Tag Archives: Willa Blair

I’m in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for the month of April.  I need your help!  To meet this challenge, I’ll be doing one post a day, working through the alphabet.

Your job is to comment and keep me motivated!  Let me know you’re out there and following along.  Can she make it?  Will she?  Of course she will!  With you as my cheering section, I won’t be stumped by J or Q or even X.

So without further ado, here is today’s post.

Y is for Year of Homecoming in Scotland.  In 2014, there will be a year-long  series of events celebrating all things Scotland.  

There will be plenty of games and cultural events, arts and crafts and ancestral heritage activities.  The year starts with Hogmanay (see H is for Hogmanay) and continues with a Whisky month in May (see B is for Bunnahabhain, I is for Islay, O is for Old Pulteney, U is for Uisge beatha), the Commonwealth Games in July and the Ryder Cup in September.

I want to go!  Maybe I’ll even put on a Blair (T is for) Tartan plaid (K is for) Kilt and walk along the shores of (L is for ) Loch (N is for ) Ness.      

I might even see Nessie!  Or learn some (G is for) Gaelic.  How about you?

Interested in finding the other nearly 2000 blogs participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge?  Click on the title, then scroll down to find the sign-up list.

I’m in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for the month of April.  I need your help!  To meet this challenge, I’ll be doing one post a day, working through the alphabet.

Your job is to comment and keep me motivated!  Let me know you’re out there and following along.  Can she make it?  Will she?  Of course she will!  With you as my cheering section, I won’t be stumped by J or Q or even X.

So without further ado, here is today’s post.

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots as a young girl

W is for Wooing.  The Rough Wooing, that is – the conflict between Scotland and England and sometime civil war within Scotland.

Henry VIII wanted James V to break the Auld Alliance with France and to turn Protestant.  James refused, so Henry declared war.  James died after the Scottish defeat at Solway Moss in 1542.  

His daughter, now Mary, Queen of Scots, was just days old. Henry attempted to force the Scots to agree to a marriage between his son Edward and the infant Mary.  The Protestant faction in Scotland even signed the Treaty of Greenwhich, agreeing to the marriage.  

   But Scotland’s regent, the Earl of Arran, aided by the Cardinal at St. Andrews, took Mary to Sterling Castle, out of Henry’s reach.  Henry broke the Treaty of Greenwich and went to war.

Mary of Guise, Second wife of James V

France aided Scotland under the Auld Alliance as Scotland rejected Henry’s advances. After Henry’s death, Edward VI continued the war, but the French-born Queen Mother, Mary of Guise, betrothed her daughter to the heir to the French throne and Mary was absent from Scotland for thirteen years, until after she was widowed. 

All of Henry VIII’s ambitions to control Scotland had failed.  Edward eventually signed a peace treaty with France (and thereby, Scotland) in 1550. It was the last major conflict between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns in 1603.

In Scotland, the war was called the “Nine Year’s War.”  The term “rough wooing” comes from a famous remark attributed to George Gordon, 4th Earl of Huntly. “We liked not the manner of the wooing, and we could not stoop to being bullied into love,” or, as historian William Patten reported, “I lyke not thys wooyng.”  

Interested in finding the other nearly 2000 blogs participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge?  Click on the title, then scroll down to find the sign-up list.

I’m in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for the month of April.  I need your help!  To meet this challenge, I’ll be doing one post a day, working through the alphabet.

Your job is to comment and keep me motivated!  Let me know you’re out there and following along.  Can she make it?  Will she?  Of course she will!  With you as my cheering section, I won’t be stumped by J or Q or even X.

So without further ado, here is today’s post.

Nicholas Roerich “Guests from Overseas” 1901

V is for Vikings. Vikings began to raid the monasteries in the northern reaches and western islands of Scotland as early as the 8th century.  They came searching for precious metals, slaves and food.  By the 9th century, they were settling and farming, much as they had in Scandanavia, and intermarrying with the local population.  Both Norse and Scot languages were spoken in the western Highlands for many centuries.  

Education Scotland has a wealth of information on Vikings in Scotland.  And if you’re lucky enough to be in Edinburgh, National Museums Scotland is hosting the “Vikings! The Untold Story” exhibit through May 12.

Interested in finding the other nearly 2000 blogs participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge?  Click on the title, then scroll down to find the sign-up list.

I’m in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge for the month of April.  I need your help!  To meet this challenge, I’ll be doing one post a day, working through the alphabet.

Your job is to comment and keep me motivated!  Let me know you’re out there and following along.  Can she make it?  Will she?  Of course she will!  With you as my cheering section, I won’t be stumped by J or Q or even X.

So without further ado, here is today’s post.

U is for uisge beatha.  Gaelic for water of life.  Committed single-malt drinkers consider it to be nothing less than that.  According to the Scotch Whisky Association:

“The earliest documented record of distillation in Scotland occurred as long ago as 1494, as documented in the Exchequer Rolls, which were tax records of this time, The quote above records “Eight bolls of malt to Friar John Cor wherewith to make aqua vitae”. This was equivalent to about 1,500 bottles, which suggests that distillation was well-established by the late fifteenth century.“

The Scotch Whisky Regulations  of 2009 control the production, labelling, packaging, and advertising standards for Scotch whisky in the United Kingdom.  Among many detailed and specific regulations for the process, strength, color and so forth, it defines “Scotch whisky” as whisky that is distilled in Scotland of water and malted barley and other whole grains.  It must mature in oak barrels a minimum of three years.  

If you’re just getting started with single-malts, this chart, from Malts.com, is a fabulous visual aid to help you choose a whisky to taste and to find your favorites.  It is not a complete list of all the single-malts available from Scotland, but it’s a good place to start.

From http://www.malts.com

Interested in finding the other nearly 2000 blogs participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge?  Click on the title, then scroll down to find the sign-up list.