I Completely Disregard My Common Sense About Germs

I would like to take this moment to say that I have reached a milestone in my existance: I got my picture taken while frolicking through a field of heather. Words can't express how happy this made me.

We had a lovely, rural day in the Highlands of Scotland. We went to Culloden Battlefield and walked around where the Jacobites tried to fight for their freedom and failed miserably. The ground was spongy and covered with heather. I can imagine how hard it must have been to try to run across that terrain while carrying heavy weapons.

After the battlefield, we went into a national park where we got out and hiked up a mountain and through even more fields of heather. We got up pretty high and had some beautiful views. I haven't seen Brave yet, but I imagine that what we saw was similar to what they put in that movie. The whole hhike helped me to realize what I think Scotland reminds me of : Yellowstone. We drove along curving roads that were lined with evergreens or winding through giant hills. I even saw some elk-like animals with huge horns! At the top of our hike, we stopped at a crystal clear, bubbling stream. We took lots of pictures, and then I did something I would NEVER do, EVER. I drank the water.

I shudder just thinking about it. I don't know what got into me. But it tasted good. :)

We finished off the day by watching a real-life shepherd show us how he trains his little sheep dog puppies. He had seven or eight dogs running around herding sheep, and we found out later that he had six even younger puppies too! It was really interesting. He talked about how he and his family were one of only two left in the area who knew how to herd sheep when there used to be sixty. Since they supply the meat for most of Britain, this is a real problem. He works all day, every day, with his wife and three kids to run his farm. All of the animals are incredibly docile--the sheep came running up to us, hoping to get petted or fed. So part two of my germ-ridden day was that I actually petted a lamb for a little bit. I felt really gross afterwards and sanitized my hands twice before I got home, where I washed them too. I'm not big on the "let's pet farm animals" thing, but that little lamb was awfully cute. One thing that was interesting about the whole thing was that this shepherd was anti-environmentalist. It was an interesting change from the norm.

It was a beautiful day! We leave Inverness tomorrow for the penultimate stop on our British tour: Edinburgh.