Aduchamp, I saw an Austin Powers bobble head at a yard sale this morning and thought of you.

There are Scots-Irish on my family tree. They came first to New England and then north to Nova Scotia. The brother of one stayed behind to sign your Declaration of Independence.

Alys, those would be the black Irish!

My legacy is complete. I associated with bobble head dolls and yard sales.

Adu - thanks for a humorous report and some smiles tonight.

I also very much enjoyed Edinburgh and got lucky not to have rain... But I did spend 12 rainy days in Ireland once... my husband made me leave 2 days early - he couldn't take it anymore!

On my visit to the Castle, the tour guide found out I was a nurse. He took me aside on a "special" private tour wherein he explained how the Scots were involved in inventing a lot of medical innovations such as the use of anesthesia as well as the Glasgow Coma Scale and Penicillin... I actually did not realize all this although duh! on the GCS!!

In fact, the Scots are quite the inventors all around!

We also found them to be a friendly and fun bunch...

Glad you had a good trip and welcome back to this loony bin.

Gruezi

You are welcome. The Scots are very proud of their scientific discoveries and attitudes. Last time I used the Glasgow Coma scale I gained three pounds.

gruezi - penicillin saved my Fathers life he had Osteomyelitis as a child and spent over a year in hospital

http://www.medicinenet.com/osteomyel...ticle.htm#what

Penicillin was in its infancy and had an effect on him.
He gave permission and his medical records are used through out the UK in teaching hospitals

Second and probably last batch of phtotos.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1135238...IrelandPart202

no more photos? Wah!

There are more, but they are not very good.

But thank you for the thought.

Your pictures are wonderful and the captions really make them! Speaking of captions, you have "Castle Howard two" etc. but no "Castle Howard One" Is that just to see if we were paying attention?

I enjoyed all of them, especially Castle Howards and my absolute favorite was the water fountain in symmetry with the shrubbery. Would make a good postcard for their stand. Thanks for sharing, though I am sorry that there will be no more.

It was Castle Howard Two. The background was not symmetrical and that made the fountain stand out even more. Loved the little tractor chugging through to the right of fountain.

Thanks. I hope Castle Howard One was in the first batch.

I looked back at batch one and the last one was untitled. It looks as if it could be Castle Howard.

You might also enjoy the 44 Scotland Road series, set in Edinburgh, by Alexander McCall Smith. He now lives in Edinburgh but was born in Zimbabwe and is most famous for The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series.

Thanks for the reading suggestion.

I also highly recommend Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series, also set in Edinburgh.

aka the Sunday Philosophy Club series.

I was going to recommend AMS to Adu as well, but he likes to read some pretty heavy stuff!... so I refrained. But, I also loved the books and actually they are what inspired my trip to Edinburgh and I loved wandering the streets and finding the various shops mentioned in the stories.

I like well-crafted mysteries such as those written by Elmore Leonard where the characters are the focus rather than the events themselves. I also like Kinky Friedman but that is because I like Kinky not because he is a great writer. I did see AMS's Number 1 Detective stories turned into a series on HBO and they were absolutely delightful.

i want to go to Botswana for the same reason!

Oh Adu, I would beg Fodors to let you write for them !
Thank you for this. I needed it.

I still have the cow that is a milk pitcher that I bought in Fishes Eddie a hundred years ago..