Apart fom Nessie...

Granny23, I could have given all the responses you would have liked, but this question demanded a snap response which, in my case, was 'home'. And this after 46 years away.

My DH makes great jam also damson/sloe/bulace gin and fantastic marmalade. he would be flattered to be so described !

Oh yes ! I had a ride on it! My brother arranged it for the last time I saw my mother.
She slept all thru the trip!
She was not a happy woman. It was a relief all round when she died.
She never got over my father dying at age 54 and lived for another 30yrs+ as a widow.
She ENJOYED ill health.

I just hope I never get like her!

We could all have given more in-depth responses, Granny23, but didn't think that was what was required.

Absentgrana - but would it not annoy you to have England summed up in such a lazy way? When 'England' is so, so much more. Perhaps I am being overly sensitive - like the time when a close friend, when asked to describe me by a new colleague declared, 'She makes great jam' - leaving me wondering if that is all I am good for.

Home

Granny23 This sort of question requires more or less predictable answers. At least no one launched into comments about RBS. If you asked the same question about England, you'd get such answers as Shakespeare, Yorkshire pudding, Big Ben, beefeaters, thatched cottages, Exmoor ponies, clotted cream and a hundred other clichés.

Years ago when it first opened we took a small DGS on it. This was before the swish boats they have now, there was just an open barge with wooden benches, stored outside overnight. As the first trip on a frosty January morning we had the full impact of the frozen seats.

The views were magical, and the mechanism fascinating - recommend a visit if you are in the area.

On our return I thought a trip to the loo advisable before a cup of reviving coffee in the tearoom. The wooden loo seat felt like sitting on a radiator! I was convinced for a moment that they were somehow heated.

I didn't have time for a ride on it, but it's a beautiful piece of engineering.

hope you had a ride,Jeni. not only very functional but also like a vast sculpture.

That is FANTASTIC ! I was most impressed when I saw it.

Granny23, I did mention the wonderful hi-tech Falkirk Wheel.

Not all of us outside Scotland know a lot about Scottish politics, industry, or the rest that you mention, Granny 23, whereas a lot of us know what a wonderful place it is for holidays. And as for Andy Stewart and Kenneth McKellar, give me more!!

What's wrong with cliched stuff when we were asked what do we think of when someone says Scotland. It's pleasant things that come to mind, reminders of lovely holidays, affectionate memories. I'm not going to think of politics and industry when asked such a question. No need to feel disappointed I certainly know about the subjects you mention, but they aren't what springs to mind immediately, and I imagine anyone who gets asked about England would respond similarly.

Er, because all that's maybe a bit heavy for a lighthearted thread, Granny 23?

Having been born, bred and lived all my life in the middle of Scotland, I would need to write a whole book or indeed, several books to encompass all that I think of as Scotland - food, climate, accents, humour, history, education, landscapes, sea, cities, towns and villages, politics, music, art, theatre, community, law, religion, sport and bad stuff like sectarianism, drugs and alchoholism. I must admit to being a bit surprised (and disappointed) by all the cliched stuff (haggis, tartan, shortbread and bagpipes, that seems to represent Scotland in the minds of those down south. These things are all good (except haggis which I loath) but there is so much more to Scotland than a great place to come on holiday. Why no mention of Scotland's oil, hi-tech industries, renewable energy, prevailing left of centre politics, Scottish Parliament? What about Scottish water, Health Service and Education, none of which has been nor is in the process of being privatised.

As for 'celebs' - why Andy Stewart, Kenneth McKellar, Sir Walter Scott and Sean Connery, when you could have mentioned David Tennant, Annie Lennox, J K Rowling orRobbie Coltrane?

My son in law!

Annobel Of couse. 65 years ago, at the village infant school in Northants, our teacher taught us to sing both 'Sky Boat Song' and 'Road to the Isles'. He had a son who married a Scottish lassie. Little did I know that all these years on I'd be living in a location that looked out to the Isles.

And 'The Road the Isles', of course.

'The Road To Dundee' 'Westering home' 'The Weaver's Song' 'Sky Boat Song' 'Campbeltown Loch' tra la de dah!

I climbed Goatfell with my dad when I was young enough to find it funny that I went above the top - he put me on top of the cairn on the top!

Oh, Daisy, please! My nostalgia is getting painful. Arran was the view from our top windows. My sister and I got lost trying to find the top of Goat Fell. Did we have a map? Well....

Struggling up Ben Cruachan in the mist and rain, visibility at the top nil. Struggling down again. Holidays on Arran, dancing the eightsome reel, and walking up Glens Sannox and Rosa in sunshine with water in my boots. Sunset over the sea near Arisaig. Getting to the top of Goat Fell and my mother saying she thought she'd left the oven on in our rented cottage. My brother ran back down to check and up again. (She hadn't.)

Sean Connery
The lovely girl my DS1 went out with for two yrs(later broke up but she was a nice girl)
The two boys who stayed with us from my DS2s battalion they where amazing boys.
The fabulous food
My very best friend who lives in Glasgow
All my GN pals who are so lucky to live there.

jings Just because she was very silly, doesn't mean you can't feel sorry for her.