I went to a Scottish Heritage Tour on Saturday, or a Scottish-style tour group, and it is still the type of getting on the bus to sleep and get off the bus to take pictures. Traveling with a group is my most conventional way of traveling. When I was in Hangzhou, I used this kind of car to drag you to the destination, and then another car to drag you back at night. The six ancient towns (the homogeneity is quite high) are not tired, no brains, the general standard is OK, and there are occasional surprises.
During the covid-19 period, this kind of dismantled group cannot be opened, and it is estimated that the loss will be heavy. Now the staff who can resume work are also beaming. I deliberately observed the passengers in the car. In the past, I thought that such a group of senior citizens were mainly elderly couples, but today I counted them carefully and found that more than half of them are elderly sisters or girlfriends traveling together, and it seems that less than half of the real couples travel. From this point of view, it should be a very feasible plan for girls to gather together for the elderly.
The destination is Norfork County, west of Toronto. There is a Scottish restaurant converted from a church. A little brother at the door is wearing a full bagpipe suit and a skirt. Playing and singing at the door. The grandfathers and wives in the car rushed down and inevitably took a group photo. The younger brother cooperated very well. This is probably part of the job content. The stained glass in the restaurant is similar to the stained glass in the church I visited when I was in Montreal. Of course, the sophistication is different. Is it a church feature of a certain era?
The picture below is a random search on the Internet. The little brother and him are almost dressed and blowing with their cheeks at the door. Everyone is a social animal. I don’t want to increase the workload of the little brother…
I ate Scottish food, something I had never eaten before. There was a soup that I didn’t know what to do with bread, and some meatloaf. The taste was not bad. The main scene is at the back, an uncle with a huge belly dressed in the clothes of a restaurant manager in a BBC period drama (South and North, Cranford, etc.), holding a musical instrument that I don’t know, and began to sing when he came on stage.
He sang a song first, and the tune was so pleasant that everyone could sing along to the beat. Then he said that he wanted to sing a song that everyone knew for sure. I was a little curious and wondered if it would be the only one I knew. The Scottish song Loch Lomond (“Loch Lomond”) – I guessed it.
You’ll take the high road and I’ll take the low road, and I’ll be in Scotland before you. Where me and my true love will never meet again, on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond.
The origin of this Scottish folk song is the Lomond Lake District of Scotland, which was repressed by Prince Charlie of Scotland against English rule. The soldier who was defeated and was about to be executed entrusted the last letter to his girlfriend in his hometown – his letter and soul were separated and returned to Scotland, but he and his lover could never meet again on the shore of Loch Lomond.
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This song has particular meaning to me. I’m descended from Orkney Scots who fought with Bonny Prince Charlie. After the battle of Culloden in 1745 when the Scottish clans were defeated by the English, my ancestor David fled to the American colonies with his son Robert, leaving his older son John in Scotland to care for David’s wife until they could be sent for. David and Robert eventually settled in upstate New York where they changed their name from McGregor to Smith. Unfortunately David’s wife died before she and John could cross the ocean, and John joined the British army not wanting anything to do with his father and brother. During the American Revolution, Robert fought with the Americans and John fought with the British. According to family stories they met at the Battle of Freeman’s Farm in 1777 where John was wounded. The story then has it Robert took the wounded John home to his farm a few miles away where John died after reconciling with his brother, his only request that Rob ert would deliver his bible to his wife in Kirkwall . Robert then journeyed back to Scotland for the first time since he fled as a child to fulfil his brother’s wish. As result, to this day the American and the Scottish sides of my family are still close and every now we get together. I live just down the road from Robert’s farm which is still in the family and I’ve twice gotten to go to Scotland where my distant cousin still has John’s bible. I always imagine that this song is the two brothers speaking to each other in those last few hours they had together.
Briefly, he is the author of this comment. His ancestor participated in Prince Charlie’s war against England. After the defeat, his ancestor David and his son Robert fled to the American colonies, and the eldest son John stayed in Scotland to take care of his mother. Robert and his father David had settled in New York, hoping that their relatives in Scotland would come to join them, but David’s wife died. During the American Revolutionary War, his brother Robert joined the American army, and his brother John followed the British army to North America to fight. They met at the Battle of Freeman’s Farm. Robert took the injured brother John home. Before his death, John asked his brother Robert to bring The Bible he took with him was returned to his wife in Scotland.
The author of the review said: “When I hear this song, I often imagine it’s what two brothers said to each other during the last reunion of their lives.
After the meal, I went to visit another greenhouse and flower garden. As soon as I entered, I was shocked by the horizontal and vertical facilities, and the degree of mechanization was relatively high. The flower garden is family-run. The uncle who took us to visit and his daughter and son-in-law have been running the place for decades. There is a young man at the door who is helping to install flowers. When he came out, he heard them say hello and knew that this was his grandson-the uncle looked very capable, I really don’t see such a big grandson.
The visit to the flower garden was a little unexpected. My father-in-law is a good farmer, and he is lazy but has a dream of a farm. After the dream, he bought a farm and hired some Mexican workers to do the work. As soon as I entered, I began to calculate how much the greenhouse would cost. I guessed that the cost was an investment of tens of millions of Canadian dollars. On the way, I followed the markings on their flower boxes, searched for the name of the flower garden and the introduction on the website, and then searched for the cost of the greenhouse, which was comparable to my estimate.
After raising seedlings, they still need workers to transfer them to greenhouses. I saw some of the signs on the whiteboards hanging on their walls are in English and Spanish. I guess the workers are indeed mainly South American.
Tourists who traveled along the way asked the uncle, do the roses here have any competitive advantages compared with the rose exporting countries Ecuador and Colombia? The uncle directly said no, the countries on the equator have natural advantages to grow roses. They grow tall, big and beautiful. Compared with them, we have no special competitiveness, but we have been doing it in the country for a long time, and the cost is not high. It is not as expensive as everyone thinks, and it is more flexible at close range.
When I came out, I saw boxes of flowers packed and said they were going to Florida, which refreshed my understanding – of course, the climate in Florida is much better than here, what is the reason to build a greenhouse in Canada What about growing flowers and then shipping them to the American South? I guess it may be that the profit of the flower industry has been squeezed. For florists who have already invested and produced, the profit is enough to maintain; and for new investors, the investment is huge and the cost is high and the profit is not worth it. Join the fray?
Countries along the equator are suitable for growing roses, but the political situation in many countries is unstable. The relatively stable Ecuador and Kenya are the main rose exporters. I have the impression that the export roses are much better, and I guess the market is not the same as the florists here. Wait until I go to Ecuador in winter to be a good farmer.
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