Month: November 2010

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Long live St Andrew!

Happy St Andrew’s Day, laddies and lassies! St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, and hence, today's a national holiday. But, we one-up that; lookie what our wee town's been doing! From Scottish story-telling to clottie dumplings, crafts to music, our town celebrated big time this weekend with the St Andrews Festival. We joined where we could, with the Red Hot Chilli Pipers on Friday, and Blawbag, a band of elbow pipes, fiddles, and bodrahan on Saturday. Walk did his part by helping with s…

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Entre snowflakes and haar

The weather has flourished its editorial powers on our lives this weekend, punctuating each day how it will, dropping periods and commas into our plans. Hail, rain, wintry mix, fat snow, fast snow, blue skies, and gray: we had it all this weekend. Strangest of all, it has been exclaiming, too, with lightning and thunder over the snowy streets. Yes, the snow actually stuck. The first flakes were solitary and light their pristine brightness cornering into the smallest of spaces, and the absolute b…

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For instants like this

It started on the real Thanksgiving, in Edinburgh. For instants like this, we'll celebrate Thanksgiving a day late. Oh my heart, what we saw was insane and ridiculously serendipitous. We hadn't even heard of the 25th lighting of Edinburgh's tree, but saw a crowd while perusing the Christmas markets, and were pointed a few steps away. We watched wildly dressed drummers march through thousands of people. Then, the music stopped, I was bored, and my toes felt disconnected from my body---we're talki…

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Thankful Thursday

Happy day---not only is it my favorite holiday, but look what came last night! We're celebrating tomorrow, so today we're enjoying a pristine day with no food pressure, a day to remember everything we have been given this year. A day to see the most beautiful city in Scotland with a friend I've known since I was born. Orange zest is dusting our kitchen, and cranberries are snapping. I smell woodsmoke and the air has a nip. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!…

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Tweed greed

Tartans and tweed, scents of orange blossoms and patterned tights: the world is full of delight. It has positively been burrowing up between the pages of catalogs as I sneak around piecing together my Christmas list. Problem: I start to image my life with all this stuff. In my dreams, I'm tall enough for European leather boots, and actually fit the gorgeous tweed coats that are not made in my size, or at a reasonable price. Dear me. I am far too attached to this world once again. Christmastime…

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Fresh light

My beloved town hasn't appeared lately because we've been swirling in that nasty trinity of dark, cold, and damp. Round about 3pm each day, the sun gets sleepy and starts to sink. That is why you've been stuck with photos of lame food. We've turned a corner, everyone! Bring those hands together in a huge yayo for the sun coming to town this morning. Today is new, fresh, clear (I just can't say warm). Good morning, sunshine! Morning wipes away nightly haze, and days like today make me think of …

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Mission Yummo

It was a great weekend. What a great weekend. How awesome was this weekend?! This weekend was so good. So we've been saying lots. It really was. Some weekends are quiet dinner-and-a-movie deals, and some are spent traveling. Others fill up with cleaning and groceries and where-did-the-weekend-go's. This weekend was full of one amazing thing: friends. Just as the pumpkin party was ending, our friends were flying in from Ireland. The same friends who hosted the Bible study where we met and whose o…

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The Great Pumpkin Gala

Black-tie pumpkin extravaganza. If you don’t think pumpkin fits in that title, you’re wrong. Today I may feel nauseated at the thought of pumpkin, I may have stuffed my paper chain in the garbage as soon as the party finished, and I may hate the colour orange, but the party was the epitome of a good time. We're talking laughter to the point of pain. Honestly, as my English friends say, "It was ridIculous". I sat on the couch after dinner basically paralyzed from laughing and asphyxiatied from n…

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Inner Romantic

After all those years of flashcard flipping, it turns out I have an inner romantic. Up there with Thoreau. My husband has referred to me as a hippie in moments when I’m jabbering about local food, or when the truth comes out that I like art more than academia. Indulge me as I modulate on a few things things my inner romantic is loving. I'm not even going to local food, promise. Romance(obvious, I know). Two plus months married, and I am still baffled that Walker likes me, let alone loves me. Th…

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Czech it out

Most of my life is too organized, a short-coming that often hinders serendipity. So today we let go. We didn't organize every attraction we'd see by the hour. Today was spontaneous. Our ideas remained largely immaterialized and that glorious space left room for surprise. We moseyed on Charles Bridge for a while, gathering sun and listening to Dixieland Internationale, a band of Czechs singing American jazz. I'm sure you know those moments when you suddenly feel flooded with joy. Being on that br…