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Recent News... Just for Pope Gregory... |
2001-11-26 - 11:36 a.m. U.K. Day 12: The Sheep Mafia Today, we drove north, further into the Highlands, just because we could. Got on the A9 and went until we stopped. Amazing, amazing, scenery. We stopped in Pitlochry, a lovely little burb for a spot of shopping. We stopped first in this amazingly expensive department store, quickly left after discovering sweaters on the half-off table were still 150 pounds ($225). Down the High Street, prices were much more reasonable. Found many lovely wool thing, which filled in a lot of slots on the Christmas list. How we'll get it all home ... I found a lovely scarf, a Lochmere label scarf. How funny is that - it's not just a Barony, it's a wool brand. Also down the High Street is the Kingfisher's Pub, which I think Mel should visit someday. Northward through the highland valleys, stunning landscape. We made a random stop for lunch in Aviemore. Then, we turned south again. Rob has developed this amazing theory on the sheep mafia. There are a lot of sheep in Scotland Look, sheep! It started on the drive from Leeds to Edinburgh, when I asked why on earth would anyone paint an entire herd of sheep with red butts? Rob, startled, glances over and shrugs. The next day, deeper into Scotland, more pastures of sheep. A few are virginal white (well, ecru anyway), but most herds are painted. There's the red stripe down back, blue dot on head, orange and blue blotch on the spine, what the hell? Rob: It's gangs, you see. Rival gangs defending their turf. I groan, as he expounds on the gang flock theory. The next day, in a different part of Perthsire, we find more of the blue dot on head type. The gangs are, apparently, spread out, well organized, networked even - like the mafia. For once, I'm trying to argue Rob out of the idiocy of the sheep mafia when he notices on black sheep amongst a red stripe herd. Look! It's the Godfather! Oh, this is going downhill quickly. We mapped out the rival ganglands over the next few days of driving, but I finally couldn't stand it and stopped at reception to ask. It turns out Rob was fairly close to correct, so I wouldn't admit it at first, but sat silently in the car attempting to change the subject. Truth is ... They do mark the sheep in 'gangs', different color paint for different owners, so they don't have to bother with fences to keep the herds apart. They just round up everything within twenty miles and sort them by color code. We stopped by Blair Castle, except it was closed - perils of travelling in the off season. So instead we stopped at a small antique bookshop (Speyside books) which is part of the great and dangerous abebooks.com service, then it was back to the cottage for a quiet dinner. I called a tired Beth who'd spent the day tromping up and down Edinburgh's Royal mile with the Lochmeri and made tentative plans for meeting for dinner tomorrow night. � � � 
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