On board flight UA592 to Dallas, I examine Gaelic Without Groans, the text book I have pilfered from my sister Orla’s old childhood bedroom. The cover boasts an ecstatic pink Highland cow perched in a rowing boat. The cow appears quite at home in such a craft. It looks like it has spent its life […]
My Mother Does Not Like Squirrels
This is an edit of a wee something I was writing for something else… I’m supposed to be writing about Texas today, but I always seem to be able to find reasons to postpone writing about Texas, such as my mother’s dislike of squirrels. Writing about Texas is hard, writing about squirrels is easy. Texas […]
Me and the Alphabet of Knowledge
Despite my Scottish accent, both my names are as Irish as a grumpy donkey tied outside a whitewashed cottage, seagulls trying to steal chips on Dun Laoire Pier, and the ability to tolerate excessive levels of shocking shamrockery in order to fleece tourists of pint-money during the weeks around St. Patrick’s Day. Aefa is a […]
Panda Tartan: Edinburgh Zoo I was 30-something years ahead of you
Finally, I no longer need to feel torn between whether to wear my official clan tartan options or the makey-uppy Mulholland one printed out for me by a charming gentleman I met in a muddy field in East Tennessee. And forget all previous plans I had to get kitted out head to toe in official Shrek […]
“I love you kilt and thistle with your tartan bounty and rich heritage”
Notes from a morning in Portland, Oregon, during which I continue to be perplexed about the fact that people make sporrans — Scottish manbags/kilt accessories — out of animal heads, after a visit to the Kilt and Thistle Shoppe in Salem. The next day at the Fresh Pot coffeehouse in Portland, I scroll down the […]
Additional “Additional Badgers”
Additional Badgers… part 2 Being a relatively new resident of North America, amusing beasties such as raccoons and skunks still have me pointing and exclaiming with delight. I am still not 100% sure of appropriate creature encounter behaviour. I think I’ve got the basics of bear etiquette down – it’s all in the claws, apparently […]
Additional Badgers
Driving toward Salem, we seem to be heading straight into a rain cloud. It looms forbiddingly on the horizon. This Salem, an un-witchy one, is the capital of Oregon, home to a population of 140,000, a stately university campus and dozens of imposing government buildings. It also boasts an impressive tally of no less than […]
Morag, Official Possum of Little Scotland
In honour of the fact that The Scottish Ambassador blog had an equal number stumbling upon it when searching for “possum” as “Scottish Ambassador” this week, I’m treating you all to a photo of the world’s cutest baby orphan ‘possum/opossum. I have no recollection of ever writing about possums in these posts, but I am […]
Things I’ve Done While Working On This Book That I Would Not Otherwise Have Done
1. Realised too late that I had forgotten the most vital element of my Halloween costume — tequila — and had to walk into a crowded Savannah Scottish bar dressed as a Scottish terrier, sober. First Dogs, Savannah, Georgia 2. Tried to play upwind while golfing on a desert sand course where they harden the […]
The Hebrides Do Not Make Me Think of Leeks
It’s early evening, and Manuel, a local lawyer friend, has met me at the Duke of Perth, one of Chicago’s two Scottish bars. It’s famed for its weekly All You Can Eat Fish and Chips. On our way to the beer garden, we pass a once mighty stag’s head on the wall. The addition of […]
