Up to the Highlands

--August, 2008: The Lochs and Highlands of Scotland

For those who prefer their summer travel far from the sweltering beaches and the madding crowd, Scotland is still one of fairest lands of the north. Billy Connolly, national treasure and comedian, has often moaned, “We know what a cloud looks like!” But on the brighter side, there’s another saying among Scots: “If it’s not raining, it must be summer.” We took that as an invitation.

Of course, if it’s castles you want, or fortresses, cathedrals, nunneries, abbeys, priories, townhouses, mansions, and ruins, you’ll find them all beautifully nestled throughout the Scottish countryside. But we were headed for a far northwestern corner of the fabled highlands and the 18th-century fishing village of Ullapool, highly recommended by friends who usually make it a point to ‘get away from it all’. Leaving the city air and lights behind, we picked up the A9 motorway just north of Glasgow, connecting with the A835 beyond Inverness.

It was a four-hour wonder drive through layers of light and cloud shadows that spilled over hills and fields. A few stately manors and long ranks of conifers and silver birch led us to blue-auraed peaks and up to the windswept heights. We crossed a moonscape or two and followed the bilingual signs down to the white-washed village.

Once there, Tanglewood House welcomed us. We found this chalet-style bed and breakfast graceful yet cozy in its toned-down Victorian décor, which included a 19th-century grand piano honoring Chopin’s visit to the British Isles.

Sitting high on a garden promontory, with its own rocky beach for quiet contemplation, Tanglewood House offers breathtaking views of the village and shifting skies mirrored in the sea loch waters below.

Our hostess, Anne Holloway, managed to put her cordon bleu touch to even the heartiest Scottish fare. In spite of healthier alternatives, we couldn’t pass up the traditional breakfast. It reminded us of another saying heard often in this part of the world: “If it can be eaten, it can be fried.” Graciously presented with tea or coffee in silver service, this distant ancestor to our own bacon and eggs was infinitely more plentiful and more farm-fresh, with nary a packet of sugar-substitute or margarine in sight. For dinner, our favorite was the baked salmon and fresh vegetables, starting with a fine roulade of spinach and mushrooms and ending with a cheese board of quality local and continental varieties.

Tanglewood House became our comfy retreat after a day’s exercise and exploration in the wind, sun and gentle rain. We never tired of walking out among the hills and lofty peaks. The village offers the Ullapool Hill hiking path, as well as its own lovely corners and local crafts. Leckmelm Gardens, only three miles south, has twelve wooded acres, just right for a pleasant stroll. For a more adventuresome afternoon among ancient rock formations, we braved the descending paths of majestic Corrieshalloch Gorge.

There are several day cruises available to the neighboring isles of Loch Broom. But far and away, the most exhilarating part of our visit was Seascape Expeditions’ powerboat tour of the nearby Summer Isles. This included a close-in view of seal colonies and some of the most secluded shores we had ever seen. (Waterproof clothing was both needed and provided.) For those rare times that we felt like staying out of the streaming light and soft rain, there was Lochbroom Leisure Centre, right in town, or Dunrobin Castle’s 189 rooms, an easy daytrip away.

Somehow, between the romantic beauty and the cleansing natural setting, we worked off a good deal of that healthy country cholesterol. On the homeward trek, we managed to face the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond and the mysteries of Loch Ness pure of heart and filled with the energy around us.

IF YOU GO:

· Historic Scotland, http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/
· Tanglewood House, http://www.tanglewoodhouse.co.uk/
· Leckmelm Gardens, www.mooseyscountrygarden.com/botanical-gardens/leckmelm-arboretum-scotland.html
· The Ullapool Hill Path, http://www.walkingvisitscotland.com/
· Corrieshalloch Gorge, http://www.nts.org.uk/
· Seascape Expeditions, http://www.sea-scape.co.uk/
· Dunrobin Castle, http://www.highlandescape.com/
· Lochbroom Leisure Centre, lochbroom.leisure.centre@highland.gov.uk

© Copyright 2008 by Cary Kamarat . All rights reserved.

Please share your travel experiences and impressions by clicking on the word ‘comments’ below. Alternatively, send your comments to the author directly at dinosasha@juno.com.

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The House that Time Built

--July, 2008: On the Spanish Costa Brava

Toni Ferrer, Catalan artisan and artist, knows that “a house is not quite the same as all the personal items you have inside. It’s more. The house itself is your most personal expression.”

He seems to have had no problem mixing the contemporary and the traditional in building a very comfortable house designed to his personal tastes. He’s managed to bring his 16th-century family home into the 21st century with a modern flair firmly anchored in the past. In the process, he just may have stumbled onto tomorrow’s ‘trad’—an eclectic blend of styles across time, drawn from the very heart of the culture that has nourished the designer.

With its early-Renaissance stones still standing proudly on a hill in the northeast corner of Spain, the old masia cannot fail to impress. Its homespun majesty is not particularly compromised by a modern extension, built around an upper terrace, with stuccoed exterior and traditional Spanish roof tiles. This newest addition to the ancestral home is filled with a potpourri of the surreal along with local kitsch and hallway galleries lined with the modernist or classical touches of fellow artists; and the amazing thing is that somehow it all works. There is a surprising sense of proportion, through space and time.

A coarse and rocky path, in perfect harmony with the time-worn masonry of the original farmhouse, leads up from the lower garden and pool area. These separate the residential property from the factory below, where the Ferrer family has produced model ships and other nautical souvenirs for the thriving tourist trade. The upper terrace offers a fine view, through oleander, aloe, and cypress, of the town and hills that provide a welcome break from the crowded beaches nearby.

The extension has fully enclosed this area near the top of the hill. Stone and terracotta planters border the flagstone pavement, among weathered metal and wooden sculpture. Art on the exterior walls hints at a wealth of textures and design accents inside.

Those who have spent any time in the Mediterranean cannot help but notice the regional penchant for enjoying food not merely as a source of nutrition but also as a catalyst for gathering, celebrating, and even making decisions.. So it isn’t surprising that tables—whether for light fare or feasting—are an important element of design, in both interior and exterior spaces. In fact, the first room planned and built as the geographical center and heart of the home was the kitchen, with much thought given to the progression of table space throughout.

While the Mediterranean kitchen inspires design, the largest area, for such celebration of food and life is a simple but sturdy farm table out on the terrace, beneath a leafy shelter that doubles as a freestanding storage attic. The table accommodates upwards of ten people, and is also plain and handy enough to invite home crafts projects under the solid wood and metal ceiling that supports overhead storage. There is plenty of room for an adjacent lounge area that includes, of course, a tiny garden snack table and a comfy old hammock for the laziest days of summer.

In a climate that has as many warm, sun-filled days as Virginia, this additional outdoor sitting and dining area is well used throughout all but the coldest part of the year. Even then, its visibility from each room of the extension brings it into the home as a constant harbinger of spring. The house’s L-shaped layout around the terrace creates an open plan, helping to gather and dispel heat as the season demands. In summer, any sea breeze will flow freely through the fine chain-link curtains; and when temperatures drop, the abundant winter sunshine has unobstructed access to well-fitted thermal panes, helping to keep the interior warm.

Two main entrances vie for attention—one leading to the westernmost room of the old house, which serves as a large sitting room for the new home, and the other leading directly into the kitchen and interior dining area. Guarding the first, a monk lamp of 1960s kitsch vintage is set high into a niche that has been color-washed in blauet—the ancient shade of blue said to ward off evil spirits. Beneath this augury of good tidings stand farming tools of the sort that grandparents and great-grandparents would have used.

We enter, as everyone does, through the kitchen. The broad-grained pine used throughout—for cabinetry, range hood and cupboard room divide—provides a natural setting for colorful art meeting the eye at many levels. Marble countertops are de rigueur in the region. Ceramic floor tiles underpin the entire effect, with a color play of staggered reds and browns that meld into an Impressionist’s red-earth foundation. This same variegated pattern is picked up again in wall tiles surrounding the main work area. But hues have been lightened to keep the dark, beam ceilings from becoming oppressive overhead.

A small breakfast nook that seats four or five takes focus with its lively color and view onto the outdoor terrace. A larger table, for six or seven people, dominates the small dining room off the kitchen. As the first room of the extension joining the original farmhouse, this dining area also serves as a way station for impromptu music and fresh snacks amid the rainbow colors of playful art and brightly lit, fly-space book shelving. We pick up the guitar, always within easy reach, and our eyes fall on a new version of the Mona Lisa. She watches us coyly…with a sprig of wheat dangling from her famous smile! And somehow we know we are witnessing the culture that gave us both the troubadours and Salvador Dali.

A flat-tile archway joins the new dining room to the restored sitting room in the old house. A couple of lighted wall recesses break up the predominant darker tones of tile flooring, stone walls, and beam ceiling. They highlight some colorful contemporary art as well as the lighter fabric of new furniture done in comfortable mid-20th-century designs.

On our way to the wine cellar, we imitate our Catalan neighbors by making time to enjoy the unexpected. A hall gallery opens before us, lined with silkscreen prints that combine classical motifs with modernist geometric shapes. Our eyes are guided along the well-scrubbed stones of the facing wall, which date only to the 1700s, toward a towering iron-and-wood installation. This creation is the work of the owner, commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall back in the 1980s.

As we duck under the heavy stone arch to peer into the old bodega, we notice that Danish-modern wine racks have replaced the dusty wine barrels of long ago. Amid contemporary sculpture and mechanistic installations, we find another comfortable alcove with its own unadorned wood-slat table. Its glass top seems appropriate for the occasion, just waiting for our wine glasses.

Watching over our little corner, a portrait photograph from the age of grandparents and great-uncles takes us back to a time before the Spanish Civil War, when the Surrealist movement in art and literature was just beginning. We raise our glasses in a toast to them and to all our traditions.

© Copyright 2008 by Cary Kamarat . All rights reserved.

Please share your travel experiences and impressions by clicking on the word ‘comments’ below. Alternatively, send your comments to the author directly at dinosasha@juno.com.

WATCH FOR NEW POSTINGS AT THE END OF EACH MONTH.