Scotland

Day 1.
We got off the coach in Glasgow at 6am and took the train to Balloch, then a local bus to Balmaha. And thus began our hike on the West Highlands Way.

The first day we walked from Balmaha to Inversnaid, a beautiful walk along Loch Lomond.


Exhausted after 14 miles walking, we wild camped in the woods near Inversnaid.

Day 2.
Beautiful setting, but woke up swamped by midges and in torrential rain. Love the outdoors :). Packed up the tend in the rain and off to the second day of walking.

First part, getting from Inversnaid to Invernan on a narrow and tiring footpath. Highlight of this path: seeing a polecat and a mountain goat in the woods! Otherwise, we got fairly wet in the torrential rain and struggled on the narrow path, as demonstrated below.


Walked and walked and walked through the rain till we finally stopped in the evening at a farm, near the ruins of a very old Christian priory and cemetery. Camped there and had a hot shower. Bliss.


Day 3.
On our way again, this time on a sunny pleasant day, enjoying the beautiful views. Finally arrived at Bridge of Orchy where we caught the train to Fort William.



Day 4.
Hiking up Ben Nevis, the highest peak in Britain. The weather was decent and the views were gorgeous! The route they say takes 8-9 hours but we managed to do it in under 7. Got down in plenty of time then to stop at the pub, have local ales and try the haggis (not bad!).



Day 5.
Another one of torrential, oppressive rain. Decided to stay around the campsite and see a bit of Fort William. Not too impressed, although two items in the local museum caught our attention. One is a Ford from 1901 they drove up Ben Nevis as a publicity stunt. Another, a dress decorated with green beetle wings.



Day 6.
Took the train from Fort William to Mallaig, they say it's one of the most beautiful train journeys in the world. From Mallaig, took the ferry to the Island of Skye. Landed at Armadale, a lovely little village.


Visited the Clan Donald estate and the museum. Really good museum, go if you have the chance.



Day 7.
Off on the 7am train to Edinburgh and the Fringe - largest arts festival in the world! Spent the day walking around the city, stopping to see the street theatre, finding great live music in various pubs, finishing the evening with a blues concert. The atmosphere is fantastic, definitely going back next year for longer!!


Day 8.
And sadly the last holiday day, made the most of it by visiting more of Edinburgh. Saw the beautiful hilltop castle, the Scottish Parliament building, enjoyed the wonderful individual cafes and generally moaned about having to go back home that evening...



Definitely going back to Scotland!! Not by night coach ever again though.

Romania

OK, this is not actually recent, but well worth including in the travels section. These are some of the places from our Romanian trip last year.

We started out in Bucharest, although Dan doesn't remember much of it except the unbearable August heat :)

Retezat National Park
We then headed for the Retezat Mountains with some dear friends. Camped for four days, two of which by Lake Bucura, the largest glacier lake in Romania.



The lake is at 2000m, with easy access to the highest peak in these mountains, Peleaga, at 2507m.


What is so beautiful about this place is that it is a nature reserve, so no cars are allowed, there are no mountain lodges, it's only the hikers with their tents, and some other mountain creatures. Here's a photo of two marmots on some rocks :)


Sarmisegetuza
Next destination: the village of Samisegetuza - the former capital of the Roman province of Dacia. We actually hiked from Retezat National Park to Sarmisegetuza, getting lost and trying to find our way in the scorching heat. There are quite a few things to see, the ruins of the amphitheatre, various temples, Roman baths. The open-air museum was under refurbishment but it was actually a cool opportunity to see a working archaeological site. No photos from here, but if you are overwhelmed with curiosity you can start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulpia_Traiana_Sarmizegetusa .

Hunedoara
Next day went to see a pretty cool castle, a very well preserved medieval castle and very successful at recreating a medieval atmosphere with the old furniture (the large throne hall was really good), decorations, and music. My photos really don't do it justice, but here's one of the interior.


Suceava
From one of the most important medieval castles in Transylvania, we headed off on the sleeper train for one of the other historical regions: Moldova. The citadel of the former regional capital is quite nice to visit


One of the regional attractions are the painted monasteries, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We saw a couple on our way south to the Ceahlau Mountains.



Ceahlau
Two days in Ceahlau Mountains, where we took a hike to Duruitoarea Falls. Stayed at the nicest B&B, where most produce is from their own farm. The whole region is pleasingly pastoral, here's a view from the B&B toward the national park mountains.


Bran & Peles
Heading on back to Bucharest through the Hungarian Settler region (not missing the opportunity to have some tasty goulash soup!), we stopped for another night on Prahova Valley. Although really good to visit, this region is flooded with tourists, not as quiet and pleasant as the rest of the tour. Two very cool places to see on the way are Bran Castle (left below), built in the 13th century by Teutonic knights, and Peles Castle, the residence of the first king of Romania.


Pretty cool tour overall! :)

Cornwall

Most UK residents will be very familiar with Cornwall as a holiday destination, but it is surprisingly little known outside the island. So, for those of you not familiar with it, Cornwall is a beautiful part of the British Isles, stretching in the south-west of England between the Celtic Sea and the English Channel, with stunning views of the high coast, nice little villages and multitude of historical sites.

We stayed for four days in a cottage in Sennen Cove, a lovely quiet village with a beautiful beach. The cottages were great, beautiful setting, good conditions and a fair price.

We were in easy reach of Land's End (Britain's most westerly point), and we walked there enjoying the great views. We also discovered some great animal-shaped rocks along the way :)

On the next day we went to St Michael's Mount, a very touristic sight in Cornwall but still very nice to visit. The island is accessible at low tide on a causeway, and at high tide by boat. You can visit the clifftop castle which is now a museum, and the much older church, and also the castle gardens. Below, a photo of the island from mainland, and two photos from the top of the island.









One great sight is Minack Theatre, an open-air theatre built in the 1930s, resembling an ancient site. It is a beautiful structure and what is remarkable about it is that it was built and maintained through the passion and determination of a single woman who undertook great efforts to keep it alive for performances. The theatre is still functional in the warm months.













A fantastic sight was Tintagel Castle. The ruins of what used to be a fortification have been linked with the legends of King Arthur, said to have been Arthur's birthplace, and you can also visit 'Merlin's Cave' at the site. There is no historical proof of this though. However, the surroundings are absolutely beautiful and if you want to see it I suggest you do it soon - like most sights on the south-west coast, the castle is threatened with imminent collapse due to coastal erosion.












Another really cool place we saw (but have no photos of) was the Eden project - for those not familiar with it, these unique botanical gardens were built on the site of a disused mine. The most distinctive feature are the two giant domes (biomes) harbouring rainforest and mediterranean plants. It was really interesting to actually see banana and vanilla trees, and the plants making all the exotic spices we buy in the supermarket. We drank fresh coconut juice and coffee from beans grown on site. It's also really well set up to present all the actual and possible uses of various plants, such as textile, medical, dyes, etc. Really interesting and definitely worth going!

So if you haven't done so already, do visitcornwall.com :)

Uses for flowers

'There are so many types of flowers!!' I was crying by the seed rack in the garden centre last winter. So in order to rationalize some selection process I decided to focus on those flowers that come with alternative uses, and are also easy to grow.


Cornflower
These are really easy to grow directly from seed. They have been historically used in homemade cosmetics for their anti-inflammatory proprieties (preliminary clinical trial here), much in the same way as chamomile (see how to use flowers here)

Also, they dry really well and can be used decoratively in potpourris.

Apparently, the flowers are also edible and can be added to salads and desserts, haven't gone so far experimenting yet.















Chamomile

This is my favorite! Again, it's easy to grow directly from seed and I love the infusion!
Chamomile tea (prepared with one teaspoon dried flowers and hot water) is very relaxing and helps de-stress (clinical study on anxiolytic effects of this tea). It also great for topical application through steaming or using the cold tea as a very mild skin toner, reliving skin inflammation (e.g. clinical trial for chamomile effectiveness in treating eczema). Here are the flowers in the garden and the drying flower heads for later use.










Roses

They smell divine! This year, I am drying the petals to use in potpourris and in blends of tea. Last year I've made rose petal conserve, it was wonderfully fragrant, and got almost three jars from the roses of one garden shrub. If you want to try this, you'll find plenty of recipes on the web. You will also need to use specific types of roses, the very fragrant ones.

Two other types of pretty and useful flowers I have been reading about are lavender and marigold, both edible, with cosmetic and decorative uses. Looking forward to having them in the garden next year!

The garden July 2011

There's always great excitement whenever something new happens in the garden, new shoots, flowering, or fruiting! Our first attempt of growing some fruit and veg was last year, since then we've improved somewhat. Although it sometimes does feel we're eating slug leftovers. :)

We had some lovely photos of the first seedlings from April, but all those are unfortunately lost. So here's how they look now:

Broccoli
For those who didn't know (we certainly didn't!), the broccoli florets are young flower buds. On the left, broccoli ready for harvest (so much smaller that 'supermarket' broccoli!), on the right, broccoli we've left in for too long with opening flowers. This is actually really easy to grow and the harvest is apparently better when seeds are planted in mid to late summer for an autumn crop.

TomatoesThese are so worth growing! They easily grow in growing bags or large pots, and the taste is heavenly compared to store-bought tomatoes. Ours are just maturing now:

CucumbersAnother easy-to-grow one! We've planted ours in a large pot and installed some canes for them to climb on, they're doing well and started producing fruit!

Other things growing well in the garden are the salad lettuce (yum!), carrots, beetroot:

And, finally, herbs!! Here are our two pots so far, one full of mint and the second one with parsley, sage, oregano, and rosemary.