Burns Night celebratory question no. 3...

I have some Scottish ancestry, which shows up in my love of shortbread.

I went out with a lovely chap that lived there once… In the early days of dating I travelled to St. Andrews from Lancashire on a whim, it took me just over six hours to get there just me and my sixteen month old baby… I was a little. bit. bonkers. at the time… but it was an experience.

That and the fact that I have red hair which people tend to associate with Scotland… but not biologically related in anyway…

Lots of Wallace in my background, lots of thermoses with our family tartan.

I’m of Scottish ancestry. With a Mc at the beginning of my last name and a castle by the same name still presided over by the head of the clan.

I dated a man named Ruel. ;)

I use to be married to a McGhee.

My BIL Rolly is a Scotsman and you don’t want to sit down with a bottle of whiskey with him…you won’t get up and he will leave you where you lie! XD

I have some Scots ancestry through my maternal grandmother.

I love meat pies!

I wore a kilt once & yes the package was unwrapped XD I reckon that’s what the sporran’s for, keeping the dangly objects pinned down.

My only celebrity dream lovers are both Scotsmen :-)
The accent really does it for me.

The next morning when I finally got up my BIL commented…“Look’s like you been dooking for apples in a chip pan”. Anybody know what exactly he meant by that?? My sister thought it was funny…

@Cruiser He meant like you’d been dunking your face in the hot grease fryer :-)

@Cruiser Ha ha!!!!!!! :-D

My favorite philosopher is the Scottish empiricist David Hume.

I was absolutely enamored of the Bay City Rollers in my youth. Check out this video

I love bagpipe music and regularly download it off of itunes.

I love Alan Cummings and Craig Ferguson and Mike Myers

I love the song Mull of Kintyre by Paul McCartney.

I love Scottish dancing like this and this

I love to make Scottish shortbread like this

I love men in kilts like these fellows, but I especially love this picture of Alan Rickman in a kilt and this photo of Liam Neeson in a kilt. I love this photo of colorful kilts and socks and shoes here

I love the British author Rosamunde Pilcher who’s book Winter Solstice is mainly set in Scotland.

I loved James Doohan, Star Trek’s Scotty

I love Scottish Terrier dogs.

And I love butterscotch, but alas, I found out that butterscotch is not even from Scotland. You can read about the history of butterscotch here

@Kardamom Bagpipe music! Excellent!

@Kardamom Wow, great effort!! :-)

I have no ties to Scotland, save for my love of Jamie Fraser from the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. RAWR.

I use scotch tape.

Eve got kweet a bit of Scotch in meh, but dinna fash yerself o’er it; it meekes meh ‘appy.

oh @Kardamom lurve lurve lurve xxx

@WillWorkForChocolate I love your accent! Makes me melt!

@AstroChuck Thanx for sharing.
Both sides of my family have highland connections.

Haf a coop o’ tay wit a dollup o suga?

@Kardamom Thank ye lass!

I was looking up “You’ll have had your tea” just now, for the Hamish & Dougal comedy series on Radio 4 with Graeme Garden and Barry Cryer, and came up with this. I think I’ll have to try some of the recipes!

@Kardamom Wins the “Jelly Sausage” Award for most links in a post.

@Seelix Will you share Jamie Fraser with me? What a love story Outlander is!

@Tropical_Willie I have to say, you sound a bit more like you’re from Dudley in the Midlands, than Scotland!!

My father’s parents were from Edinburgh, my wee Grannie left in 1921. There is a sizable contingent of relatives there, my fathers cousins, but none I know.

I have no actual Scottish ancestry but I’ve visited just about every year for the last 4 years. I adore Scotland. Also my name is Scottish, and shared with a Hebridean island.

My ancestors are traced back to Clan muir
On my mothers side, I have relatives who live in Keith who I visit twice a year on my way to Inverness & the highlands for walking holidays…. Once I got lost in Glasgow, upon stopping a merry gent to ask directions he immediately threw up the contents of his stomach in to the gutter.. Staggered back a few steps & muttered some words I have no comprehension of to this day… good deed done he went off on his merry way & fell in to a passing bush! :-/
Oh & I love my whiskies too.. :-)
It’s in my blood, as often as is possible Lol….... ”Slainte”........

My old PE teacher from school was a hairy arsed barbarian…...i’m sorry, a scotsman. Jock Strap was his name, big tough uncompromising fella he was….....man he had balls! :¬)

I have ancestors there, but they are just names on a family tree at this point.

Regarding Burns, I think Monty Python got it right.

I do like this one tho. I had to memorize it in 6th grade.

My Heart’s in the Highlands
by Robert Burns

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart’s in the Highlands wherever I go.

Farewell to the mountains high covered with snow;
Farewell to the straths and green valleys below;
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods;
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
A-chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe,
My heart’s in the Highlands wherever I go.

Oh yes! I forgot I use Scotch Whiskey when I make homemade Irish Cream. Yummmy!

Harple’s and my immigration attorney, whom we met today for the first time, is a Scotsman, a former IT guy who now sells cars. How’s that for a tenuous connection?

When I was seven years old, my father brought a recording of bagpipe music home from the library. The sound of it stopped me in my tracks. I was enthralled. I’d never heard anything of the sort before, but it stirred my blood from the first strains.

He was Canadian, and one of his grannies was a full-blooded MacNeill.

I still love bagpipes and will stop what I’m doing anywhere, anytime, when I hear the sound and just listen. If I’m out in the world somewhere, I will move toward it, almost as if I can’t help myself. It’s a powerful effect.

All my life I longed to visit Scotland, and in 1998 I did. It was wonderful, everything I’d hoped it would be. I would go back again in preference to a lot of first-time visits I might make elsewhere, but since the odds are against it, I’ll treasure my memories of my one chance.

That same year I also joined the local Scottish society and participated for a while, including attending Burns Nights, but I found it a rather closed group, very hard to break into—I mean hard even to get people sitting at the same table with me at potlucks to acknowledge my presence and respond to my conversational overtures—so after a couple of years I gave it up.

My paternal grandparents are Scottish and I grew up in an English town 300 miles from Scotland but with a very large Scottish population – so large that the townsfolk have a distinctively Scottish accent. The town has the largest Rangers supporters club outside of Glasgow, two Church of Scotland churches, an annual highland games and the local chip shop is called The Frying Scotsman.

However, my favourite link to Scotland was being at Wembley to watch England beat them in the European Championships in 1996, when Paul Gascoigne scored his wonder goal, the single most sublime moment of footballing genius I’ve ever seen. Yes, yes, yes, YESSSSSS!

@AmWiser Jameson’s is Irish Whiskey, not Scotch.

Willie the Groundskeeper is my second cousin once removed.

I have Scottish ancestors way back in my family tree. Scotland is one of my favorite places to visit and, in my opinion, Loch Ness is the most beautiful place in the world.

Skye Terriers are my favourite breed of dog (they share that title with the Staffordshire Bull Terrier though).

@Leanne1986 : I’m a Westie person, myself, when going with Scottish dogs. :-)

@JilltheTooth Westie’s are awesome little dogs, I can’t deny that and Scotties are great too. I like all the Scottish terrier breeds for their temperaments but the Skye’s are bigger (well, longer actually) than both the Scotty and the Westie and have you seen how delightful their ears are? http://www.puppypurebred.com/index.php/cPath/21_272.

By the way, can someone explain to me how I can make that link smaller. I see many people link things here with just a single word!

@Leanne

“descriptor”: then URL right after colon will do it

Example

Skye.

@janbb Thank you :)

By George, she’s got it!

So all that PMing was extraneous, huh? Glad you got it so quick!

@JilltheTooth That helped too, I saw @janbb‘s response before your PM. :)

I’m with @Jeruba Everytime I hear a bagpipe it gives me the chills and I get a little lump in my throat. They have an annual local “highland games” in our town and it’s really fun to attend. I really love the Scottish dancing. I like it much better than the Irish dancing (which is done with the hands down at the sides rather than up like the Scots do. ) Then they have both marching bands of bagpipers and bagpipe soloists. And all of these beautiful men in kilts. It’s just breathtaking.

One of the cutest sights is seeing little tiny kids dressed up in full regalia. Like these fellows

And I just found a very funny picture of a little dog in a kilt here

@Kardamom LOL, my husband has a tshirt that says, “It’s a KILT. It’s only a skirt if you’re wearing underwear!”