Bikini, sunglasses, cool drink, good book ...

 It's officially the first day of autumn tomorrow but, here in the Med, the hot days of the last seven weeks continue unabated. I love the heat, as I've said so often, but even I like a bit of a change to cooler weather, even for just a day or two, from time to time, just for variety (hint). Apart from the wild thunderstorm a fortnight ago, it's been unvarying. So I lie around reading books in my bikini (no, sorry, no photos!). OK, I do other stuff, even the boring washing up (!), but it's not the weather for a lot of exertion. 

My books this week include a gorgeous edition of Jane Austen classic, a horrifying science bestseller (Ultra-Processed People), and a book on LBGT love (Altricorpi) that I mentioned a review of a few weeks ago. I'll talk about the latter two in due course but today, just look at this lovely edition of Sense and Sensibility from Chiltern Publishing:

Being a trans person, as I've said before, is not just about the clothes. My home is full of things that are associated more with femininity than masculinity. That feels right to me. This book is beautifully bound in floral decorated hard covers with gold edging on the pages. It's lovely to read, resting chunkily in the hand, as a real book should. It's not cheap, but it's not expensive either. I also bought their edition of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights. It's so lovely in every way that I plan to buy more books from them. And what girl doesn't love a classic romance anyway?

Hot flushes

Thanks to people who commented on my last post about nightwear for hot nights. I must check out menopause nightwear. One of the main reasons I moved from cool, rainy, cloudy Britain to the warmer Mediterranean was because I developed an odd health problem in that I am cold in the day but too hot at night. Upright = cold; horizontal = hot. I've had no end of medical checks to see what's up: could it be a disease like lupus? or a circulation defect? or a vitamin deficiency? No doctor could work it out so in the end they reverted to the centuries-old suggestion of moving to warmer climes, like Robert Louis Stevenson or Paul Gauguin who went to the Pacific in the nineteenth century for similar reasons. Where I live now on the Italian riviera the typical winter temperature is 15C and in summer it's 30C. The lowest I've ever noted is 8C and the highest 36C. That's all fantastic for me, but cooler nights in summer are becoming an issue. 

 

Cute news

The beaches are still pretty full. (And are very regimented here to fit everyone in!)

I treated myself to lunch today at one of my favourite places to eat which has a lovely view within a palm grove.

But the cute news is that leatherback turtles, which are somewhat endangered, have been laying eggs on beaches here for the first time, right among the sunbeds and beach umbrellas. They don't normally do that this far north but global warming has changed their lifestyle patterns. Local environmental agencies provide protection and the eggs are hatching now, the first clutch at Laigueglia a few days ago. It's so lovely to see all the little turtles hurrying to the water as fast as their little flippers will carry them. There's another nest just five miles up the coast and Hatching Day is expected to be on Monday. Here's one video of the recent event.

 

Mama Turtle there got 43 live young and they all made it to the sea. I have no egg-laying capacity, nor even a womb. I wish I did but nature has her inscrutable ways. I wonder if there are trans turtles? Given how many species display trans tendencies, I suspect there are. Anyway, good luck to these little ones in a hostile world. At least they've got a hard shell to protect them. 

Sue x

Nightwear for summer

 I've always loved feminine nightwear and, when I finally stopped purging and accepted that I was a trans woman, the first thing I did was buy lots of nighties. The most feminine styles were so affirming. There's nothing wrong with pyjamas, if you like them, but they're too much like the masculine item to be of interest to me. Nighties might be unfashionable nowadays, but we trans girls need our feminine boost, right? (I think it's TGirls who are single-handedly keeping the stocking industry alive, for the same reason!)

It's been a hot summer as always but, thankfully, not as hot as the previous two years and, unlike last year, we haven't experienced any forest fires. At least, it's not so hot by day, but it's been hard to sleep because, although daytime temperatures in the low 30s (85-95 F) are fine, nights ought to be cooler but they're not because of soaring sea temperatures that don't let cooling evening breezes arise. This year the water temp hit 30C, like the Caribbean, which is way hotter than it should be.

Anyway, the nights have been too hot for the usual nightwear and even the light microfibre underwear alternative I suggested last year hasn't been good. Yes, there's air conditioning but I find artificially created atmospheres are not healthy for various reasons and, in any case, I prefer not to keep it on all night. Thankfully, french knickers work well but the best solution for tropical nights, short of a bamboo wife*, are these underskirts or half slips. 

 

Totally unfashionable and hard to find these these days, I happen to have a few which I bought in the 1990s (!) that were useful for use under unlined skirts at that time but now make great summer nightwear. Still feminine yet cool. 

(*If you're wondering about bamboo wives, they're a wicker structure still found in some homes in South East Asia that you embrace in bed on hot nights and so as to allow air to flow around your body, making a night in bed less torrid. This is the best illustrated article: Good Night's Rest; and the Wikipedia article. My grandfather spent a lot of time in Hong Kong and mentioned them to me as a child.)

(c) CosyOne

 

The good stuff

I was delighted to hear of the election of another trans person to public office. In this case, Kim Coco Iwamoto in Hawaii. Pink News article.

One day this sort of thing won't make the news because of the trans aspect, but until being trans is accepted as normal we'll celebrate these achievements of our community.

Do enjoy the rest of summer.

Sue x

All you can do is relax ... usually

 The middle two weeks of August are the very height of the holiday season in the Med and, a bit like at Christmas, nothing works properly so you may as well have a break anyway. I need an electrician but I'll just have to wait till everyone's back at work in September! Also, it's been hot, and that doesn't exactly make you want to jump about much, even in just a bikini (oh yes! I love my bikinis). So I've mainly been swimming, enjoying the sunshine (I have a lovely tan!) and working through a stack of books that I've been wanting to get into for months. There are lots of local events, from concerts of all genres to food festivals and craft fairs. 

Antiques fair, Sanremo, Italy

OK, it's not all been relaxation. I've been hosting builders from downstairs who have been installing a complex air conditioning system in the flat below that has to run its pipework through a communal shaft behind my boiler. Why the folks below did this work during the hot weather rather than in the spring in anticipation of it, I'll never know. I do feel sorry for the actual workmen slaving on the roof in 35C (95F) heat with sweat pouring off them. Not exactly what's meant by a hot summer body!

The one scary moment was on August 15th itself, which is the main public holiday of the year. I heard a rumble of thunder in the morning, the first sign of trouble after weeks of hot, dry weather, and thought I'd best get up a little earlier and take the washing in. It's just as well I went to do that as suddenly a terrific thunderstorm descended and my garden furniture was lifted up before my eyes. I managed to grab my sunbeds before they were hurled over the parapet to oblivion but even so all the other furniture - steel framed chairs, the metal barbecue and anything loose - was thrown everywhere. I got soaked in a torrent of cold rain. Just look at this mess!

 

The worst of the lightning, torrential rain and ferocious winds was over in 30 minutes and after a couple of hours it was done, but it wasn't a great start to the main holiday date of the year with all the beach facilities having to close. I think Arnold the Olive (aged 4) will survive the mistreatment - he's sprouting olives for the first time.

What a contrast to the previous evening when I enjoyed the fireworks over Sanremo harbour from my eyrie on the mountain.

 

I've been enjoying visits from lots of big fat geckos. I've never actually seen them so big and fat before. There must be lots of tasty bugs about. Also a millipede. I honestly don't think I've ever seen one outside a botanic garden before. I'll keep this image small as I know that some readers hate creepy-crawlies and might jump on a chair and scream.

 

The night sky has been beautiful - the Summer Triangle is almost overhead at these latitudes, and the Perseid meteor shower gave me one or two shooting stars to make a wish on.

It's not so hot this evening and I've actually got a bustier and shorts on with gossamer-thin (5 denier) natural tan tights to make my legs look smoother.

I do love the late summer. Everything seems so alive. Yet so relaxed!

Northern Hemisphere readers: if you are still on holiday, do enjoy every moment. If holidays are coming to an end, I hope you have wonderful memories of your break.

Sue x

13

 I started my blog 13 years ago today and I dare say if it was a real teenager it would be on puberty blockers. Or wouldn't if you live in the wrong part of the world.

I guess that's the big difference between 2011 and now. We were progressing well towards better transgender rights and now we're going backwards. I now live in a different country from where I lived then, and heightened transphobia and general xenophobia in the UK were a major reason for moving. What's not changed, though, is my gender identity. I remain trans, despite all the well-meaning advice from the transphobes that I needn't be if only I tried a little harder.

I continue to write this blog. The first three years were descriptions of my trips out as a woman. Then I got a disfiguring illness, couldn't wear makeup and limped along for the next three years. I was able to enjoy a bit of a comeback in 2018 but then went abroad, supposedly temporarily but ended up remaining. My blog is now more into finding positives in a world that is much less agreeable than when I started blogging. 

 

Let me show you nice things

On a practical level, I have been labelling posts over the last four years to make finding topics easier. I'm going back over older posts to do the same for those but it's a slow process.

Thanks for reading, and for all your comments. 

Sue x

More LGBT books, art and culture for summer

 Some more cultural stuff for summer, with thanks to friends for pointing out a couple of items.

 

Book

I've got a book on my shopping list now, having just read a good review. It's Aldo Simeone's novel Isola dei femminielli, which I'd translate as Pansy Island. Femminiello is a very old Italian term, which I've mentioned here before, for a member of the MtF trans and gay community, especially in Naples. 

The book is set in the late 1930s and based on the very real weeding-out of LGBT people by Mussolini. He had a habit of exiling political and social undersirables to remote mountain villages or offshore islets. In the case of gay men or trans women, they were sent to the Tremiti Islands that lie in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of South East Italy. Stupidly for the instigators of the policy who tried to hide the fact that Italy actually had queer people in it despite the virile image fascism tried to cultivate, the islands became a sort of queer if rough holiday camp where the inmates no longer felt any need to hide their nature. Then the war came and most of them were then drafted into the armed forces, war being the best way of eradicating undesirables (just ask the Russian prison population today). 

There wasn't the distinction then that we make today between a gay man and a trans woman (a distinction which a lot of transphobes continue to refuse to make) so I think my translation using the catch-all British term pansy, which was current in the early twentieth century, seems about right. 

There's not much in the way of trans fiction and this is a general gay/trans novel, but there seems to be a leading trans character in it.

If I manage to find a copy in a bookshop, I'll report back in due course on what I thought of it.

Peter Tatchell

Peter Tatchell is perhaps the best known LGBTQ+ campaigner in Britain, having campaigned above all for gay rights. There is now a portrait of him hanging in the National Portrait Gallery in London, which is quite an accolade as it mainly houses ancient pictures of kings and princesses. Well, he might say he was an old queen, so why not?

Tatchell used to annoy me as youngster with his showman antics, but then I didn't associate my femininity with gay rights and my religious upbringing required me to suppress support for such rights. In the end, Tatchell won out and I have benefited and so I'm pleased to link to the Guardian article on this fittingly flamboyant new portrait. I can't paste the picture here for copyright reasons.

Thanks to Lynn of YATGB for alerting me to this.

Visual arts

‘No one can tell the story better than ourselves,’ proclaims a quote from artist-photographer Zanele Muholi as you enter this exhibition. Maybe so, but the Tate makes a decent fist of trying in this extended showcase of a visual activist who has spent more than two decades focusing their lens on the lives of the South African Black LGBTQIA+ community through vivid portraits and self-portraiture.

Thus opens the Time Out review of Zanele Muholi at London's Tate Modern gallery.

The Tate's description of the exibition here. 

And a review in London's Evening Standard here that ends:

By turns delightful and devastating, it is one of the greatest exercises in self-portraiture of this, or any, age.

That's some praise. 

I hope to be in London in the autumn and will try to catch this.

Thanks to Stella of Stellapix for alerting me to this.

 

Heat update

It's hot all right, made worse by being quite steamy, and it's quite hard to do anything. Incredibly, and very annoyingly, there are builders crawling under and over my flat installing someone else's air conditioning system. Why they didn't do it in the spring rather than waiting till it was really hot, I do not know. Time for that annual aestivation. The outdoor pool awaits...

Sue x

Trams for trans

 Two pieces of positive trans news revolving, of all things, around trams.

Last weekend a trans friend of mine went to work as a volunteer conductor (conductress?) on the trams at the UK's national tram museum at the Crich Tramway Village in Derbyshire. It was her first day on the job and she was attracted to it both by the trams and by their LGBT-friendly policies. If you can do the job with competence and enthusiasm then they'll have you, they said. Which is how any job ought to be. 

She says it was tiring but she really enjoyed it. Obviously there's a lot to learn, even in the apparently simple task of giving out tickets, but interacting with families who were enjoying a day out was the best part. She hopes to go more regularly and eventually, if she's up to the job (of course she is!), they'll put her on a course to become a driver.

It's a pity that Britain got rid of so many of its tramways. London, for instance, lost its trams in 1952, which were replaced by buses. Then they realised that trams have merits after all so they introduced the Croydon Tramlink to South London in 2000, although that's more of a light rail system than a streetcar or trolley. New tram systems have also been reintroduced in other British cities like Manchester, Edinburgh and Nottingham, some more successfully than others. 

I have used public transport most of my life and delays in my getting out in public as a girl were partly due to my reliance on public rather than private transport. On public transport, there's nowhere to hide!

I'm writing on this topic partly to praise the trans-friendly employer above and to pay a promise to put up some of the pictures I took of the old trams in Milan that have been in continuous service since 1928. Milan has had an extensive tram network operating continuously since the nineteenth century so, unlike at Crich, they're not museum pieces - I use them to get about. But I wanted to record their presence as they can't stay in service for ever. Last month I mentioned one of these old trams decked out in Pride colours and since there are a lot of trans girls who like transport and vehicles (I guess you can't take all the boy out of the girl!) I agreed to post pictures here. 

Next time I'll try to photograph and film the interiors with their glass lamps and the wooden seating polished to a high shine. But if you want more info, here's the Wikipedia article.

The best places to see them are in Piazza Cordosio, a busy square in the city centre between the cathedral and the castle, and outside the monumental central station. There are about 150 still in service running on half a dozen routes. Route 5 runs closest to home, hence it features more here.

I'm hoping to edit the various film clips together in due course and put them up on YouTube but here's a bit of film of two trams painted with advertising departing, and a tram in standard livery arriving. You get to hear the noises of trams rattling on rails and the wooden doors opening with a hiss and slap. The guy getting on the middle door, which is for exiting passengers, shows typical local behaviour!

I took photos of the three other types of tram to be seen, dating from the late 1950s, the late 1970s and the more recent low-slung caterpillars. I could give you a close-up of the 1950s tram but I couldn't resist keeping the lady in the snazzy jumpsuit in the picture. Now that's an outfit I don't think I'd ever have the guts to wear in the street, so kudos to her.

And here's the old lady in Pride colours (I identify with her!) and the latest type outside the colossal railway station. The city's transport provider, ATM, is an equal opportunities employer and I'm pleased to report, as the second positive item here, that, as of next year, any trans person may used their preferred name and gender on their season ticket. This measure has been brought in thanks to the hard work of our wonderful trans councillor, Monica Romano, who was elected on the basis of locals having tried everyone else so why not trust a trans for once! That trans-positive campaign worked, as I mentioned in 2021. And here we are.

Enjoy your travels, girls.

Sue x

Wuthering heats

They're late this year, but the hot days have finally arrived and it's been hard to sleep. Although daytime temperatures of around 35°C (that's 95°F) are OK, it's when the temperature doesn't fall at night that it becomes a problem and I don't sleep so well. A sea breeze normally builds up in the evening but when the sea surface gets too hot (it's 28°C now, like the Caribbean) then that doesn't happen and we suffer tropical nights. Such nights just aren't good for the beauty regime!

I've been spending most of my time this week in my bikini, the same as everybody else! And no I won't be sharing a photo!

To cool down, I've been making melon sorbet again, or rather melon water-ice, which is even nicer with some cold prosecco. 

A sorbet is really a water-ice or granita that's been churned smooth, whereas my item is simply frozen as I don't have a machine (or scullery maid) to do the churning. 

It's easy enough to make: 

Squeeze juicy fruits like oranges or melons (I grate the latter as I like the pulp), or any soft fruit, and set aside. 

Measure how much juice you have. You now need as much sugar syrup as that, which you can make from simply adding granulated sugar to water in equal measures and boiling until it becomes a clear syrup.

Let it cool and then add it to the fruit juice. Sometimes a bit of lemon juice can add some fruity tang that may otherwise be lost to sweetness.

Mix it up and put it in the freezer. It'll take about 24 hours to set fully.

Yum. Just right for a hot day. A full of Vitamin C. So it's a health food!

The good stuff

Just adding more to the summer season of things that are positive in the world of gender fluidity. Such as the Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever events around the world. Celebrating not the Emily Brontë novel but the Kate Bush song. Just turn up in a long red dress and do the moves. Try this example from last weekend at Margate, England. 

 

I've always spotted a TGirl or two in the crowd at these events. And don't tell me there is any man out there who doesn't want to dress up as Kate Bush. As you can see, a beard can compliment a red dress quite nicely. Who cares that the choreography is a little unco-ordinated. This is for people to enjoy themselves.

On the subject of public dances, I have never been much of a fan of traditional English morris dances with hankies and bells. ("Try everything once, except incest and morris dancing," Sir Thomas Beecham famously said). The border morris tradition, though, is a different matter, with disguise and hidden identity being an essential part of it. Being a former resident of Devon, I support the Beltane Border Morris group who have a lively modern approach to an ancient tradition and I'm pleased to note a couple of non-binary dancers in their team. As is tradition. Their spooky and wild whirlings on Dartmoor at summer solstice or on the seashore at sunset are a unique sight. Try this recent offering from the beautiful town of Lyme Regis, Dorset.

Stay cool.

Sue x

So proud

 Just a quick note to say how good it's been to hear from various friends about the pride events that took place this past weekend. 

Grace went to London Trans Pride in Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and it seems to have been a well-attended event. I notice blogger Claire did too and has a lot of photos: Trans Pride London.

Tania went to Nottingham Pride where, among other things, they boast the world's largest trans flag. So did Lynn who has an enthusiastic post about it: Notts Pride 2024. Glad it went well and, again, was well-attended.

Violetta went to Pride in Innsbruck, Austria, and she's just posted about it (in German but there is a translation button to the right of her blog if you'd like it in English or, indeed, Uzbek if that's your tongue): Innsbruck Pride.

Since moving to Italy I've been getting to know the trans groups Arcigay and Crossdresser Italia and there was a good turnout at Pride in Reggio Calabria, right at the very opposite and of the peninsula to me, which has always been said to have the most beautiful promenade in the entire country, looking across the strait to Sicily and Mount Etna in eruption. It's even prettier with a lot of pride colours, I think. One video of the event: 

 

All very uplifting. One day, these events won't have to be a protest, just a general celebration of diversity that everyone feels they belong to. (Hey, you can't help being cis! You were likely born that way.)

Sue x

The good stuff

 For all the noisy transphobia in the more macho yet minority sections of society these days, be it populist politicians, extremist media, radical feminists or kids' fantasy writers, I still perceive increasing understanding and tolerance of trans people in more normal, less deranged groups in society. We trans people worry about the haters but I'd like to note here the positive stuff I've read about just this week alone.

Such as the feature length article in my regular science monthly that has an unbiased explanation of our current understanding of the neurobiology of gender identity. Trans people are not mentally ill and being trans is a real and naturally occurring condition for a portion of the population, and always has been in every age and culture. How might this be brought about by biology, by environment, by conditioning, the article asks? The science is in its early days, but biology not social conditioning is the main player and the article debunks fears of detransition or of teen transgenderism as one form of teen rebellion. And this all being the case, how come trans people are still subject to discrimination? The well-balanced article is by Massimo Sandal, a molecular and computational biologist who is cisgender. There is no English translation to link to and I can't put one up myself for copyright reasons but I mention it as I feel his audience will appreciate the properly scientific approach to the subject.

Or Mexico City's new law against "transfemicide" that aims specifically to tackle the killing of trans people, almost always trans women. A much needed step to reduce violent hate crime.

France 24 article

Guardian UK article

My monthly Italian tourism magazine is recommending a drag queen version of Anton Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard. Chekhov is a great playwright and, well, drag queens like to perform, so it could be a version made in heaven!

 

I also notice a new book, Altricorpi ("Other bodies") by Paolo Armelli, published by Blackie, about finding love in the queer community in an age when love and its pursuit is both changing and flexible. And not just romantic love but acceptance. It looks like a vast range of contemporary experience is covered, whilst referencing past lives, such as that of Julius Caesar, "the world's most famous bisexual". Well, I did know Caesar had certain bedfellows who were politically useful, although I suspect he'll always be better known for clobbering Gauls and invading Britain. But anyway.

 

The review of this I have been reading is in the Sunday supplement to my regular newspaper, which has always treated LGBT themes as a normal part of human life.

A bit of positivity helps us along.

Have a good weekend.

Sue x

Movements: Scotland, conclusion

This is one of my best "out and about" posts ever, in such beautiful and unusual places. 

It had been nearly six years since I was last out and about presenting as fully female. There are lots of reasons for that and I won't go over them again but suffice to say it's been an unsatisfactory situation. My previous post described my trip to Scotland up to the point I flipped and realised that I was sick of being merely a vaguely androgynous visitor and needed to be my real self again. Maybe staying with another transwoman was part of the catalyst, maybe a sense of greater security, maybe the pink fog just became a pink thunderstorm. Or all three.

I mentioned this trip briefly in May but I'd like to record it in more detail. If nothing else, Easter Ross and Sutherland are not a part of the world many people have been to, or even heard of, yet they are very beautiful and we were blessed with lovely spring weather.

Despite initial nerves, which you can imagine after so long out of the limelight, they gave way to excitement. My makeup and hair were not perfect, but OK. It's not like I was going to be on TV! They say there are four seasons in a day in the Highlands so, although the forecast was good, I chose something reasonably pretty for spring - a short floral dress that I've slimmed enough to get back into - but with sensible ankle boots and my faithful M&S Active leggings, which are not so close-fitting as they used to be. I think I need to buy a couple of sizes smaller now. Besides, you can never have too many leggings, I say. I took a fleece and a coat, which were sometimes necessary later. My outfit worked with the weather and locations. Roz is a less chilly mortal than myself and had a knee-length cotton dress on, but she took her smart pink coat too as a precaution.

We headed north, first to Tain, a small market town on the Dornoch Firth on Scotland's East Coast. The first photo was in the high street and this is my first out-and-about picture since 2018!

 

It's quite a nice little town and the main places to visit are around the local church, dedicated to local saint, Doothac or Doothus (that's Doothus, not Doofus, dear American friends!). 

 

Here's us two ladies on the "Happy to Chat Bench" in the churchyard.

 

 

The rose garden is also pleasant. 

 

The town's also known for the Glenmorangie whisky distillery, and the inevitable golf course.

Back at the car, a woman carrying a small dog buzzed around us. "I've lost my husband," she declared. We weren't at first sure whether to offer her condolences or take her literally and tut at her carelessness. She resolved the situation by stating, "It's OK, I'm not that bothered," as she wandered off. If only they all took it so well! I was simply pleased that someone interacted with us like any other women.

Onwards and northwards, across the Dornoch Firth ...

... to Dornoch itself, a delightful town with a historic courthouse, Scotland's smallest cathedral and a bishop's castle.

I particularly liked the green Victorian fountain outside the cathedral, with its hidden crocodiles.

The castle is now a hotel which has a lovely beer garden where we had a little bite to eat in the sunshine.

Miss Cheeky Chips

The shady back part of the castle garden was especially pretty.

 

And then there's the town's Historylinks Museum which packs a huge amount in a tiny space. My favourite bit was the diorama depicting local hero, the Earl of Sutherland, clobbering his Danish antagonist with the leg of a horse! They don't make heroes like that nowadays, that's for sure! Perhaps it's just as well that men are a little less wild today. What the horse thought of this is not recorded.

Food at the castle had been light so at this point I opted to visit local chocolatiers Cocoa Mountain where I indulged in an incredibly sticky croissant and a cup of thick hot chocolate so large and so drizzled with chocolate of all kinds that I have honestly never quite seen its like before. I should have taken a photo as this from their site doesn't do it justice. 

 

Gender sensible toilets and friendly staff, too. Recommended.

We also went down to the shore where there is a windy golf course and, in a private garden, a stone testifying to the execution of the last person tried for witchcraft in Great Britain. A woman, of course. It's almost always women who are accused of being witches. One Janet Horne, whose daughter suffered from a deformation of hands and feet so that locals accused her mother of having made them that way so she could ride her daughter like a horse at night. How much more enlightened we are now, with just flat earthers and shape-shifting alien lizards for rulers. Mind you, there are all those weird trans people about. Solidarity, sister.

North of Dornoch is Loch Fleet, a small sea loch. But I wanted to stop here as the inspiring Miss Twist had taken a particularly nice photo at this spot.

Then the sun came out properly so the coat came off!

Northwards still to Dunrobin Castle. I wondered if it's pronounced Dunroabin, like Dunroamin, in that the Earl of Sutherland who built it hung up his ermine robe once and for all; but Roz thinks it's pronounced Dunrobbin, which suggests the earl stopped stealing. One of his ancestors certainly purloined horse's legs, so who knows? (NB clan fans: this is all in the pursuit of humour; the honesty of the earls of Sutherland is not impugned.)

Partly unrobed

 

It was almost closing time for the castle itself so we wandered in the leafy park instead.

There were cannons to play with, too.

And on we drove through the old county of Sutherland with its rolling landscape of sheep and buzzards. We passed through Lairg, "crossroads of the North" with its railways station that's almost like an open-air railway museum. The village is also apparently the centre of one of the larges meteorite impact sites on earth. Striking!

We stopped to look across the river at Carbisdale Castle, now owned by trans woman Samantha Kane, Lady Carbisdale, the sort of trans person the British gutter press love to vilify for having dared not only to transition but to detransition and retransition. She owns a castle and a title, so I don't think she's done too badly. The British press really stinks.

And then we drove on to Bonar Bridge, which interested me because of the battles near there in 1650 and 1746, in the Civil War and the Forty-Five Uprising.

And from there to the wonderful views from Struie Hill across the Dornoch Firth. The wind was strong but the spring sunshine really illuminated the landscape.

A view inland

A view seawards, sitting pretty on a wall

Just as well it's a well-worn wig!

The Dornoch Firth and the North Sea beyond

What a wonderful day. And feeling my fem self properly again after all these years.

Many thanks again to my wonderful friend Roz for her hospitality, and to Miss Twist for her pictorial suggestions. For comparison, you can follow the latter's trips, including some of the places I visited, such as Loch Fleet and Loch Ness here, and Eilean Donan Castle here.

The next day I had to go back to the badlands of England so this was my last day in Scotland this time, and it was the best.

Sue x