Color

Since moving to Edinburgh I feel that I have been more aware of color: bright, vibrant colors.  As someone whose wardrobe consists almost entirely of neutrals (brown, blue, black, denim) I’ve been trying to integrate more color into it via fun scarves, bright socks, and some patterned items.  I don’t necessarily think I’ve been all that successful in creating a vibrant wardrobe but I do like the few colorful things I’ve added.   There is something about a colorful scarf that helps ward off the dreary weather blues.  Today I came across these on etsy.  Definitely not at the place where I could pull them off with confidence but they would add color.  Could you wear these?

Here’s some other fun things I’ve found.  They’re all great ways to add a pop of color to your home or person.

 

If you want to learn more about any of these handmade/homemade items, just click on the picture and you’ll be taken to the appropriate etsy.com store.  Have a fabulous weekend!

 

Remembrance Day

Today is Remembrance Day here in the UK and Veteran’s Day back in the States.  In memory of the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I on the western front.  Today, throughout Britain memorial ceremonies were celebrated by two minutes of silence at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – the time with the Armistice was put into effect.  At these ceremonies poppy wreathes are layed in front of the many monunments to fallen soldiers found throughout the United Kingdom.  On my way up to school today I passed two of them. 

Memorial to the members of the Black Watch who died in the South African War 1899-1902

And this one to those who fell in in the war in Spain between 1936-1939.

In the weeks leading up to Remembrance Day people pin poppies to their lapels as a tribute to the fallen soldiers.  I find it a poignant reminder of the steep price paid for our liberties, especially at a time of war such as we find ourselves in now. 

Of course, the poppies are a tribute to Lt. Colonel John McCrae’s beautiful and haunting poem In Flander’s Field.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

 

Weird and wonderful WWW

For those of you who normally read my blog and are wondering why the sudden influx of comments from people you’ve never heard of, my little entry Monday was featured on the WordPress home page.  And to all of you who clicked the link, a big huge thank you!  It was so much fun to get all of your very kind comments – you really made my day.  This little weblog thingy has been a fun hobby and I’ve been doing it for the family and friends I’ve left in the States and yet it’s expanded my relationships and I now have fellow “bloggy” acquaintances around the world.  Isn’t that weird?  And wonderful?  I like how the blog world works that way.  Most of the people who left comments yesterday are complete strangers to me.  Yet, they took the time to let me know they stopped by and liked what they saw.  I think that is remarkable.  And it makes me realize that I should do a better job of leaving comments on those blogs I read that brighten my day.  Anyway, I had a couple people comment on the sudden activity and thought that an explanation was in order.  Thanks for sharing my little 15 minutes of fame with me.

 

Glorious. Absolutely amazing.

This morning our computer problems took a turn for the better and thanks to very generous parental donations, we will be able to repair and replace our laptops soon!  Whoopeee! 

My walk up to school this morning was amazing.  I woke up and had a feeling it was going to be pretty cold.  Last night we had returned late from a fantastic dinner party (more on that later)  and there was a definite bite in the air.  It was truly cold.  And then it dawned bright and sunny and in November this generally means cold…dense cold.  I pulled out my long winter coat (for the 1st time this year!) and made my way up the Mound.  It took me quite a bit longer than usual because the sun was shining its brilliant fragile winter light.  And there was a heavy frost when coupled with the sunlight was dazzling. 

The winter light here is so clean and bright. Coupled with the mist rising from the melting frost, it has this soft, hazy quality.

Frost on the playground beneath the castle.

Again, the light. Isn't it amazing???

I love this photo.

Further in to Prince's Street Gardens the sun hadn't yet begun melting the cold away. It was dark, quiet, very wintery.

Tiny frost crystals on a bench. So thick it almost looks like snow.

Frosted benches in Prince's Street Gardens.

The frost had already melted on this beautiful plant but it was still lightly misted with tiny water droplets.

I loved how the frost brought out the details of the leaves and each blade of grass. It is amazing to be able to see every individual blade of grass as opposed to the general impression of green-ness.

Approaching Ramsey Lane

Looking back toward the West End from high up in the Gardens. The sunlight was behind the castle so I was in the shade but looking west you could see it coming around the castle and illuminating the buildings.

Cannot get enough of these sorts of pictures.

A different angle on the castle.

 

Spotted

on my way home from the book store yesterday…it’s always good to be reminded of hope.

 

Cold, cold, cold

October was unseasonably warm.  It was actually a really pleasant month.  We only turned the heat on a few times – mostly when we had guests staying because it’s just plain bad manners to let guests freeze.  Now that November has arrived the mercury is dropping.  Most of the colorful leaves have fallen and the remaining ones are dingy and look very weather-worn.  As we had a visitor in October who doesn’t normally experience the change of seasons being a Floridian and all, we took a walk one day and spotted some beautiful colors.  Since most of these are now gone, I want to post them as a reminder that this gorgeousness does exist…and remember that as we head in to the dark, cold days of an Edinburgh winter.  You probably won’t believe this but right now at 4:18PM it is getting dark…so much so that cars have their headlights on because it’s pretty much dusk.  So, here’s the gorgeous, bright, cheery color.

 

Pumpkin Carving…

I know that Halloween has passed and we’re in November now and stores are donning their Christmas finery (makes me want to scream, especially as the book store has been hawking their Christmas cards for a whole month now…) but I though I’d post these pictures from our fun Pumpkin Carving Party hosted by the Browns.  Katie made some delicious soup and we all (or almost all) got working on our pumpkin carving adventure.

 

Pretty good pumpkins, huh?

Little sweetie hard at work!

Scotty trying to come up with something inspiring.

Joe, Amanda, and Sean digging right in.

 

The Whole Gang...or should we say The Scotty Manor Band? Doesn't it look like Scotty's the lead singer of some motley sing-along band.

 

 

 

 

The last of the Lake District Posts

After such a gorgeous day on Saturday we woke to a classically dismal day.  Rain, fog, cold, wind.  It was all present.  As this dampened our adventurous spirits a bit we decided to do some exploring from the shelter of the car and headed north toward Wordsworth and Coleridge’s old stomping grounds.  This drive took us through Ambleside where we enjoyed a rainy walk through the picturesque town.  It was so incredibly quaint and our enthusiasm for the place was only dampened by our visit to the famous Lucy’s of Ambleside.  Lucy’s is an Ambleside institution consisting of a restaurant, deli, gourmet grocery, lounge, catering service and cooking school.  I was excited that we were able to be seated on a Sunday morning within a few minutes.  Unfortunately as time ticked by our enthusiasm waned.  We had ordered but after an we’d only been served our drinks.  After seeing our order served to a couple who was seated about 15 minutes after we had been we gave up and went to pay for the coffees.  We may have waited a few more minutes if it hadn’t been for the fact that we were parked quite a distance away and our meter was about to expire.  The host graciously comped us our drinks, but we were still disappointed.  We ended up grabbing some really gross sandwiched from a little take-away before moving on.  All this to say, I’m sure Lucy’s serves some great food.  Unfortunately, it was poorly managed that morning so we missed out.  Ambleside is a great little town though and we would have enjoyed spending more time there if it wasn’t pouring.

On we went making our way through Rydal, Grasmere, Wythburn, etc.  We stopped in Grasmere to visit Dove Cottage, Wordsworth’s home.  It was nestled into the middle of this amazing village of stone buildings.  I loved the stone buildings dotted throughout the Lake District and Grasmere has lots of examples of this style of building.

 

Grasmere

My instinct tells me that these are difficult buildings to heat. What do you think?

 

Narrow passage way in Grasmere.

Dove Cottage - where Wordsworth and Coleridge spent many hours together, thinking and writing and musing. I will admit that after seeing all the gorgeous stone buildings pictures above, I was pretty disappointed with this shack.

 

One of the lakes that the poets liked to row around.

As you can see from above, it was not an inspiring day.  The beauty of the place was still striking but it was yucky and after two early-morning wake ups for the “Breakfast” part of our B&B experience, we were ready to head home.  I would love to return in the summer when the area is fully alive.  It was a great trip and I’m so happy we were able to make the trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Recipe

Hi!  I’ve just posted a new recipe over at my other blog.  It’s for Spiced Turkish Lentil Soup and it’s delish!!!

 

The Lake District – for real this time…

Wow!  I cannot believe how fast this past week has flown!  Thank you to everyone who commented on the burgling and sent supportive emails.  If you haven’t received a response yet, it’s because I haven’t had a chance but will get to it soon.  Each comment and email meant a lot to me, so thank you.  Not having a computer at my constant disposal has made me realize how incredible dependent I am on it.  It’s really amazing how much I do that requires the internet.  Does anyone else find it a little scary that in less than one generation we have completely changed how we communicate, store information, and present ourselves to the world?  I find it completely mind boggling!

Anyway, I promised Lake District pictures and info so here it is!  On Friday, the 16th, we picked up our rental car and headed south.  We were soon in the Scottish Borders which is this beautiful area of rolling hills, pastures, farms, woods, and wee little villages.

The Scottish Borders

We planned a detour to see some of the remains of Hadrian’s Wall near Carlisle.  I was really looking forward to this as I find it so fascinating to think that England was once part of the Roman Empire.  Emperor Hadrian, known for his brutality, creativity, and extravagance, visited England in 122.  While on his tour of England he ordered the construction of this wall to mark the northern boundary of the Empire.  A construction project of this magnitude would also serve as a great show of strength to those who would seek to undermine his imperial rule.  Constructed in six years, the wall is still impressive nearly 2000 years later.  The segment we visited also boasts the remains of a Roman fort!  Although the museum was closed we were able to take a look around.  Not only is this an historically impressive site, it’s gorgeous!  The countryside is idyllic and we arrived shortly before sunset and the lighting was amazing.

I thought this tree with the sun setting behind it was gorgeous!

Couldn't get enough of it!

One segment of the wall.

Did you know that "Historic Sites" could be so dangerous?

The ruins of the Roman Fort looked very interesting but we arrived too late to actually visit them.  Thankfully they’re out in the open so we could get a look from the other side of a fence.

The Roman Fort

There is an English fort tower here as well.

Fortification that was added later by the English.

Amazing countryside.

The Wall headed east.

Hangin' out at the fort...yes, we're dorks.

After that we swung by an old priory, where I just had to take a picture.

Lanercost Priory, founded 1166.

After that quick stop, it was on to the Lake District.  The first lake we drove by was Ullswater.  As the sun was setting we had some dramatic views of mountains reflected in water.  It was so beautiful we had to pull over, dig around for the tripod, and try to capture some of the beauty.

Ullswater

Reflection...

So peaceful.

If you look closely, you can see some of the trees are sporting their fall foliage.

By the time we were done taking pictures it was completely dark and we had lost our lens cap!  Big no-no!  But the pictures were worth it and gave us just enough of a taste of things to come to whet our appetites.

We spent the night in Windermere – a great bustling vacation village filled with cute shops, fancy boutiques, and plenty of Beatrix Potter paraphernalia.  After a great dinner at a place called Lazy Daisy’s we made our way back to our cute little B&B where we found that breakfast was to be served at 8AM and finished by 8:45!  So much for a weekend of sleeping-in!

On Saturday, following our English-style breakfast, which I have to say I much prefer to a Scottish style breakfast (8AM is just too early to face blood sausage and haggis) we were told of a little hike by our hostess.  Following her advice we made our way to a field where we were greeted by the following warning:

Defying all odds of a cow attack, we pressed on and made our way to the top of a hill with a great view of Lake Windermere.

Windermere and the Lake.

Sidenote: What do you all think about Scotty's beard???

Following our little morning climb, we decided to drive around the district and check it out a bit.  We were blessed with an absolutely gorgeous day so we decided to take full advantage.  We visited Windermere, Ambleside, Cartmel, Bowness, Newby Bridge and more.  It was a very full day.

Apparently I was quite taken with tree silouettes on this trip!

Swans on Windermere.

Fall colors - yay!!!

On our drive I made Scotty turn around because I saw this tower through the trees and thought it was so perfect-looking.  So he pulled a u-turn and we crawled through tight little streets to get to a place where I could take a picture.

I wish I could live in this tower...how fun would it be to be a kid and be able to sit up on the top floor and imagine this was your castle, or a prison, or a fortress?

I was expecting to find some sort of church and was surprised when we found laundry hanging out to dry:

And even more surprised to find that it’s an appliance store.  In a teeny tiny village.  In the middle of the Lake District.  In a stone tower.  Who would have ever seen this great building and thought “What a great place for a discount appliance store.”???  So funny.

So much for my fort, castle, prison imaginings.

We visited Cartmel, the home of sticky-toffee pudding.  This has become one of our favorite desserts since we moved here but we were more drawn by the signs that advertised a big antique sale.  So we made our way down there and found the sale.  It was terrible.  But the town was cute and made up for it.  It is home to a gorgeous grass race course, stone grist mill, and lots of beautiful buildings and wandering alleys.

Cartmel Priory Church

Inside the Priory Church.

Cartmel Race Course

Where they made the world's best best sticky-toffee pudding!

After Cartmel we decided to make our way back to Ambleside where we’d reserved a room for our second night.  Our drive took us past the extensive land-holdings of the Cavendish family.  We tried to visit but the main house is closed on Saturdays (I guess because the family still lives there) but the grounds are amazing.  There are thousands of fallow deer, huge pastures, farm-land, even an area that is harvested for timber.  This is definitely a place to put on the “visit next time” list.  Here’s a picture of their cows!

Some of the countryside surrounding Holker Hall.

We made our way up to Ambleside.  We walked around the town and took another little hike up a hill to see the view.

Scotty climbing through a little passage in one of the stone walls. Gotta keep those aggressive bovines in check!