitress again, carrying bowls of soup for the elderly guests as well as going from table to table with a tea and coffee pot when every single person wanted coffee at the exact same time.  they were probably wondering how the kitchen ladies found this random american girl to do this job for them but it was fun and the lady running the shindig gave me a big hug afterwards.

we’ve attended to a sheep auction, out and about the town of oban, to the oban distillery (favorite so far… extremely smooth, alex liked talisker better) and out fishing in and around the loch in front of the house which leads out to the ocean.  work here really doesn’t feel like work as i’m happy to do most tasks and anything involving the sheep is a new learning experience which is pretty great.

(please note i caught 4/6 fish on board that day. and AHH i’m fishing in the atlantic! excellent!)

we had a couple of days free to hop on over to the isle of mull by ferry, then took another smaller ferry to the famous isle of iona which is the so called “birthplace of christianity” where the book of kells was written and st. columba reformed the pagan natives in the 6th century.  that part doesn’t mean much to me, like it or not, but it was great to wander through an abbey built so long ago, and also 13th century nunnery ruins. (get thee to a nunnery!) speaking of shakespeare, macbeth was buried in a cemetery here.  the island is completely walkable and really peaceful.  we discovered a beach where like most scottish beaches we’ve visited, had absolutely no one at it.

looking out north to staffa and the treshnish isles

looking out east to isle of mull

intended as a joke by alex for people that work at starbucks or anyone that works in the downtown seattle retail core around labor day weekend.  he was not aware it meant ‘peace’ in latin.

ferry landing on iona

maybe it’s ’cause i’m from an island, but island hopping on the scottish west coast was one of the most important things to do while here.  on monday we’ll be at it one more time, visiting the isle of islay (famous for its eight whisky distilleries) for a couple days.  next after that, a woodland homestead near edinburgh for a little while.

short list of little things i miss right now: karaoke, pumpkin spice lattes.  oh yes. but we’ve only been gone just about six weeks now! we’re feeling really at home in scotland– lately have been getting plenty of sunshine and the fall colors are just starting to kick in.