Weekend

I just realized I have exactly a week left in Dufftown. I am a little homesick, to be sure, but it will be very difficult to leave here, also. And not only because I have many unfinished things to resolve.

Yesterday Andy and the Glenfiddich team organized a nice BBQ for about forty people at the 'beach' (mostly rocks) where I had been encouraged to collect pebbles (rocks) for the burial of the cask (which is actually called a butt, but...). They had a pig on a spit and lots of whiskey, gin and vodka to drink, followed by an enormous bonfire made up of wood from trees that had to be removed from the site, staves from old barrels, etc. It must have been at least 20 feet high. Martina took this shot which comes closest to capturing the strange purple smoke it was emitting.

Miraculously it didn't rain us out until almost 11 o'clock. Cycling home in the rain and wind and mud was particularly hard when tired and tipsy, but mostly so because it gets pitch black here at night. In certain areas you can't see your hand in front of your face. By 'certain areas' I mean most of the 15 minute ride home.