It is fascinating when you drive through the country and see all these little white dots everywhere around you! And as typical as the sheep are the little stone walls that should actually keep the sheep within the walls. But that is just a theory; driving around you will notice that the sheep do not care at all about these stone walls and walk on the streets in particular in the highlands and on the western islands.

The problem is that sheep have always and everywhere the right of way in Scotland, so if one is hurt by a car you have to find out the farmer and tell him about the accident immediately otherwise the consequences can be unpleasant…

Sheep are not only reared for the meet – even if there are loads of nice typical British dishes made of lamb or mutton, e.g. Shepherds’ Pie, Roast lamb, Lamb Stew, …

Another product from sheep is the wool – lots of products are made from sheep’s wool, in particular clothing like knitwear, jumpers, socks,…

But did you know that wool is also very helpful to tackle oil spills and prevent animals to be poisoned by the oil spill?

Another interesting fact is the new development of using sheep’s wool as insulation material in the building and construction sector. Especially in terms of the new green agenda public becomes more conscious about environmental friendly decisions. The building industry is the biggest consumer of resources in particular energy and raw material. Due to the growing population in the world, which is expected to increase by about 50% from about 6 billion to over 9 billion people between 2005 and 2035, the exploitation of resources and pollution especially by the emission of greenhouse gases is predicted to increase even more. The building sector in the United States uses the largest amount of material by weight and pollutes significantly the earth’s environment.

Therefore a big goal is to support a more sustainable development when planning and designing new cities and buildings. Insulation plays an important role in this field, with help of better insulation the operating energy of a building can be reduced by about 50% by better insulation – this does not only save energy it also saves a lot of money!

The new focus next to operating energy lies on the embodied energy of building material which is sequestered over the different stages of a products life cycle from raw material extraction to the disposal. The embodied energy can be compared by taking density, thermal conductivity and actual thickness of the material into account by comparing the embodied energy of the material needed to meet a certain functional unit, e.g. insulation of 1m² loft achieving a mandatory u-value of 0.16 W/m²K (UK building regulations). Sheep’s wool is a very good alternative to conventional insulation material like mineral wool in terms of embodied energy. However, the picture changes completely as soon as the embodied carbon is compared. The biggest factor is methane – including methane emissions of sheep in the considerations the embodied carbon of sheep’s wool is extremely high compared to conventional alternatives.

So lambs are not only cute – there are quite a lot of aspects why you should deal with them!

My friend took them on because rejected/orphaned lambs often die as the farmers don’t have time and can’t afford to nurse each one individually. She is keeping them in order to build up a flock of her own as she enjoys keeping sheep, so some of them will be staying on as breeding stock.

There will also be one or two (named Flopsy and Tod) who will be kept as pets, as they are very attached to people and have really lovely little personalities.

Es ging von Dumfries über Glasgow, einem Besuch von Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park weiter nach Oban, Glencoe und Fort William.

Dann nach einem Besuch des berühmten Castles Eilean Donan über die Skye Bridge nach Skye, durch die Cuillins, Besichtigung der Talisker Distillery, weiter zum Old Man of Storr und den Kilt Rock Wasserfällen in den Norden der Insel.

Dann mit der Fähre von Uig nach Tarbert, wo die Golden Road entlang der herrlichen Strände und Küste von Süd-Harris einfach ein Muss ist, ebenso wie die Fahrt durch Nord-Harris nach Lewis, wo die Callanish Stones und Blackhouses von Garenin die Highlights sind.

Weiter ging es von Stornoway nach Ullapool (ein wunderschönes Städtchen am Meer!), Besichtigung der Measach Wasserfälle und nach Inverness, von wo natürlich ein Ausflug zu Nessi nach Loch Ness sowie dem Urquhart Castle auf dem Programm standen.

Dann ging es durch den Cairngorm National Park über die Glenfiddich Distillery die Ostküste entlang durch Aberdeen, Dundee und St Andrews nach Edinburgh.

Nach Edinburgh haben wir Stirling Castle sowie das Wallace Memorial besichtigt und dann in Glasgow unsere Rundreise beendet.

Ich kann es nicht in Worte fassen es war einfach sehr beeindruckend und wunderschön und ich kann es nur jedem empfehlen!

A Charrette is a planning process that involves the public and gives everybody the opportunity to get involved in the whole process. The event took place at Easterbrook Hall, a designer team from the United States came over to work on this Sustainable Development plan together with locals.

There were several presentations every day to inform people and to give locals the chance to say they opinion. Every day the design studio was open to public and people had the chance to discuss the designs with the architects, get an over view over the whole process and become part of this development.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/AandP/Projects/SSCI/SSCICharretteSeries

The design team from the United States spent one week in Dumfries visiting Crichton Campus and several places in Dumfries and Galloway.

From here we went on to Dundrennan Abbey and enjoyed walking around the ruins of this beautiful building which is still very impressive!

Finally we stopped in Rockcliff and went for a wonderful walk along the sunny beach…

• 3 eggs
• 120g self raising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 135ml milk
• A large pinch of sugar
• Salt

Trick: Seperating the eggs and whisking the whites with some salt until getting stiff.

With the yolks and the rest of the ingredients mix a thick batter and fold above in the end.

Sprinkle different flavours like blueberries, banana, apple, sweet corn, chocolate, syrup,…

• 1 litre self made chicken stock
• 400g chicken thighs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Some butter
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 chopped garlic cloves
• 250g butternut squash
• 400g risotto rice
• 2 glasses dry white wine or martini
• Sea salt and black pepper (freshly grounded)
• 100g parmesan cheese (freshly grated)

Stage 1: roast the chicken thighs in olive oil and salt in the oven

Stage 2: heat the stock in a separate pot

Stage 3: cook the onion, garlic and butternut squash in the oil and butter in a separate pan for about 15 minutes.

Turn up the heat and add the risotto rice and turn up the heat, fry the rice stirring it and add the wine.

When the wine has cooked in, turn the heat down, add the chicken and gradually stock and some salt and let it absorb (takes another 15 minutes) until rice is cooked.

Finally add butter and parmesan and let sit for some time

…and ENJOY with a nice glass of wine

Es war sehr spannend, wir haben eine Führung durch die komplette Anlage bekommen, haben den Boiler, die Holzzufuhr und auch die große SIEMENS Turbine gesehen und einiges über die Energieerzeugung mit Biomasse – wie in diesem Falle Holz – erfahren.

Unter anderem haben wir einen Ausflug zu „Natural Power“ einem Consulting Unternehmen für Renewable Energy unternommen. Alleine schon die Anfahrt war abenteuerlich, es hatte geschneit und das Büro ist mitten im Nirgendwo in einem großen Waldgebiet gelegen, so haben wir im Bus eine abenteuerliche Fahrt auf einer verschneiten Forststrasse hinter uns bringen müssen bevor wir dort ankamen.

Auch das Gebäude ist einfach gigantisch: Es ist ein Holzbau mit großen Fenstern und gras bewachsenem Dach.

Alles auch im Inneren ist aus Holz, es ist hell und freundlich, es gibt einen kleinen Fitnessraum, ein eigenes Haus für die Hunde der Mitarbeiter, jeder kann seinen Hund mitbringen und die Hunde haben dann einen schönen Tag mit viel Auslauf, es gibt eine große Küche und an Tagen mit weniger Schnee und Nebel als an diesem Tag hat man wohl auch einen herrlichen Ausblick…

Wir haben spannende Präsentationen gehört und eigentlich stand ein Ausflug zu einer der Wind Power Anlagen auf dem Programm, der wegen Schnee leider verschoben wurde, da die Strassen nicht zu befahren waren.

Schade aber auch so ein Erlebnis!