Light the North #8

Having completed our chores in Aberdeen Mrs CBL and I headed down to Aberdeen Harbour to find another of the CLAN Lighthouse Sculptures.  It is very colourful and  ‘shone’ brightly on a misty day.

There are two parts to today’s blip image which are explained below.

Lighthouse Sculpture
'Liquid Gold' painted by Judith Berrill is on show just where the River Dee flows into the North Sea at Footdee.  It shines a light on the art of Scottish whisky making. The story is told in words on the bands of the lighthouse and in the pictures. From the soft clear water from the rivers, springs and mountains, the barley, strangely shaped copper stills and pagoda roofs, the seasoned oak barrels and the multitude of bottles and brands, the result is 'a glass of liquid gold'. 

Angels’ Share
One of the terms you’ll often hear when touring a whisky distillery is “the angels’ share”.  When whisky is slowly maturing in its cask, a small amount of whisky evaporates through the wood and into the atmosphere.  Each year, roughly 2% of the liquid leaves the cask this way, so over the years distillers have come to think of this as a sacrifice to the heavens.  By giving the angels their share, they ensure the whisky is the best it can possibly be when it’s bottled.  Why this happens and what  can be done about it is just one of the more complex jobs for Master Distillers to contend with.

Today’s blip is dedicated to blipper “Angel’s Share” whose journal is (as it says on the photo) a pure joy.  She is great fun and her photos a delight to see.  Occasionally a drink can be seen or referred to in her blips.  In her case as she lives in Ireland it would be whiskey and not whisky ;-)