Cairngorm Reindeer Scheme! as crazy as it sounds...

Today was a really amazing day! For Christmas, our Scottish friends “adopted” a reindeer called Wallace for the girls. This morning we rented wellies and hiked off across the moors to meet him. He lives at a reindeer center but was in a field a ways away. It was quite misty and cool, but somehow that was fitting. The walk was pretty easy and the setting was beautiful. Eventually we were surrounded by heather, both purple and white, and walked on soft peat moss. I was surprised when we reached the herd. Reindeer are much smaller than I had imagined, they’re very quiet and gentle. When they walk, a tendon in their feet makes this clicking sound. This is so they can hear each other and stay together during heavy snow. The girls were happy to hear that they can’t bite because they don’t have any top teeth. You should have heard the giggles as Wallace ate reindeer chow right out of our hands. He was soft and warm, and the girls were thrilled, especially Mary who could have stayed all day. Believe it or not, I loved every minute of it: slogging through muck in the rain with reindeer slurm all over me. Can you believe it? It is something I never would have done on my own, and I’m thrilled my Scottish and American families got to share the experience together. We had a good lunch in the boat house at Loch Insh then went to the Highland Folk Museum. It was fully interactive with docents dressed in period costumes. The girls (okay, and I!) loved the 1937 school house with its inkwells and leather strap for naughty children. I got some great pictures for school in the 1700’s village. I don’t know how women survived in those dark, dreary, smoky mud houses! What a dreary life they must have had. I shouldn’t complain about laundry anymore!