A Scottish Theme...no crafting just chat!

MY SCOTTISHNESS

Hello everyone.  

Today I am blogging about my Scottishness.  It probably isn't a real word, but does describe me very well.  I love my roots and am so glad I have returned to Scotland.  

I know we live in the United Kingdom, and I know there are talks about Independence and referendums and such like.  Well, this 60 year old Scottish wifie is very proud of being Scottish and would never change it.  When asked my nationality, my answer is always........Scottish.

First of all there is our weather....some people think it is always cold and windy here:  How wrong can they be.  The Moray coastline has fabulous weather:

This is the beach at Cullen and the two rocks are part of a trio of rocks called the 3 Kings.  Cullen is the seat of the Crown estates belonging to the Seafield family.  This was their ancestral home, Cullen House, where my sister worked for Lady Seafield and I spent time there during school holidays:

Look up the following and read about the local history:

www.seafield-estate.co.uk


The thing that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up is our music.  For those of you who don't like the bagpipes, I am really sorry, but they make my heart beat faster and bring me great joy.

A Scottish Lament:

To bring everyone up to date, here are the Red Hot Chilli Pipers:

So you see it's not all pomp and circumstance with the pipers of today.


But there is more to our music than pipes, there are fiddles, and singing, and drumming and dancing.....and not to forget our traditional tartans.  We are a complicated country, whose loyalties may sometimes seem split or mis-placed, but I believe that when you make a friend of a Scot you will always have that friendship!


We also have our own language, and here it is in a beautiful song by Karen Matheson:

Some fiddle music

And the dancing:

When I talk to people here I use the Doric language.  This has to be heard to fully understand how strange it can be.


This is a poem about someone's experience of depression, spoken in our Doric language:

And here is another poem about speaking Doric!  Oor Mither Tongue!

I hope you are enjoying this wee blog about who I am and where I come from.

One thing I haven't mentioned is my strong faith in God.  This, I think, originally stems back from hearing the psalms sung like this:

and this

I have never forgotten the haunting, powerful depth of love through such singing.  My life was forever changed when the gospel touched my heart and turned me to a loving God, whom I can approach with no fear.  My God is love and perfect love casts out all fear.

On a completely different tack.  I love Scottish food!  Oh yes...forget fried mars bars and bring on the mealie pudding, mince and tatties and chicken with skirlie!  Fit am I spikkin aboot.....yumminess!


Cullen Skink is a soup everyone needs to try if they like smoked haddock. 




Cullen Skink:

Haggis neaps and tatties with skirlie:

And there is so much more, like Arbroath smokies, black pudding, venison, stovies, oatcakes.............and so it goes on

Then, there is the whisky:  Oh yes, a lovely single malt whisky washes down some really fabby scottish dishes.  This one is one of my favourites:

Not forgetting:

and:

Drank neat or with equal measure of water.




So there you have had a very quick tour of all things Scottishness.....and I've left out heaps more than I have room for here.


Haste ye back


Love and hugs


Annie xxx