Winterfell & Hairy Coos

The Scottish Highlands really are wild & gorgeous & mysterious & dramatic & romantic. 

   The weather changes every five minutes -- rain, sun, clouds, wind, fog -- & back again 

                                         Even a rainbow!!!

                  The Highlands are rolling & lovely & bucolic...an inspiration to Robert Burns...

My Heart's In The Highlands

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Farewell to the mountains, high-cover'd with snow,
Farewell to the straths and green vallies below;
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.
My heart's in the Highlands.

                   ...and hard & forbidding...an inspiration to Sir Walter Scott...

One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honour or observation.

     ...and damp & fragrant & mysterious...an inspiration to Robert Louis Stevenson...

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.

...and full of lochs (lakes), where the wind always roils the water, making it look black...an inspiration to Violet Jacob...

Oh tell me fit was on your mind ye roarin Norland wind?

As ye come blawin frae the land that’s never frae ma mind.

Ma feet they traivel England but I’m deein for the North.”

“Ma man, I saw the siller tides rin up the Firth o Forth.”

       ...and home to ancient castles...no decorative elements here...an inspiration to Hollywood...

...it's where Outlander, Monty Python, & the pilot for Game of Thrones were filmed...this is Winterfell!

The Highlands would not be The Highlands without these huge, hardy, bedraggled, lumbering, dirty, & somehow utterly beguiling creatures called "Hairy Coos" (Scottish for "Highland Cows"). These used to be as numerous as bison were in America. Like bison, hairy coos were decimated by occupiers, along with the humans who depended on them to live. Now the ones that survive are kept mostly as a legacy breed on farms. Their milk is poor & their meat is stringy because they prefer brambles & thistles over grass, so they are not desirable to modern farmers. Instead, they live a good life, amusing tourists & keeping the Highland landscape true to its roots.

We were privileged on this tour to feed a little brown bread to three hairy coos who live on a rural farm way up in the Highlands.

That's a big tongue about to slurp a piece of bread from my hand!

These three are females & will have babies in a few weeks. Imagine a hairy coo baby!! -- cuteness overload. Here's a video if you want to see some:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yI1lhfw8gXs