Back from Braveheart Country

Oy me hearties!

Just got back from a wee whirlwind trippie to the land of Scots.  Edinburgh to be precise.  What a beautiful city! The architecture, the people and their guardianship of everything related to literature, art and history is truly astounding.  What I didn't realize was that a considerable number of the world's great writers hail from Scotland, and many of them are specifically from Edinburgh.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Alexander McCall Smith, to name but a few, are from Edinburgh.  I am happy to say that I returned with a signed copy of one of Alexander McCall Smith's books, 44 Scotland Street.

But here's the scoop.....
Of course I knew that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was from the UK, but not that he was Scottish or from Edinburgh.  While doing some last-minute packing, I tossed a small vintage book into my bag because I wanted to do a bit of travel journaling in an altered book format during the trip.  The book was one of about 7 old books that I bought at a vintage store on a recent trip to Rosendal with the plan of creating altered books by collaging and journaling in them.

Upon landing in Edinburgh, our tour guide in the bus gave a short introduction to the city and mentioned the long list of writers, of which Conan Doyle was one.  Late that night when I opened my book to start journaling I was mesmerized to see that the book was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, published in 1932 and printed in Aberdeen, Scotland.  This book came home!



Here are a few altered pages from the book as travel journal.  These are still works in progress, so watch this space.