Scotland, Continued . . .

I know I'm not doing the weekly photo thing anymore, but wanted to finish up with the rest of the photos from our Scotland trip.  Enjoy!

Beer tasting at our friends' flat - I only had one. Guess which? Hint: it's the 1% alcohol one 6th from the left.

15th century chapels are cool (Rossyln Chapel).

Awesome chapel interior.

Justin checking out the chapel grounds.

This carving is crazy cool.

Edinburgh pregnancy selfie!

Found a great restaurant in Newington for our last night dinner. Leather armchairs, a wee stove, and an NA beer - what more could a pregnant lady want?

Happy lady.

2013, Week #52 (and 1/2)

This is the final week for this project - how exciting!  It actually encompasses a little over a week (December 23-31) in order to finish out the year completely.  Enjoy!

Justin attempting to solve the Christmas rubix cube I got him in his stocking.

Beorn and his rawhide antler.

Reading a new book - a sight to warm his auntie's heart.

And off to Scotland on Boxing Day!  This suitcase epitomizes efficient packing: 7 sweaters, lots of thick socks, jeans, black pants, leggings, underwear, a full toiletry bag, and a bottle of booze - all in a medium-sized suitcase.

Missed this view (Edinburgh Castle from the Grassmarket).

First pub ever visited in Edinburgh, a decade ago (gave it a miss this time).

Justin & Edinburgh Castle - two class acts.

Gorgeous city.

View from balcony cafe at the National Museum (Victorian wing).

Awesome animals at the National Museum.

My favorite carnyx.

Chambers St. is pretty in the rain (good thing).

Favorite present for baby Eleanor from the Edinburgh Christmas market.

A very Happy, Blurry, Sober New Year's from Blackford Hill!

If I Had a Million Dollars (Plus)

Given that the Power Ball payment was so high recently, I spent a little brain power on my morning commute thinking about what I would do if we won a large amount of money.  Obviously, it's dependent on how much, but imagining it's like $500 million or some ungodly sum, here's what I'd do:

• Purchase our home.
• Set up a fund for property taxes and utilities.
• Pay off all student loans.
• Set up an education fund for Thing 1, Thing 2, and our PFCs (potential future children).
• Set up a fund for taxes and maintenance at the lake house and the PEI house.
• Put a bunch of money into our retirement account.
• Set up a Scotland fund for biennial visits.
• Make a number of one-time charitable donations to organizations in the fields of historic preservation, LGBT rights, environmental defense, animal welfare, and veteran services.
• If any money remains, use it to seed a philanthropic foundation to fund future giving in those fields.

A little bit of sensible stuff, a little bit of philanthropy, and a little bit of fun stuff.  I like it.

City of Blinding Lights, Redux

I've got Edinburgh on the brain again . . .  This is not an infrequent occurrence, but tonight's musings were lit by two incidences.  I found an 1868 print of the Grassmarket (above) at work today and I heard U2's "City of Blinding Light" on the radio tonight.  These two occurrences contrived to plunge me headlong into a "missing Edinburgh" reverie, the likes of which I'd not felt for years.  Here's why.

I'm thinking tonight of my infamous (in my own mind) "lost post" on Enigmatic Snippets, my first blog.  You might remember that I stupidly lost all of the posts on that first blog in the great social networking purge of 2008.  I was sad to lose some of those posts, but none so much as the "lost Edinburgh post."  I've probably built it up in my mind to be much better than it really was, but I remember it being pretty damn good.

You see, I had just heard "City of Blinding Light" on the highway as I drove east on route 2.  Boston area residents know that driving east on route 2 around the border between Arlington and Belmont (known as Arlmont) gives you a fantastic view of the city of Boston.  You crest a hill and there it is!  I remember hearing the song and seeing my native city and feeling a pang of longing for my adopted city in Scotland.  And then going home to write about it on that old blog.

I wrote about how Edinburgh is a city of surprise - you're walking down a fairly normal, almost suburban thoroughfare and then down an alleyway comes a view of an ancient castle or an extinct volcano, surprising you out of the everyday.  It's a city of contrast - a walk around  the city can be dour & dark, wrapped in  the ghosts of many centuries.  Then without warning, mirth! and light! spill out from the doorway of a pub.

I've seen Edinburgh in sunlight, moonlight, and firelight.  There's something about the way that city looks in certain lights - it fairly glows.  I know no other sight like it.

Photo credit Monica Sherman

UE at the BPL

I went to an information session tonight at the Boston Public Library, for applicants and "offer holders" (a.k.a. accepted students in fancy British talk) of the University of Edinburgh.

Now.  I am not either one of these things, yet.  But I contacted the guy from the International Office because I just wanted to go and he said it was fine.  I felt a bit of a fraud, but didn't really care.

It was an interesting presentation and afterwards, I ended up cornering one of the alumni they had there to answer questions.  She was a lovely girl from just outside London who'd done her masters in history at UE and I peppered her with questions, poor girl.  She was very patient, though, and we chatted until the library staff had taken away all the snacks.

I snapped this photo of the staircase of the gorgeous McKim Building on the way out the door.  I'm glad I went, even though I won't be even thinking of applying for a postgraduate program for a couple of years yet.  But it's coming (I hope).  

Full-Minded

Well, someone has a lot on her mind today.  I was going a little nuts this evening (& talking poor Justin's ear off), so I took some time to put together a virtual cork board for everything that's on my mind at the moment.  It's a different take on a "photo of the day," but it works for me right now.

I could go on about each image/idea for days, but here's a more succinct explanation (going clockwise, starting at the top left corner):

• Baby chicks!  (Photo from Cold Antler Farm!)  Because we eventually want backyard chickens!
• A black lab!  Because black labs are adorable and while we love Miss Sadie, one can never have enough cute dogs!  (Photo from here)
• Sherry from Young House Love painting trim in her living room!  Because we/I are/am currently obsessed with interior design & home DIY!  And because we've already painted two rooms in this house and we have more on the docket!
• A PhD from the University of Edinburgh!  Because I freaking love Edinburgh and always wanted to go back to live and I love history and I never said I wasn't going to go back for my PhD in it!
• A gorgeous, creative crib set-up (from here)!  Because part of my nesting kick involves tentative daydreams about furnishing a nursery and, you know, for-real-reals nesting!
• An APPLARO patio set from IKEA!  Because I've been dreaming about slapping a deck on this house for over a year now!

Hmmm - one might look at this inspiration board and say, "One of these things is not like the other."  And I get it, I do.  Everything but the doctoral degree from a Scottish university can happen right here in this house, in due time.  But because all of these things pull me in similar ways, they all combine & recombine in my head in logical, beautiful ways.  Off to Scotland for 3 years and a PhD, then home to build a homestead & care for small creatures.  Makes perfect sense, right?

To the Bard of Scotland!

Some prep for our Burns Supper tonight.  Justin's cousin and sisters & their boyfriends came over and we enjoyed some elements of the traditional meal for this celebration of the life & work of Robert Burns.  We had cheese & homemade oatcakes before supper, then haggis, collops of beef, neeps, and tatties for the main meal.  

Then, we followed it all up with a whisky cake and cranachan, along with a whisky-honey-cider "winter warmer."  Enjoyed those last things (along with some s'mores) in the backyard while we burned the Christmas tree in our fire pit.  A lovely night!

I Miss Edinburgh

I had a great weekend with my nephews & will post some pictures later on. In the short term, though, just a quick post to say, "I miss Edinburgh!" Anthony Bourdain went to London & Edinburgh for his show "No Reservations" tonight. He wandered around the city a bit with Ian Rankin, who I also love. Their first stop was a chippie in Leith for some deep-fried haggis with salt & brown sauce and an Irn-Bru. And I was wishing I could be there!!! ;)

"we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet, for auld lang syne!"

What did you guys do on Friday night? Me, I made my grad school friends celebrate an old Scottish custom with me. ;)

Burns Night is a celebration of the Scottish poet Robert Burns. Scots and ex-pats host "Burns Suppers" during the week of January 25th to honor & remember the "Bard of Scotland." It's a fun holiday and one that I've always wanted to observe. So, this year, I remembered in time & invited friends to the Coat of Arms, a British pub in Portsmouth.

My GSBB & I started off with a supper of haggis (vegetarian was all the shop had, which completely defeats the purpose, but beggars can't be choosers), carrot & parsnip mash, and potatoes w/ bacon & cheese. The traditional Burns Supper is haggis, neeps (turnips), and tatties (potatoes), so we did a pretty decent imitation. Above is us enjoying our meal, and yes, that's the can for the veggie haggis balanced on my beer bottle. ;)

Then, we picked up some friends w/o cars from campus & brought them to my house for a dessert of cranachan. You might remember this as the traditional dessert that I made for Thanksgiving this year after enjoying on Skye in March.

Me enjoying my cranachan w/ raspberries

Some of the girls at the Coat

Cameron's popular w/ the ladies

See what I mean? ;)

Me & the GSBB's older brother

Once we hit the pub, I tried to keep up the Scottish theme. I brought a postcard shaped like a haggis, a book of Scottish folk songs, some Celtic temporary tattoos, a version of Peter Rabbit translated into Scots (which people got a huge kick out of), and some whisky-flavored condoms that were a present from my Scottish friend David years ago. I also shared a poem I wrote awhile ago about Edinburgh. Enjoy! ;)

Like maself, ye ken the Athens o' the north,
where green are the Meadows and blue is the Forth.
The lads are all braw there, or so I've been told.
Although when the wind blows, their wee men get cold.

Weekend Update

Had a good & fairly relaxing weekend, once it officially started. I worked until 3pm on Friday, then stopped by campus to pick up my student loan check & buy a few books I wasn't able to get at the beginning of the semester.

From there, I drove up to the lake. I had dinner with my mum & dad & grandfather at his house. My gramps has lived alone since my grandmother died in May & I know he's lonely. It's always nice to spend some time with him when I can.

Home to watch the Sox win & anxiously check both MLB.com and NESN until I saw the final score of the Jays/Yankees game. 14 innings - crazy!

On Saturday, my parents & I drove up to Lincoln for the annual New Hampshire Highland Games. My mother & I have been attending for about seven years now, but this was my father's second time & his first at Loon (the games were at Hopkinton Fairgrounds for a couple of years).

While I still enjoy the Games, I find myself increasingly turned off by the representation of Scotland that I find there. Having spent some time in Scotland, it's now strange to me to see the tartan tchotskes & overly-romanticized elements of Scottish culture for sale & on display. However, I also recognize that things like Highland Games & St. Patrick's Day celebrations in America have more to do with a nostalgic cultural heritage than an accurate depiction of either Scotland or Ireland in 2007.

I still enjoy the Games & I certainly can't pretend that I didn't enjoy sitting in the grass in the hillside beer garden, enjoying a Piper's Ale & watching the caber toss. :) Picture above is my view from said beer garden. The grassy area in the middle ground is where the athletic games took place.

After a fairly relaxing Sunday, I headed home by way of BJ's to buy myself a new printer. Home around 7:30pm to do a ton of reading for class & prepare for the week ahead. Hope you all had good weekends & are looking forward to the super-warm weather forecast for this week!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

And don't come again another day. You guys, I'm getting tired of this weather. New England hasn't seen much besides rain & grey & cold & wind since the end of last week. The silly thing is, my photos of Scotland are sunnier! To that end, here are the some of Nick's photos that I liked enough to steal. There are a fair amount of me - I apologize for that. Hope it doesn't ruin your viewing pleasure! ;)

Final Day of Photos

OK, finally wrapping up the photos now. I hope you all have enjoyed them! On Day 6 of our trip (March 27th), Nick & I rose at 6am to catch the Cuillin sunrise,

enjoyed a full cooked breakfast,

made the Armadale-to-Mallaig ferry, but had to squeeze our rental car on next to some scary looking industrial equipment,

enjoyed a morning cruise to the mainland,

checked out some bucks in Rannoch Moor,

and ended our trip with a hazy-day tour of Stirling castle.

Here are the rest of the pictures.

Here's a video of our morning in Crossal and another of our afternoon at Dunvegan.

Sigh - back to the real world, I suppose. ;)

Day Five Photos

OK, time for the pics from my favorite day, Day 5 (March 26th). :) On this day, Nick & I had breakfast at our first B&B, checked out Culloden Battlefield & Clava Cairns, headed south to Loch Ness & Urquhart Castle, struck west towards the Skye bridge (traveling through Kintail), explored Dunvegan Castle (my ancestral castle, since my grandfather is a MacLeod), and ended our day at our second B&B (in the Cuillin mountains on Skye). Here are the photos!

Standing stone at Clava

View down Loch Ness from the patio of the Urquhart Castle visitor's center

Loch Dunvegan from a castle window

Sunset over MacLeod's Tables & the west coast of Skye

Day Four Photos

Hello, hello! Here are the pictures from day 4 (March 25th) of my trip. This was our first day traveling, so the pictures cover: the Forth road bridge, St. Andrews, the Central Highlands, and Inverness. Enjoy!

Near St. Andrews castle

Nick taking a picture of Ben Vrackie

Welcome to the Highlands! :)

Footbridge over the River Ness