re: #26 klys (maker of Silmarils)

Completely unrelated: so have you done the Islay area in Scotland? Any recommendations? The mr. and I definitely want to hit it at some point, and there’s a family wedding in the UK next July…

We have not. We’ve done a week on Skye (which for a geologist is just a wet dream). She Who Must Be Obeyed was taking a course there and I hitchhiked and bussed all over the island, banging on rocks, walking faults, and climbing intrusive plutons, which are not nearly as dirty as they sound. It was glorious.

Islay is small, reached by ferry, and can be completely covered in two or three days. Iain Banks wrote a travelogue published in 2003 where he was paid (!!) to visit every active distillery in Scotland (Raw Spirit). Check it out at the library and give it a read. It’s a lovely book by a wonderful author who was taken from us far too quickly by, of all things, cancer of the gall bladder (who knew?).