Sabbatical 2010: Trip to Staffa Isle

Not everything about a week at Iona has spiritual significance, at least not obviously. So a trip to the bizarre and beautiful island of Staffa is just a cool thing to do. Then again, it's hard to separate the sacred-spiritual out of anything when you are at Iona, and Staffa itself makes you wonder, "How did God manage to get it to look like this?" See what you think -- click the pic.

Sabbatical 2010: Iona, Scotland

The sacred Isle of Iona is considered to be a "thin place," a boundary between two realms (like earth, water, sky, deeps, etc.) where the veil between the physical and spiritual realms is thin enough to give a glimpse from one to the other. There has been a Christian witness at Iona since St. Columba arrived in the 6th c. I arrived on 25 September 2010. The pic above will let you glimpse my album. Just click to punch through the veil.

Sabbatical 2010: Oban and Mull - on the Iona trail

Getting to Iona is no small task. From Glasgow it takes a 3-hour train or bus ride (I took the train) to Oban, a 45-minute ferry ride to Craignure on the Isle of Mull, a 45-minute bus ride across Mull, and another ferry ride to Iona. It's almost an all-day journey, even if you don't miss the ferry in Oban. Your journey to see my pictures of will be much easier. Just click the pic.

Sabbatical 2010: Glasgow, Scotland, Coming and Going

Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, was the home of such luminaries as Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Dr. David Livingstone, and Craig Ferguson. The first three have statues. Craig may have to wait. Any way, to see some of the wonders of this grand old city, click the pic.

Sabbatical 2010: Alloa, Scotland

This set is from Alloa (pronounced AL'-lo-wa), apparently the home of some ancestors 400 years ago. Somehow I thought it would still be a medieval village. Click the pic to see how that turned out.

Sabbatical 2010: Edinburgh, Scotland

I'd love to come up with something witty about the Edinburgh album, but I was really moved being in that ancient city and particularly in St. Giles High Kirk. Molly took some really beautiful pictures in there. So, nothing clever on this one. Just click the pic to see.

Sabbatical 2010: St. Andrews, Scotland

St. Andrews, Scotland, the Royal and Ancient home of Golf. Also the site of suffering and martyrdom during the Protestant Reformation. Hmmm. Suffering. Protestants. Golf. There must be some connection.... See what you can make of it all. Click above to see the album.

Sabbatical 2010: Loch Ness, Scotland

Next on Hidden Mysteries of the Sabbatical: Loch Ness. Join our search for the legendary... Oh forget it. It was raining so hard we could barely see the loch, let alone any monsters. But click on the pic above to see the album. Maybe you can make something out in the fog.

Sabbatical 2010: Dornoch, Scotland

Rap on the entrance of the big church: Dornoch Cathedral. Or just click the beautiful picture here to see the album.

Sabbatical 2010: Cullen, Scotland

See pics from the sea village of Cullen, which starts with a "C"! "C"lick the "sea" in the pic. See?

Sabbatical 2010: A Flight from Belfast to Aberdeen

I think this little album is intriguing. Aerial photography of the trip from Belfast, Northern Ireland, to Aberdeen, Scotland. The picture above will act as your boarding pass and your ticket. Click it.

Sabbatical 2010: Northern Ireland - County Armagh

Continue to explore Northern Ireland with Dad, Clare, George, and me, as we head to County Armagh, where records say Joseph and Rosanna Douthett come from. This picture is a port key. (Click it.)

Sabbatical 2010: Northern Ireland - County Londonderry

Here is the next album from the UK, our tour of County Londonderry, particularly the city of Coleraine, and the beautiful north coast. Click the pic.

Sabbatical 2010: Northern Ireland - County Down

I've posted all my UK pictures, finally! Some even have captions. This is the first bunch from County Down, Northern Ireland. Click the pic to see the album.

Pictures are going up, slowly but surely

It's taking a very long time to sort, process, and upload all the pictures I took in my sabbatical travels. I've finally selected to post them on Picasa, because they had a lot of space for cheap, and it's related to one of my email accounts and to this blog site. They don't make it easy, though, as I can only upload five pictures at a time. Plus, if I look at the browser the wrong way, it forgets what folder I have been working from on every other picture and starts me back at my documents folder. This is very annoying and doubles the time it takes to do the job. On other sites I can upload a whole folder at a single go. One gets what one pays for, apparently.

I don't know what that has to say about the quality of the pictures, because you get to see them for free. But for what they are worth, you can start seeing them, divided by excursion, at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rev.david.douthett

The various albums are generally in date order, starting with the most recent. While I haven't yet captioned the pictures, I have included captions for the albums, and there is a map function so you can find where these things were happening (although I'm not sure how that works). I recommend starting at the beginning and working forward, but that's really up to you.

Please enjoy, and your comments are welcome! This part of the project should be finished pretty soon, and I will turn my attention to reflection and interpretation, which I hope will be insightful for all of us, so stay subscribed!

I'm back!

Hey readers! I know it's been a long time since I've posted. Internet connections were hard to come by in both Cullen and Iona. I have a lot of stuff to catch up on! I think I'll write them in present tense as if on the date I would have written them, but I'll change the post date. So the next bunch of posts will actually appear before this one. Hope that isn't too confusing. You might want to look down the list and back into September to make sure you haven't missed anything. Point is to get the posts online. It has been an excellent journey, and it will take a while to get all the retro posts and pics up. Thanks for sticking with it! Here we go.....