H Bogart Esq
It seems inevitable that something would crack under the constant pressure of gardening and hydro scheme construction in the disappointingly non existent Trollaigh Summer weather, to say nothing of a painfully boatless season, so dearest Dottie and I have joined the Snow Birds on the Florida Keys erstwhile home of H Bogart and Ernest Hemingway amongst others. Strangely, given the obvious clue in the island's name, Humphrey is immortalised on Key Largo by a pub called "The African Queen" and Ernest's lovely colonial style home in Key West has visitors combing the grounds for any sight of his six toed pussy cats rather than their renowned owner. Key West attempts to rival Miami Beach for crassness with wild irresponsible drinking and a dubious encouragement to disrobe in public; at least KW does not fly the rainbow flag on sections of the beach a la Miami buffty boys, and KW still has the decency to respect its ageing hippy population.
We are very fortunate to awake each morning with a view of the sunrise from our bed and ocean facing balcony; although this orientation threw my navigational skills for a day or two until dearest Dottie pointed out that we had crossed the Atlantic and now looked on the ocean from its eastern edge rather than the more familiar western edge.
This spectacular Island chain is mainly coral and mangroves, however we had been laughing at the local warnings to be on the lookout for falling Coconuts whilst wandering on the mostly man made beaches. We changed our minds when a national newspaper published some unpleasant accident statistics to give a serious slant on the Thanksgiving Holiday. 165 Americans die everyday on the roads; 33 do not return from their cruise line vacations each year; 162 perish annually from shark attacks and yes, another 162 are killed by falling American Coconuts. As you know I'm not one for the sums however with a quick mental extrapolation it would seem that one resident of the North Argyll Glens may sucumb to a falling Coconut once every 3000 years; so we now carefully sit in the sun rather than in the Palm Tree shaded areas. During more energetic moments we have been watching or participating in local activities which mainly revolve around the ocean and of course the seafood and wine are particularly special.
News from Glen Trollaigh tells of snow and ice with the onset of winter; unfortunately for us Christmas seems to be looming and apparently legions of electrical engineers are arriving on the 17th December to commission our hydro scheme, so we had reluctantly better start looking up the airline timetables. For those of you who do not receive a Christmas Card this year, and there will be many as we haven't given them a thought, please accept our best wishes for a very merry Christmas. Your aye, Archie, The Baron Trollaigh.
We are very fortunate to awake each morning with a view of the sunrise from our bed and ocean facing balcony; although this orientation threw my navigational skills for a day or two until dearest Dottie pointed out that we had crossed the Atlantic and now looked on the ocean from its eastern edge rather than the more familiar western edge.
This spectacular Island chain is mainly coral and mangroves, however we had been laughing at the local warnings to be on the lookout for falling Coconuts whilst wandering on the mostly man made beaches. We changed our minds when a national newspaper published some unpleasant accident statistics to give a serious slant on the Thanksgiving Holiday. 165 Americans die everyday on the roads; 33 do not return from their cruise line vacations each year; 162 perish annually from shark attacks and yes, another 162 are killed by falling American Coconuts. As you know I'm not one for the sums however with a quick mental extrapolation it would seem that one resident of the North Argyll Glens may sucumb to a falling Coconut once every 3000 years; so we now carefully sit in the sun rather than in the Palm Tree shaded areas. During more energetic moments we have been watching or participating in local activities which mainly revolve around the ocean and of course the seafood and wine are particularly special.
News from Glen Trollaigh tells of snow and ice with the onset of winter; unfortunately for us Christmas seems to be looming and apparently legions of electrical engineers are arriving on the 17th December to commission our hydro scheme, so we had reluctantly better start looking up the airline timetables. For those of you who do not receive a Christmas Card this year, and there will be many as we haven't given them a thought, please accept our best wishes for a very merry Christmas. Your aye, Archie, The Baron Trollaigh.
posted by The Baron Trollaigh at
12:13 PM
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