Our Rides Out to Our Excursions and Back to the Ship

We pass through so many country farms and here is a taste of what we saw. They grow wheat and barley for the animals and whiskey production. Sheep and cows are the main animals here. 

We were asked to look for a black sheep in the fields. Black sheep does not fetch as much when selling the wool as it is hard to dye into other colors. However, white sheep are plentiful on these farms because white wool will bring in a much better price. Still the black sheep are desirable (usually one or two) to be out there in the fields with the white sheep. Predators think the black sheep are dogs so they will leave the sheep alone, move on, and look for other tasty meal animals.

Some of these purple flowers are fast spreading and the farmers don’t want these plants. Other purple flowers, like the thistle, are welcomed. The thistle is Scotland’s national flower but these purple flowers, while pretty, are not thistle. 

The wind is utilized a lot for energy. They are experimenting with wave power to capture energy as well. However we did not see any wave “farms” on our journey so far. The ship did pass through an area yesterday (last night) that typically has a strong current but it must have been at night because we missed seeing wave farms.

There are quite a few oil rigs out in the ocean/sea up around Scotland. We docked at a port where a rig was being repaired.