A Visit to the Holy Island of Inchmahome...

   I had been a bit disappointed that I wasn't able to get to the holy island in Ireland during my stay on the Burren.  But as I am always going on about, you will get what you need when you need it.

   When I stayed with friends in Glasgow for the weekend, they took be on a days outing to celebrate my birthday.  We went to Stirling Castle and to Inchmahome...a holy island in the scenic Lake of Menteith northwest of Glasgow.  It was a spectacular place and the walk around the island took us along paths edged in a profusion of bluebells.  It was absolutely enchanting.  The lime green moss was a wonderful contrast to the bluebells.

   This is one of several 500 year old sweet chestnut trees on the island.  Their twisted and enormous trunks had huge hollow places.  It was amazing to realize that when these trees were planted America hadn't even been colonized and here they still stand, surrounded by bluebells.

   This was the very best of birthday presents.  I honestly could have wandered around that little island for hours.  In my next post I will show you a bit of the Augustinian Priory on the island and talk, no surprise, of thresholds.

 Leaving the old, both worlds at 

once in view, that stand upon

the threshold of the new.

- Edmund Waller