OUTLANDER quotes to cool you off

Considering that many parts of the US are suffering a brutal heat wave this week (the Raleigh-Durham (NC) airport, near where I live, broke an all-time record this afternoon with a temp of 106F!), I thought it might be a good time to share a few winter pictures that remind me of the OUTLANDER books, in an attempt to help us stay cool. I first posted this collection a few years ago. Hope it helps a little bit!

* * * SPOILER WARNING!! * * *

If you haven't read all of the OUTLANDER books, you will find spoilers below! Read at your own risk.



1) Grandfather Mountain, NC, near where Fraser's Ridge is supposed to be located. (Photo credit: akunkle99, on Flickr.)

The snow was falling thicker and faster, and I felt some uneasiness. If it covered his tracks before I found him, how would I find my way back to the cabin?

I looked back, but could see nothing behind me but a long, treacherous slope of unbroken snow that fell to the dark line of an unfamiliar brook below, its rocks poking up like teeth. No sign of the cheerful plume of smoke and sparks from our chimney. I turned slowly round in a circle, but I could no longer see the falls, either.

“Fine,” I muttered to myself. “You’re lost. Now what?” I sternly quelled an incipient attack of panic, and stood still to think. I wasn’t totally lost. I didn’t know where I was, but that wasn’t quite the same thing. I still had Jamie’s trail to guide me--or would have, until the snow covered it. And if I could find him, he presumably could find the cabin.

(From DRUMS OF AUTUMN by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 21, "Night on a Snowy Mountain". Copyright© 1997 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

2) Ashness Bridge, the Lake District, England, near where Helwater is supposed to be located. (Photo credit: Mark & Sue, on Flickr.)

It was so cold out, he thought his cock might break off in his hand--if he could find it. The thought passed through his sleep-mazed mind like one of the small, icy drafts that darted through the loft, making him open his eyes.

(From THE SCOTTISH PRISONER by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 1, "April Fool". Copyright© 2011 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

3) This picture shows a cabin built around 1820 near Grandfather Mountain, NC (very close to where Fraser's Ridge is supposed to be located). This is very much the way I picture the original cabin on the Ridge. Just imagine trying to stay warm in a little cabin like that through the bitter winters of the 1770s, with a small child to care for:

[W]hen I got up this morning, the water in the basin was so cold I had to warm water in a pan on the fire before I washed Jemmy.

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 18, "Vroom!". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

4) The photo above shows Corrimony Cairn, where General Simon Fraser of Balnain was buried. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

It was a long walk from the farmhouse at Balnain. As it was early January in Scotland, it was also wet and cold. Very wet. And very cold. No snow--and I rather wished there had been, as it might have discouraged Hugh Fraser’s insane notion--but it had been raining for days, in that dismal way that makes hearths smoke, and even clothes that have not been outside grow damp, and drives the chill so far into your bones that you think you’ll never be warm again.

(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 75, "Sic Transit Gloria Mundi". Copyright© 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

5) Icicles in Boone, NC, in the vicinity of Fraser's Ridge. (Photo credit: eightylbs, on Flickr.)

January 21 was the coldest day of the year. Snow had fallen a few days before, but now the air was like cut crystal, the dawn sky so pale it looked white, and the packed snow chirped like crickets under our boots. Snow, snow-shrouded trees, the icicles that hung from the eaves of the house--the whole world seemed blue with cold.

(From A BREATH OF SNOW AND ASHES by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 111, "January Twenty-First". Copyright© 2005 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

6) Soldiers' quarters at Valley Forge, PA. (Photo credit: paulbradyphoto, on Flickr.)

Valley Forge looked like a gigantic encampment of doomed charcoal-burners. The place was essentially a wood lot, or had been before Washington’s soldiers began felling everything in sight. Hacked stumps were everywhere, and the ground was strewn with broken branches. Huge bonfires burned in random spots, and piles of logs were stacked everywhere. They were building huts as fast as possible--and none too soon, for snow had begun falling three or four hours before, and the camp was already blanketed with white.

(From AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon, chapter 86, "Valley Forge". Copyright© 2009 by Diana Gabaldon. All rights reserved.)

Hope all of you stay cool over the next few days!

P.S. to those of you in the Southern Hemisphere: No, I haven't forgotten about you! Here's my collection of OUTLANDER Quotes to Keep You Warm.