Would you choose this place to invent golf?
Seems the Romans were the first to knock rocks and balls around with sticks, but the Scots were the first to take advantage of the many animal burrows in their rugged landscapes and give focus to the game as it's known today. Kate just returned from the Isle of Skye and the Isle of Lewis. She first met with other mathematicians. These guys seem to have conference locale down to an art. Last year was Galapagos, remember?Anyhow, this trip she danced at a ceilidh (pronounced CAY-lee) and drank Scotch whisky and ate haggis and Scottish tablet and tramped through bogs replete with aforementioned critter-made holes, plus lotsa mud and the ever-posing sheep (along with their droppings, of course), going to the edges of that world in search of puffins!
And she found puffins. And guga. And handwoven Harris Tweed. Seems the Isle of Harris is really the southern part of the Isle of Lewis. With all those sheep, inventing your own weaving patterns seems a natural, eh? The sheep, the guga, the tweed and the history all play starring roles in Peter May's mystery series the Lewis Trilogy, placed on the Isle of Lewis and ringing with the craggy, blustery landscape and the Gaelic voices that have defined it through time.
...
If this isn't nice, what is?
~ Kurt Vonnegut, of course
