Letter from Iona - 4
Wow, our fourth letter....that means already four weeks!! It seems in so many ways like a very short amount of time and yet we both feel like it has been so long since we saw our beloved Canada!
We hope that you all had a wonderful Canada Day (and Independance Day for our American friends). We celebrated here by wearing our cool sparkly Canada flag pins that Andi gave to Katie for her birthday before we left. We also received a great Canadian postcard from Nanny with a great letter with an update from her. To be nice to the other Canadians here, we made them little Canadian flags and gave them out at work. They were very excited as they didn't have anything!
Things here have been fairly nice this week. Last Wednesday after our update, we scaled the monstrous Dun' I (the local 'mountain'). Its summit is 101 metres tall and it took us all of 15 minutes to climb from top to bottom. We had some help with our climb though as it was soooooo windy that it felt as if we were being pushed to the top. Sadly, because it was too cloudy, and we didn't have any batteries, there were no pictures taken. But we are resolved to climb it again today (we have new batteries) and take some nice landscape shots. The view is incredible. You can see all of the island as well as a substantial amount of Mull, Staffa, Ulva, and possibly even Ireland (although Dan doesn't think so).
On another note, we have seen the illusive Corncrake!(Yes, it does exist!) We figured that as it was so shy, we would have to go on a hunt for it. But sometimes, things are much easier than you think they will be. We had the window open in our room (due to the immense amount of cigarette smoke from our lovely housemates:( and we heard the tell tale 'cck cck' call of the corncrake. Katie popped her head outside and there it was sitting on a log in our neighbour's backyard. Dan says, 'are you sure that is it?' and Katie said....'I don't know, let's just watch it for a second'. As if on cue, it opened it's mouth and said 'cck cck'!! So, not having a camera, we were unable to take a picture, but we're quite certain that we'll see it again, and then we'll be ready!
Yesterday was our 2nd anniversary together. To celebrate, we're going out for dinner tonight (as Katie had to work last night) and today is our day off. As a surprise, Katie gave Dan a great Scottish music book that she found in the shop across from the Restaurant. We've spent much time already trying various tunes out on the recorders (driving our neighbours crazy, I'm sure). More practice is necessary! Perhaps on a beach or a hill somewhere in the peaceful countryside. Then the only things that we can bother are the sheep or cows!
Anyway, off to Dun' I now and the north end of the island.
We hope that you all had a wonderful Canada Day (and Independance Day for our American friends). We celebrated here by wearing our cool sparkly Canada flag pins that Andi gave to Katie for her birthday before we left. We also received a great Canadian postcard from Nanny with a great letter with an update from her. To be nice to the other Canadians here, we made them little Canadian flags and gave them out at work. They were very excited as they didn't have anything!
Things here have been fairly nice this week. Last Wednesday after our update, we scaled the monstrous Dun' I (the local 'mountain'). Its summit is 101 metres tall and it took us all of 15 minutes to climb from top to bottom. We had some help with our climb though as it was soooooo windy that it felt as if we were being pushed to the top. Sadly, because it was too cloudy, and we didn't have any batteries, there were no pictures taken. But we are resolved to climb it again today (we have new batteries) and take some nice landscape shots. The view is incredible. You can see all of the island as well as a substantial amount of Mull, Staffa, Ulva, and possibly even Ireland (although Dan doesn't think so).
On another note, we have seen the illusive Corncrake!(Yes, it does exist!) We figured that as it was so shy, we would have to go on a hunt for it. But sometimes, things are much easier than you think they will be. We had the window open in our room (due to the immense amount of cigarette smoke from our lovely housemates:( and we heard the tell tale 'cck cck' call of the corncrake. Katie popped her head outside and there it was sitting on a log in our neighbour's backyard. Dan says, 'are you sure that is it?' and Katie said....'I don't know, let's just watch it for a second'. As if on cue, it opened it's mouth and said 'cck cck'!! So, not having a camera, we were unable to take a picture, but we're quite certain that we'll see it again, and then we'll be ready!
Yesterday was our 2nd anniversary together. To celebrate, we're going out for dinner tonight (as Katie had to work last night) and today is our day off. As a surprise, Katie gave Dan a great Scottish music book that she found in the shop across from the Restaurant. We've spent much time already trying various tunes out on the recorders (driving our neighbours crazy, I'm sure). More practice is necessary! Perhaps on a beach or a hill somewhere in the peaceful countryside. Then the only things that we can bother are the sheep or cows!
Anyway, off to Dun' I now and the north end of the island.
posted by Daniel Pergau | 9:05 a.m.
2 Comments:
Hey guys,
With all the news today I was thinkin' a lot about you two!
I'm very glad you are in a remote island off the coast of Scotland, and I still love your stories - keep them coming!!
Chris
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