“The Bone Cave” by Dougie Strang

This book I bought in Dunkeld at a combination coffee shop and bookstore. It only felt appropriate to buy a book about wandering around the Highlands while we did the same thing. I talked more about our experiences in Dunkeld in this post.

The book narrates Strang’s experiences with a huge hiking trip through the Highlands, making stops at places with myths about them. He ends up making a kind of figure 8 through the area, there is a map at the beginning and he refers to things like towns and highways as he goes. I only recognized Inverness and Loch Lochy/Loch Ness.

The narration is equal parts describing the hike, talking about the folk tales, and telling the tale of Strang’s life. I thought the last bit was the most interesting, for a few reasons, among them being that I’m not as familiar with the scenery or stories. But my main apprehension with the book was that I knew it’d be different if a woman was doing this in terms of approaching the stories and how travel risks are thought about. But Strang is more aware than I thought, he talks about having daughters and how they likely would assess things like hitchhiking very differently. Strang also discusses how he grew up and was in an apprenticeship but felt it to be soul sucking. He applied to a job on a whim and ended up heading out to the woods to live there. Through that, he decides to get a degree in Scottish tales, leading directly to this journey through several myths.

The book certainly isn’t a thorough discussion of Scottish history or folklore, but it gives a very interesting intersection of them. The whole thing is driven by place and as he travels Strang can recount both the history of the location and how it has stuck around as well as myths mentioning it. It is interesting how history can stick around in the imagination of contemporary individuals, to this day folks have feelings about the massacre at Glencoe and discriminating against those descended from the general leading that effort. It’s honestly kind of amusing.

So I really liked reading this book as it paralleled my travels. I certainly didn’t go on any trips as noteworthy, but I like to learn about where I’m traveling. And this was a great way to get a little knowledge of Scotland and it’s culture as I’m no expert.

This Is Beautiful: Exercise

 My schedule is finally evening out and it is honestly so nice having access to more things. I'm able to take 3 different dance classes at 3 different places plus aerial circus and it feels amazing to have exercise that I want to do. Near me! It's wonderful. I hope that over time it'll just be a lot like healthier for me to be doing all of this, and it's not so time consuming I can't also do non-exercise things as well. Anyways, I feel great, I love what I'm doing, and it's shaping up quite nicely.

“Ayiti” by Roxanne Gay

This is a collection of short stories by Roxanne Gay, whose other works I have also read previously if you want to find those posts. This is the only fiction that I have read from her, and she mentioned when she visited campus for a talk that she does consider herself a fiction writer.

Ayiti itself is the indigenous name for Haiti, which is where Gay is from. Hence, all of the stories have to do with being Haitian, and most of them are about Haiti’s relationship to the US. People wanting to immigrate, those that have immigrated, those with other family members that immigrated, all of those stories are in here.

Reading this immediately after Hunger, which Italked about in this post, was really striking. There’s a longer story about a woman from Haiti who marries a rich man from the US. They have their honeymoon on Haiti where the woman is kidnapped by a group of men who rape her repeatedly. She returns and is traumatized by this, and eventually gives birth to a baby boy. The story is difficult, but also really beautiful. The way Gay talks about this protagonist and her own assault in Hunger is really strikingly similar, I have to wonder if that was her way of processing it. Or if it was her way of representing her own experiences.

I really liked this book, it is a quick read but there’s a huge variety of stories here that give a depth to the Haitian experience. I would recommend, especially if you are like me and hadn’t read Gay’s fiction before.

This Is Beautiful: Local Comedy Show

 Last weekend I got tickets to a local comedy troupe at a nearby venue. I wasn't sure what to expect, comedy can be kinda hit or miss. I was hoping this would be better since it's a local group that performs pretty regularly, from what I can tell. And it was so fun! I had a really great time, I'm checking out when that group is performing next. Sometimes it can be so rewarding to just go to a random show!

Edinburgh Fringe

The follow up to my previous post about Scotland is that we spent the second half of vacation in Edinburgh at the Fringe festival. I had never been and I loved it! It felt very much like just trying to absorb as much art as I can in a few days.

We stayed in student housing, which wasn’t great, honestly. It did the job but the bed was uncomfortable, plus there were two of us in there. But we got our own (tiny) bathroom and a shared kitchen. It definitely worked for our purposes, but maybe a hotel if we ever make more money.

The shows themselves were really the highlight. There was such a cool mix of different genres, we saw multiple circus shows and audience participation shows for sure. Most of them were comedies also, and based on other IP. So for example, one of my favorite shows was “Fly you Fools!” which was a group of four actors reenacting “The Fellowship of the Ring” that was equally faithful to the movie and funny. Unfortunately a lot of the Fringe fest is very DIY, actors flyer for themselves and run a lot of the tech themselves, there is some venue staff as well who also work very hard. But it seems logical that independent shows not based on something the public has familiarity with would have a harder time.

I loved this experience so much, I could have been there all month and not gotten tired of it. And spent too much money. But it was really delightful to just take it all in and focus on art for a week. I hope I can go back sometime!

This Is Beautiful: Advanced Dance Class

 For so long I have been looking for like a ballet company where I can take open adult classes in the evenings. It probably sounds snobby, but going to somewhere that specializes in ballet gets the classes up to a higher level and pushes me more, and I need that. Anyways this past week I managed to get to class at Carolina Ballet and I was a little intimidated going in because it seemed like everyone was incredible. But it was great, I sweated like I haven't in years. It's so nice being back at it!

Dunkeld and Birnam, Scotland

Earlier this month we went on vacation to Scotland! It was great to be back there, I really enjoy that every time there’s a change in my life I have to go to Scotland. Our plan was to go up to the Highlands for some rest first for about a week, and then to Edinburgh (which will be a future post). We took the train to Dunkeld and Birnam and stayed in a cute place there, it was really lovely!

Now Dunkeld and Birnam are technically two different towns, but they are connected by a short bridge so it doesn’t really matter. Over in Birnam there are less things for sure, but it’s still very cute. The main attraction is Birnam Arts with the Beatrix Potter experience. The story is that Ms. Potter spent her summers in Birnam when she was young, and her experiences with the wildlife there led to her writing all of these children’s stories. She also met the naturalist Charles MacIntosh there, and he is buried in a nearby cemetery. There’s a theory that his likeness is Mr. MacGregor in Peter Rabbit which is extremely adorable. Past the church, there’s the last tree from Birnam Wood, a medieval forest featured in the Shakespeare play “Macbeth”. It’s about 400-500 years old! Very cool to see, the tree itself is huge and well worth the visit. Other than that, there’s some cute cafes and coffee shops. We really liked the Birnam Wood Café and Birnam Books personally.

Over the bridge in Dunkeld, there’s a little more going on. Most restaurants and hotels are over here. There’s also the Dunkeld Cathedral which is super historic but in disrepair right now. They were collecting money in a few ways but also by holding free music concerts all summer which was so fun! We caught a Scottish folk music performance and a classical saxophone performance. There was a cute knit shop, a fish and chips place, a tea shop, a bakery, a clootie dumpling place (a baked treat), and more! We spent most days doing the 15 minute walk into town and then figuring out where we hadn’t eaten yet.

Just outside of town there are many trails for hiking and biking, we only did one. It’s the Hermitage walk and it’s known for not being too difficult so it’s relatively accessible for kids and older people. It was cool though to be out in the wilderness, so nice to get to see the woods and some wildlife.

So that was our trip to the Highlands! It was a lot of fun and really nice that it was on a train route for us. I would love to go back sometime for another relaxing vacation.