In Need of Green - Part 1

In the middle of last week Mark came home one day saying he needed to see green again. He asked what we could do on Saturday to help fulfill that "need." Sure we see snippets of green around the city, but we both love the country-side too much to go so long without seeing large amounts of it! So I scrapped my plans for the day of continuing to unpack and organise the flat. I figured it would still be there this coming week :) I think we are both glad I consented to a day out of the city because it was fantastic, beautiful and surprisingly refreshing for only being gone about 6 hours.

Thanks to a tip from a friend (thanks Rachel!) we decided to head out to Huntley in Aberdeenshire. We didn't have too many plans, just drive and see where we ended up along the way. I like that way of travel, especially after yesterday's success using that "plan."

Only a few miles into the trip it started pouring rain. You know, the kind where you can barely see out the window? Mark even said "should we go back?" I said we should press on and see what happened. So living like the Scots would (going on with life as if the rain weren't falling), we saw a Historic Scotland sign showing the way to see a Stone Circle. I had read a book shortly after coming here about the early settlers in Scotland and how they lived. It included a section on stone circles and their significance in their lives back then, so I wanted to see one in person. We got out in the (thankfully) lessening rain and were encouraged to see glimmers of blue sky in the distance. And as is often the case, the weather can change very quickly here, so by the time we hiked a few minutes up the path the the stone circle and headed back down it has stopped raining. Not more than an hour later it was sunny with blue skies. We were glad we didn't turn back!

The particular stone circle we saw, Easters Aquorthies Stone Circle, was a recumbent stone circle found mainly (only?) in the Northeast of Scotland.

Nothing too impressive, but history nonetheless. We actually passed signs for others which I wouldn't have minded seeing, but Mark had had his fill of rocks for the day. Maybe even for our time here! Ha, Ha!

Well, I'm afraid you will have to wait to see more photos until we can use a friend's wireless connection. I forgot how painfully long it takes to upload pictures with dial-up! So we'll save more photos and stories for another day.