Ceart ma tha (right then) ... Loon Mt NH, USA Highland Games 2010

Once again I find myself apologizing for a long delay in blogging. I have no valid reason, only excuse(s), but have been keeping a list of subjects about which to blog. So, let me resume with the New Hampshire Highland Games, held at Loon Mt, Sept 2010.

Jacqueline was unable to attend the games this year, but rather than stay home alone, actually with The Ghillie, I decided to drive north for a couple of hours on Saturday the 18th of September. It was a bright day, not warm, cold, damp or windy. Ideal as a matter of fact. Or, in The Gaelic Tha i breagha an-diugh (it's a lovely day today).



Being a descendant of Highland, and Lowland, Scots I was keen to see what Border Reiver families (or clan if that word is preferable) would be represented, and to pay a visit to the Clan MacKay tent where Jacqueline had some tablet samples, courtesy Douglas MacKay, available for ... sampling. Sadly I have yet to meet a representative of Clan MacLea/Livingstone at the games I have attended. My cousin Kyle is very much involved in their activity out west, and we (Jacqueline and I) would very much like to do the same here in New England.



Regardless, the border families (clans) were represented with tents and representatives from Bell, Graham, Turnbull, and Johnstone. The Bell's had a rather interesting shirt available; sorry the picture is somewhat skewed; when I resized the image I used absolute width/height rather than percentage; so a portrait orientation was forced into landscape. Sadly, again, I've not ever seen a representative from the infamous Robson family; but I do enjoy sharing what knowledge I have of the Robsons, especially when I meet a Graham.

I spent several minutes chatting with Norman Turnbull, Clan Turnbull's "High Seanachie". Sadly I have no picture of him (I was too busy talking to him) but he gave to me a picture of the statue of Rob Roy MacGregor located at Culter Burn, Peterculter, Aberdeen, Scotland. Here's a link to information about the statue. The picture is now hanging in our home office, which is more like a "Scotland room" at this point in time.

Finally, all the way from the Netherlands was a group of Malt Whisky drinkers, visiting a friend in the USA, who posed for a picture.



Next time we will be returning to Ile (Islay). Until then may the best you've ever seen be the worst you'll ever see.

Maine (USA) Highland Games

Jacqueline and I drove a wee bit north this past Saturday to attend the Maine Highland Games..

We met Douglas MacKay from Clan MacKay and had a very pleasant visit with him, during which he inquired about tablet made by Jacqueline. There were Johnston(e) and Maxwell border reivers in attendance as well as several other clans, and families, but (sadly) no MacLea/Livingstones.



One of the interesting facts I discovered while perusing the Maine Highland Games website, and following associated links is: "U.S. Census Data (2000) confirms that Maine has, per capita, the highest percentage of Scots descendants in the entire USA, and ranks third in the country for Scots-Irish descendants." For more information on the Maine Ulster Scots visit their website.



Finally, we saw some women "working" tweed, while singing waulking songs. I was able to take a photo of their song book, and yes, they knew the traditional fixing element for the tweed !!!



Until next time .... Slainte !!!

Pressing forward to the goal, more family information

Wow, has it been a month since my last entry? Time has flown.

We continue to plan our trip to Alba. It looks this time to last almost 3 weeks between the 2010 Feis Ile on Islay, and several days exploring the same sites that I saw during 2009 Hogmanay/New Year. The only thing left "to do" is book the flights and the car hire; we have arranged accomodations in all areas. We look forward, very much, to our return to Scotland.

As for family, I've begun digging a bit more vigorously into the paternal side of my family, where the names MacLea,and MacKay are represented. I will continue to research those clan names, my family and hopefully have the opportunity to take a picture or two of where they lived, much as I did in Coatbridge.

Sorry, no pictures this time.