Winter Words Festival 2019

A mostly enjoyable afternoon at the Festival Theatre in Pitlochry with friends L and A for a couple of talks on the first day of the Winter Words event.

The first was by a guy called Gary Sutherland who didn't like walking (he was a keen cyclist and runner!), was scared of heights, cows and forests and yet one day decided he wanted to do three of the major walks in Scotland one after the other!  The reason - to take him out of his comfort zone and challenge him.  They certainly did that in spades!

He was a very entertaining speaker as he regaled us with tales from his walks on the West Highland Way, the Great Glen Way and the Speyside Way.

The second talk was a much more sombre affair about the "Iolaire" disaster off Stornoway in 1918 when more than 200 men died after the ship sank.  Two authors shared the talk, one concentrating on the facts of the event and the other on the consequences for the community.  It was a difficult subject to learn about, but made even more difficult by the strong Lewis accent of the first speaker and the soft tones of the second.  I'm sure the audience missed a lot of the details between the two of them.

We drove L & A home and stopped at their place for something to eat with them before heading home again.  A different way to spend Valentine's Day, but I did get lovely flowers and a card from TJ this morning, which I'll save for Flower Friday:-)