Month: January 2011

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Tennessee2011_0835

Lift my eyes up

I scurried into our cabin last night in the blackness (Tennessee gets ridic dark!) with a stomach aching from laughing. My favorite quote of the evening was from one of the girls, describing which of our wedding photos was her favorite. I love the one of you holding onto Mr. Walker's arm right after you're married, facing the church, and Miss Kelly is in the background looking sympathetic. (I burst out laughing) I mean sincere! It's been an amazing few days, and I have been sucking instants in l…

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Amber waves of grain

Tizzy might be the right word for the past few days. Through New York (thanks, Dad!), a night in Jersey with lots of laundry and re-packing (thanks, Mom!), and a one-day drive down the East Coast, and then, hello Tennessee! There's not time to tell of how amazing it is to see the girls, and everyone here at the Ranch right now, but we're back in one of my favorite places ever. We wake up each morning in our cute cabin, and I spend the days in my old haunts. What I wanted to write about days ag…

LondonJan2011-0467

London calling

Here we are in lovely London, and our days go something like this: stroll in the park, scone at a cafe, back to the park. Walk through Leichester Square, window shop in Covent Garden, and walk past and then simultaneously backtrack and look into bookshelf-walled libraries. It's a fantastic place. London is classy; you practically have to dress up to take the Underground, in which you are greeted by civility and decorum by the trademark "Please mind the gap between the train and the platform". …

Tennessee2010_1761

Anywhere, baby.

It’s been a hodgepodgey week in the ‘drews, complete with a Jaunary clean-through of the flat and yard. Glorious. Baby, today we’re headed for the ever-classy London for several days, before flying out to the States. I won’t deny I’ve wasted time this week watching tours of Cracker Barrel and Moonshine Ridge in the anticipatory glow. I still burst into jumping up and down, clapping with jubilee. I cannot wait for the great American welcomes that always come, the wide roads and tall pines. I cann…

Maui2010_3388

Maui wowie (honeymoon trip 2010)

This place was paradisal. 80's, no humidity, no crowds, and the sun shone spectacularly. This is our honeymoon, by popular demand. Aloha! You’ll likely be expecting lounging on the beach shots, or plates full of tangerine-coloured sauces and chunks of fish. There was a lot of tropical food, and there was a lot of sitting on the quiet beach at Ka'anapoli, waves curling like ribbons from the neon blue ocean, mountains jutting from the sea at perfect intervals. There was snorkeling with sea turtle…

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What I'll miss

Lately, I haven't been in one place long: in three years, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Scotland, Tennessee, and now Scotland again. All this moving means every day, the little flakes of missing people left build up. It means transportation is expensive and family time limited. It means isolation and feeling out of the loop. But today I'm grateful for the thousand ways it’s been so good and so wonderful. Today, I'm grateful for the soaking-up-today that comes when I know I must leave a place. Things…

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From the hip

I can barely load the dishwasher I’m jittering with so much excitement. There is always, always a reason to rejoice, whether or not you feel it. There are glum-weather days, and there are glum-weather days remedied. Today is the latter. And we happen to feel the joy. It's been raining non-stop. But, with the ever-quotable Mary Oliver, I say, If you suddenly and unexpectedly find joy, don't hesitate. Give in to it. We are overflowing with joy today, and reveling in God's goodness. Perhaps this …

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Fresh dirt.

My wellies are salty from the ocean, and my sink is dirty. I mean really gritty, silted, covered in Scottish dirt. I like the local food shops here in Scotland, and Whole Foods in America, but come spring each year, I start a-wishing for the farm stands. I love the overflowing baskets of fresh-picked nectarines and corn, and the windows open to sun and fields that smell of rich earth. I grew up making mud pies, a dying art, it seems, so call me a hippie if you will. This is all to say: an insta…

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Walker this way

There is one day in your life when you walk down the aisle, and everything after that has a film of happiness sheathed around it, and you don't remember each instant as crisply as you'd like. Awesomely for us, we got to do the celebrating twice. Walker's family kindly hosted a hip reception in our honour days after our honeymoon, predominantly for family and friends from Minnesota who were unable to attend our wedding. (Photos are recently in, courtesy of the ever-wonderful Vick Photography and …

Photodate

I like making up words. So there's one for you. We needed it. Exam revision (studying) is long and lonely. Writing is lonely. When Walker was sitting across from me today and kept saying really sweet things, I had to say at one point, “I’m in this poem. Don’t pull me out!” because I was afraid that being back in the living room, outside the poem, would ruin all the sounds in my head. This morning I sat on the couch and thought, and wrote, about the past. I wondered how well I know people whom I …