Last day

Tomorrow we get on an airplane to fly back home. This was an interesting day. We drove from Couper Angus to Perth where we attended the church of a friend. She had to work, so wasn't there herself. However, they had an outdoor service and baptized six people in a round, children's inflatable pool. It was about 18" deep, so a bit of a feat! It had rained and the wind was cool enough for jackets, but hearty Scots... they were not even shivering after being dipped into the water!

Then we drove south to Stirling and easily found the 250' or so tall stone monument you see here on a hill that is also about that height. This is the William Wallace monument. Think "Braveheart" -- only the real Wallace used a sword that is over five feet long. It is encased in glass about 1/3 of the way to the top. Experts think he was about 6' 6" to be able to use a sword that large. (Sorry, Mel Gibson. You may have been better looking, but certainly needed camera angles to fill this man's kilt.)

After lunch there, we drove south to the town of Falkirk and had a spin on the Falkirk Wheel. This simple and terribly impressive marvel of engineering takes small boats from one canal to another using a process that is rather unbelievable unless you see it. This is a picture. A boat goes into one of the 'gondolas' cradled in the circles at the bottom at water level, and another enters at the opposite one at the top. Then the whole thing turns round like a wheel and brings the top one down and the bottom one up. Silently. Effortlessly, about 80 feet from one level to the other. It was an amazing ride! YouTube link

Now I'm ready for some sleep, but have to say a word about quilts... I found one quilter in Old Deer, a sweet woman who lamented of her one UFO of about six years. I comforted her with my own sad PhD stories and we had a great visit.