Retrospective

This last week many corners of the world celebrated the one year anniversary of Mr. Obama’s election to the White House. No doubt many also cheered as their favorite initiatives and candidates pulled out victories, both expected and surprise.  On opposite corners of the country, WA and ME voters leveled opposite verdicts regarding the hottest topic in the States, and I don’t mean whether black is still the new black.

In Edinburgh last week, Jackie, Julian and I walked to church in the rain for the first time in over eight months.  Far more than merely noting Scottish weather patterns, I mention this because it marks the first time Julian has had such a lovely experience.  There really is nothing like trudging into church with wet cuffs (or wet nylons, right ladies?).  Of course, Julian didn’t do the trudging himself, but he finally got to witness it first hand. We trust that as the winter months creep by he’ll have plenty more opportunities.  The other reason last Sunday’s rain deserves mention is that it disproves the assumption that Edinburgh is as soggy as our motherland, WA.  Maybe you’ve not erred with this assumption, but we have. And now we know from experience that, between Feb and Nov, western WA takes on more water than Edinburgh.

The irony of last Sunday’s rain doubled as the rain followed us both to and from church but also into our flat.  As you can see below, our living room welcomed the rain so readily that the wall paper gave way. (Yes, the ceilings are wall papered!) The dime-sized hole let in nearly a gallon of water.  All things considered, a gallon isn’t all that much water, but when an eight-month old, newly crawling explorer finds nearly a gallon of water puddling in an attractive green bowl, that gallon covers a lot of floor space!  Too bad there’s no picture of Julian’s face in the second after we turned our backs. I imagine it would have shown conniving glee as he realized that his chance to wreak havoc had arrived.

With no certainty for what the coming week will bring, we can only hope it doesn’t bring another torrential rain storm. At least we know there won’t be any more American elections.

See the damaged ceiling?

Guarding the buckets from the would-be capsizer

Two bits

Well, based on the comments and hits on Jackie’s last post, it will be tough to offer anything as interesting.  So, here are two random things of (potential and/or marginal) interest from Edinburgh.

Random #1:  This week the University of Edinburgh will honor musician and activist Annie Lennox with an honorary doctorate. Lennox is renowned for her solo stuff but also for her work in the group Eurythmics. If you like her music and you appreciate the causes she’s advocated, then maybe this honorary degree is well-deserved. Maybe.  But who buys a CD or goes to a rally because the musician or speaker has a doctorate?  Earlier in the year the university recognized Archbishop Desmond Tutu with a similar degree.  I actually caught a glimpse of the archbishop as he paraded through the New College courtyard to his chauffeured Jaguar sedan…yeah, my touch with fame! But Archbishop Tutu has at least been a part of change that is hardly controversial.  He helped combat apartheid in South Africa and has worked tirelessly against social injustice.  But Lennox?  Well, she’s made some good music and sold millions of records and supported rights for certain members of society.  But a lot of people have done that.  Next thing you know an American president is going to win the Nobel Peace Prize after nine months in office and a lot of great promises.  Oh, wait…

Random #2:  Old issues of LIFE magazine are available at books.google.com. Ok, so that’s not a phenomenon limited to Edinburgh, but I discovered it last week and have been periodically amused by the old advertisements.  Here’s one I came across today, not at all the most interesting, but it gives a taste of what’s there.  I wonder how silly today’s ads will seem in 40 years!

Running Errands

Yesterday I had an errand to run across town and just for the fun of it, decided to take my camera along.  We don’t generally think to take the camera with us for the simple reason that most of our days are just normal, daily grind sort of days.  We go to the grocery store, church, school, to visit friends and on other unglamorous errands.  But yesterday I was realizing that it would be a shame if when our time is done here, we have posted mostly pictures of special occasions or our trips away from Edinburgh and not of the beautiful city that we see every day as we go about normal life.  So, these are just a few shots of Edinburgh, taken while out and about yesterday.  I realize it’s uncharacteristically long, but I hope you enjoy the pictures.

The journey begins--just leaving Edina Place. And, no that's not our convertible Saab.

We found a wee Julian-sized castle just down the road. Actually, it's Queen Mary's Bathhouse outside of Holyrood Palace.

Up the Royal Mile and past Greyfriar's Kirk. At this point Julian got tired and decided to catch a little nap.

No such luxury for me. We had at least a mile to go.

And so we trudged on. The steeple in the distance is actually near our destination. Yay!

Aha! There's that steeple up close. Our destination was right across the street.

Mission accomplished. As you can see, the stroller has taken on new cargo. (In case you're curious, we were buying a second-hand play pen from someone online.) But, where's Julian gone?

Now it's time we headed back home (Edinburgh Castle in the background).

Oh...there's Julian! It was quite an intricate arrangement!

Passing George Heriot school. We nearly broke down and caught a bus at this point, but where's the fun in that?

Towers? Or are they spires?

Looking down the road toward Grassmarket. The bus was looking better and better. That play pen was a little heavier than I expected. Or maybe Julian's put on a few more pounds...

Crossing Southbridge...

...and North Bridge. (The Scot Monument in the distance.)

Looking back toward New College and the castle.

Back down Regent Road overlooking (underlooking?) Arthur's Seat.

It's all downhill from here.

Julian was hungry so we stopped in at a park for a little snack along the way.

Ahh...it felt good to stretch those little legs.

Much better.

Ready to go home?

Rounding the corner toward home. And, we made it!

Around Edinburgh

When visitors are in town we have a good excuse to play tourists in our own town.  Over the last week we’ve enjoyed the company of friends from college who are moving just north of us to St. Andrews for his PhD studies.  So, here are a few pictures of the fun activities that we enjoyed around Edinburgh.

Hiking blustery Arthur's Seat seven months to the day after the previous time, the day before Julian was born.

Caribbean? Nope--Tyninghame, on the North Sea east of Edinburgh

The Bass Rock in the Firth of Forth is a former prison and summer holiday spot. Today it's a bird sanctuary, and the birds have white-washed the top with their droppings.

Colourful tidepool at Tyninghame

Poking around Princes Street Garden on a drizzly afternoon.

Year Two

Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of our arrival in Edinburgh.  Unlike our first day here, our 366th was sunny, and we hope that’s a portent of the year to come.  Below are a few pictures from our recent visit to Washington. Though it was good to be there, we’re glad to be back in Edinburgh.  A few things in Edinburgh feel strangely more natural and satisfying than their counterparts in the States, most notably, our transport.

Here we walk; there we drive.  Probably the biggest reason for the commonness of walking is the small radius of our life here.  We rarely have reason to go more than two miles from our flat.  Church is .3 miles as is the major supermarket.  Other grocery stores are within one minute’s walk.  A fab park is also less than half a mile away.  We have friends within walking distance, and those a bit further a field are generally willing to pick us up, especially if the weather’s unpleasant.  The university is 1.5 miles as are all the tourist shops. (No we don’t go to tourist shops, except to buy presents, but if you’re wanting to visit, you’ll want to know how to plan your trip.)  While in Washington we drove nearly 1000 miles in just over six weeks…and we didn’t even go out of town!  Wouldn’t Al Gore would be proud of our small carbon-footprint?

One thing we didn’t miss while in Washington was the Edinburgh mouse population.  In fact, the idea of mice scampering across our living room floor was a fuzzy memory for seven hygienic weeks.  But, we have been jarred back to furry reality, as the picture below testifies.  Jackie was cooking, her back turned to the wall only for a couple seconds, but seconds were all that the wee mouse needed to 1) emerge from his hole, 2) lie down on the kitchen floor, and 3) die.  As the picture shows, Julian wasn’t phased in his exuberant bouncing. We would like to know, though, ‘how did the mouse die?’.  Regardless, here’s to a mouse free second year!

On Puget Sound for Julian's first canoe ride

Two-weeks-apart-cousins, J and Naomi

See the wee mousey?

First night back in Edinburgh, J was readjusting to his crib.

Back

We’re back in Edinburgh now after some unexpected time back home.  More posts to come after this jet lag wears off…

The Perks of Summer

Well, I kind of feel like I’ve gotten to a point where if I don’t have pictures, it’s not even worth posting.  So, I’m here this morning to kick that notion.  No pictures, no gimmicks–just some good old fashioned words on a page.   I hope you won’t be too disappointed.

Summer has indeed finally made it’s way to Edinburgh.  What does this mean for us?  Well, it means a number of things.  First of all, it means very few hours of darkness–something like three.  That’s right, even going to bed around 11:30, we still have to wear our handy-dandy eye shades to block out the bit of light that is still creeping in through the window.  Wondering what these fabulous eye-shades consist of?  So glad you asked.  I’ll just say, we did look into the possibility of getting black-out blinds for the window, but not only was this suggestion mocked as being a bit wimpy by the robust and hearty Scots we mentioned it to, but buying blinds wasn’t exactly in the budget.  So, we resorted to something a little less conventional: stretchy cotton headbands!   You know, the kind you (or your sister) used to make out of old tights back in the 80’s (or was that just my family)?  That’s what we’ve got, only they’re not made out of tights.  So, at night we pull out our headbands and secure them tightly around our heads so that they’re covering our eyes.  And, voila!  Instant darkness!  If they manage to survive the night without sliding off our heads, they also serve to block out that light that’s creeping back in again around 3:30.  (I know you’re really wishing you had a picture of this now.)

Another thing summer means for us is that I can now sit on the couch in my fourth storey flat and get a suntan.  Who knew?!  The windows are large and swing wide open and since we face south, the sun is beating down on me most of the day.  I never expected that Scotland would be a place where I could get an indoor suntan!

Finally, on a much more mundane note, summer means that our clothes now only take about half a day to dry after they’ve been washed.  In the winter months, we would have the same load of laundry strung all over the flat for several days at a time while we waited for it to dry.  Now if we hang up a load in the morning, it’s crisp and dry by mid-afternoon.  What a treat!  Small as it is, the living room looks so much neater without laundry hanging from every protrusion that might serve as a peg (including lamps, chair backs, wall hangings, shelf corners, radiators, hot-water heaters, doorknobs, windowknobs…) not to mention the t.v.-cable clothes-line that permanently hangs about nine feet off the floor, fashioned by my ingenious husband.  Sometimes it’s the little things.

Summer?

We could hardly believe it: the weather was hot today!  Clear skies and a whopping 22 degrees (that’s about 75 for you Americans) brought out hordes of sun-starved Edinburghers, and we joined the crowds, trekking to the lovely grounds of the Royal Botanic Gardens for the afternoon.  We even managed a slight sunburn…never thought it possible in Edinburgh!

Pomp

Today I tasted the pomp of Scotland.  It tasted like tea, raspberry tarts, cream-covered shortbread, and cucumber sandwiches. It was both lovely and unusual.  Lovely to see the  big hats and colorful kilts, the proper people strolling the green lawn and others sampling the tasties under the shade of sprawling trees, and others still gathered round to watch the Highland dancing.  It was lovely to hear the somber brass band and the cheery bagpipes and drums.  It was unusual because it all took place on the grounds of Holyrood Palace, the Queen’s home in Edinburgh.  And, more unusual still (for an American) because  the occasion was the annual garden party hosted in honor of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.  The party is the official opportunity for the Queen to be present at the Assembly. In other words, it’s a state event on behalf of the church, and, for an American, that’s a bit odd.

The Queen herself wasn’t at the party this year.  Apparently she’s only been twice during her reign.  But, her presence was there, invested in a man whose title is Lord High Commissioner.  For the week of the General Assembly, when the Queen doesn’t come to Edinburgh, the Lord High Commissioner functions on behalf of the Queen. He stays in Holyrood Palace, hosts formal dinners, and hosts this garden party, as if he were the Queen.  At the party, for example, he parades around the grounds with an honor -guard encircling him, gently pushing people to the side so that he only encounters the people he intends to meet.  My friend Calum, by whose invitation I got into the party, said that for this week of the Assembly, the Lord High Commissioner is second behind Prince Charles to the throne!  Fat chance he’ll actually get to be king, though.  All told, it was a fascinating experience that gave a taste of high formality, pomp beyond anything I’ve seen, and something really to “write home about”.

Holyrood Palace

Arthur’s Seat to the left; the white tent housed the delicious food.

The mass of people in front of the palace to the left and the ruins of 12th c. Holyrood Abbey in the center.

The Lord High Commissioner is in the center with the red kilt. The blue uniformed-men are his guard.

Classic!

My friend, Calum

Looking kinda sleepy!

A good shot of heads and a pink hat. A mediocre shot of the bagpipers

Tree

What would you do?

About three weeks ago an email went around the Edinburgh University Divinity School warning that several mice had been seen in the study rooms.  I hardly thought a thing of it, especially since we’ve had our own mice in our flat.   Yesterday, as I was tidying up my desk at New College, I got to thinking about that email, and I wondered who had been the culprit(s) that attracted the mice.  What uncivilized people, I thought, would leave crumbs and food scraps?  It was then, really, almost at that very moment, I noticed a disappointing deposit behind my bag of sunflower seeds.  One little mouse had left two small items; you might say that he dropped something.  And, on closer inspection, it appears that he left these two droppings after nibbling a hole in my sunflower seeds bag.  I’m actually quite puzzled about how the mouse got onto my desk, as I didn’t realize mice could climb slick, steel desk-legs.  In any case, it’s a real bummer that my sunflower seeds are now contaminated with mouse.   When I’m languishing over a particular problem late in the afternoon, it’s the seeds that get me through.  So, what would you do?  Eat the seeds or chuck ‘em?  I think I’m going to salvage as much as I can.  There’s no way I’m chucking all that salty, crunchy goodness.

My desk, minus the seeds and minus the mouse

The offended bag o' seeds