Crathes Castle Garden and Sea Birds

This was the final tour on our cruise in the British Isles.

Birds Seen from the Ship

Thus begins the challenge of catching up with all the photos I took during the voyage while I had inadequate internet access to upload them and little time to create blog posts! This is shared with several weekend blogger collections.

Photos © 2026 mae sander

Kitchen Scenes

Here, in no particular order, are some of the photos I took when touring two Great Houses along our route in the British Isles last week. The families who own these houses, which also have beautiful formal and less formal gardens, lived there until fairly recently, so the kitchens combine historic display items with slightly older equipment for preparing grand dinners and family meals. Some of these photos were in a post I did last week, but I wanted to include them again.

I’m writing this while watching a version of a Jane Austen novel on TV — I suspect that these kitchens would have been quite similar to the ones in the houses she wrote about, though the characters in the novels weren’t generally in any kitchens. They are definitely similar to the ones in many TV series about the British upper classes and their servants!

This meat grinder, which has a clamp for attaching to a table, is very much like the one I had until recently.

Photos © 2926 mae sander

Flew Home Yesterday

 

Delta Airlines Meal: curry chicken and rice with tiramisu for dessrt.

Oysters!

 

Afternoon Bus Tour of Slea Head Drive, Dingel Peninsula

 

Gallarus Oratory, Dingel Peninsula. This stone building, called a rubble monastery, is about 1300 years old. Settlements near the building were destroyed by later Viking and Norman invaders.

Blog post © 2026 mae sander

Skellig MIchael and Little Skellig Islands

 

A huge number of gannets breed on these two tiny islands near Ireland.

Photos © 2026 mae sander

Irish Music

 

Yesterday in the seaside town of Cobh, we listened to some great Irish folk music.

Photo © 2026 mae sander

More photos to come later today!

Birds and other creatures in the Scilly Isles

 

European Robin

Atlantic Grey Seal

Photos © 2026 mae sander

Lanhydrock, An Estate in Cornwall

Our National Geographic ship is now making its way along the southern coast of Britain — that is, we are in Cornwall. This afternoon, we visited a stately home named Lanhydrock, which was mainly built in the 19th century. The kitchens are the most interesting exhibit, and are furnished with original equipment as well as plenty of fake food and a few docents in costume. Of course as I contemplated the polished copper, the huge fireplace, the large crockery vessels and the obvious number of servants who must have worked there, I thought about the TV shows that included scenes in such kitchens — particularly Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey.

One of the larders.

The oven.

Our cruise will continue to make its way around the British Isles, and assuming that I’m able to continue blogging, I’ll document at least part of each day’s activities as we proceed. 

Photos © 2026 mae sander