Dear Reader,
We have some very exciting cover news to share! 🤗 First, though, in our last newsletter we promised we’d tell you all about our trip to the Braemar Gathering…
The Braemar Gathering
On the first Saturday in September, we got up at the crack of dawn and drove from Glasgow up to the Highlands for the Braemar Gathering, which is probably the world’s most famous Highland Games.
After a pretty dreich summer, it was a scorching day. We couldn’t have asked for better weather for an outdoor event. 🌞
We were lucky to be seated in the second row and had a great view of all the events: the caber toss, hammer throw, shot put, tug of war, Highland dancing, races, and many more. We even witnessed a new world record being set for weight over the bar. And there were a lot of pipe bands!
And, yes, King Charles and Queen Camilla made an appearance, with Charles donning a kilt. We did take a few pics but they didn’t come out the best. However, if you scroll down to our Scotland in the News section, you’ll find a link to a news article with some professional shots of the royals.
Redecorating
We’ve been redecorating our bedroom: painting the walls, ripping up the old carpet so a new one can be installed, and ordering a new (and bigger) bed.
Daisy, our cocker spaniel, starts off each night in her dog bed but inevitably finds her way into ours before the night is through, at which point it can become quite cramped. Hopefully this is a better arrangement!
We’ve also been working on a different kind of redecorating: alternative covers for the True Scotsman series in a different style to our existing ones. We wanted you to be the first to see them.
So, here are both the existing covers (top) and the alternative covers (below):
We’d love to hear your thoughts. Which do you like better: the old or the new?
Scotland in the News
The King and Queen enjoyed the Braemar Highland Games (as you know, we were there!).
A tiny Scottish island was the setting for the World Stone Skimming Championship (if you’ve read The Highland Crush, you’ll know that Lewis enjoyed skimming stones in his youth while hanging out at Loch Bannock with Iona).
Two young women went on a three-day trek to reach Scotland’s most remote pub.
xx,
Amy and Gavin
(the wife-and-husband team writing as Amy McGavin)