Not a real blog.

My cheeky monkey

2012-01-24T07:34:00.000-08:00

About time for another photo! She is 3 months now, and last night she slept 8 hours without waking for a feed! We weren't even trying for that yet. She is totally ahead of the game. She must have read all those baby books on how to sleep through the night, and how to be a good baby.

Thanks to my Aunt Joyce and Unkie Coke for the adorable hat!

Frost at Midnight

2012-01-04T09:08:00.000-08:00

A beautiful poem, read and loved by me today, as I nap and cuddle with Marie on a winter day back in Seattle. Shared by Kate, a knitting blogger I've recently begun following.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Frost at Midnight (1798)

The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet’s cry
Came loud—and hark, again! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude, which suits
Abstruser musings: save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.
‘Tis calm indeed! so calm, that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood,
This populous village! Sea, and hill, and wood,
With all the numberless goings-on of life,
Inaudible as dreams! the thin blue flame
Lies on my low-burnt fire, and quivers not;
Only that film, which fluttered on the grate,

Still flutters there, the sole unquiet thing.
Methinks, its motion in this hush of nature
Gives it dim sympathies with me who live,
Making it a companionable form,
Whose puny flaps and freaks the idling Spirit
By its own moods interprets, every where
Echo or mirror seeking of itself,
And makes a toy of Thought.

But O! how oft,
How oft, at school, with most believing mind,
Presageful, have I gazed upon the bars,
To watch that fluttering stranger ! and as oft
With unclosed lids, already had I dreamt
Of my sweet birth-place, and the old church-tower,
Whose bells, the poor man’s only music, rang
From morn to evening, all the hot Fair-day,
So sweetly, that they stirred and haunted me
With a wild pleasure, falling on mine ear
Most like articulate sounds of things to come!
So gazed I, till the soothing things, I dreamt,
Lulled me to sleep, and sleep prolonged my dreams!
And so I brooded all the following morn,
Awed by the stern preceptor’s face, mine eye
Fixed with mock study on my swimming book:
Save if the door half opened, and I snatched
A hasty glance, and still my heart leaped up,
For still I hoped to see the stranger’s face,
Townsman, or aunt, or sister more beloved,
My play-mate when we both were clothed alike!

Dear Babe, that sleepest cradled by my side,
Whose gentle breathings, heard in this deep calm,
Fill up the intersperséd vacancies
And momentary pauses of the thought!
My babe so beautiful! it thrills my heart
With tender gladness, thus to look at thee,
And think that thou shalt learn far other lore,
And in far other scenes! For I was reared
In the great city, pent ‘mid cloisters dim,
And saw nought lovely but the sky and stars.
But thou, my babe! shalt wander like a breeze
By lakes and sandy shores, beneath the crags
Of ancient mountain, and beneath the clouds,
Which image in their bulk both lakes and shores
And mountain crags: so shalt thou see and hear
The lovely shapes and sounds intelligible
Of that eternal language, which thy God
Utters, who from eternity doth teach
Himself in all, and all things in himself.
Great universal Teacher! he shall mould
Thy spirit, and by giving make it ask.

Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,
Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch
Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch
Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet Moon.

Thaigers

2011-12-31T02:58:00.000-08:00

Oh my GOODNESS. Just LOOK what we got to do yesterday!

There are very few things left that I ask of life. This was probably one of the best 3 days of my life, including my wedding day and the day I gave birth to a precious baby (who did not get to pet the tigers).
Big tiger. Actually only 19 months old! She liked the belly scratch.
This adorable baby tiger was the same age as my little baby, and about the same size. They both have orange hair, and they are both so cuddly and adorable!!!!!!!! Can I take it home?? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah I love it.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T23:03:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from Thailand!
We are enjoying the warm weather festivities.
Peace to you all.

yesterday

2011-12-15T09:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we entered the cold outdoors and took a walk to the nearest coffee shop (the nearest being a little over a mile each way - American cities, oh my!). Our little precious was all wrapped up and adorable. Joel thought she looked like an abandoned baby that someone had forgotten in the park. There was much discussion of the scene of Hook where baby Robin Williams/Peter Pan rolled down the hill in his pram. We would like to reassure you that if our baby rolled down a hill, we would go look for her.Joel just mentioned he thought maybe Tinkerbell stole Peter before his mother got a chance to look for him.

The things we will never know about Hook.

On that note... the baby is 8 weeks today! We leave for Thailand on Saturday! Please read this in commemoration of our first flight with an infant.

The fabulous hat is handknit from my friend and old college roommate, Jessica, who in addition to being a mad knitter, is a genius plasma physicist at Princeton. Wow, I can't believe I even know people like that!

six weeks

2011-11-29T10:15:00.000-08:00

My little baby has had quite an adventurous November! A long drive to eastern Washington to meet Grandparents Shaver, and all 3 Great-Grandparents over there too. Not to mention lots of other Newport friends.We spent the week of Thanksgiving with my side in Puyallup, as a penance for going to Thailand over Christmas. It was peaceful and relaxing and Grandma and Grandpa got lots of time with baby. And I got lots of breaks from changing diapers and burping!
The baby (my mom wonders why we named her, because I just call her baby, or precious, or sweet girl, etc.) is really changing. She is awake so much more, smiling lots, looking around, and holding her neck and shoulders up so well. She has even slept 5 hours straight during the night on a few occasions! On Monday she weighed 12 pounds 2 ounces! Go breast milk!

Sleeping with Grandpa - who is enjoying themselves more?

Oh my goodness.

2011-11-01T12:37:00.000-07:00

Way back in spring of this year, I cast on for this beautiful little project in a natural wool tweed. Before we knew Marie was Marie, and actually, before we knew the baby was a she. I love this little vest, and knew from knitting it once before that I wanted my babe to be wrapped in it.
But oh my, how can it fit her so perfectly already? Seeing her in it is so precious, and I can't resist even more cuddles of that warm little belly and baby-scented neck. But it fitting her means she will grow. Bigger and older and wiser.I must keep reminding her to take her time growing.
Do you think she will listen?

11 days

2011-10-31T18:26:00.000-07:00

11 days. That went fast. It is quite a spectacular change, going from the two of us to the three of us. I have spent the last 11 days doing all of the things you would expect, except probably with more sleep than you expect. Marie is very accommodating and only cries when she's hungry, happy to sleep or chill out when not hungry. I've also been reflecting on the birth often. The depth of that experience.. I think I will be reflecting on it for quite some time.

Happy Halloween from Marie! I think this might be the best shot of her red hair so far...Happy in Daddy's hands.With Grandma and Grandpa - Grandpa Ehli is so enamored with her!
The uncles getting baby saavy.

A fitting portrayal of Marie's first 10 days.

A visit back to the midwives today found Marie is now 9 lbs 3 oz, meaning she's gained 3 oz, meaning we must be doing something right! Yay for first time parenthood.

I have quickly learned the unbelievable gift of meals delivered from friends. And I subsequently apologize for not realizing the depth of this gesture until I am the recipient. Here's to contributing to this for other people in the future!

It's a baby!

2011-10-21T12:06:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

After nine months of careful planning, Heather decided to have a baby last night. After a very quick, intense labor, Marie Iona Mehitabel Shaver was born at 9:30 pm, October 20, in a birthing tub at the Center for Birth in Seattle. She was very alert and healthy, weighed nine pounds, and measured 21 1/2 inches long. Her eyes were open and she was smiling as she slid into the water of the tub! We are very grateful that Heather's mom, Randi and our good friend Ruth were able to attend the birth. We are also grateful that no medication or intervention of any kind were required. It was an amazing experience! We're so excited (and a little scared!) to start this new chapter of our lives. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Love,

Heather, Joel, and Marie

first things first

2011-09-19T17:33:00.000-07:00

Joel's first day of school!

Joel started his new job today - Adjunct English Instructor at Green River Community College. Our home is full of thankfulness and peace right now, with the timing of his job being so perfect (and so last minute! A rushed syllabus was created, a commute quickly established, and a chair at home with the cat is now empty during the day).

The transition of the seasons, with the blustery comfort of autumn just setting in, is really reflected in our life right now. Joel's new job, the baby coming soon, me settling in to the wonderful idea of a long (by American standards) maternity leave... many changes, but all such comforting and peaceful changes.
Joel found today that he likes, enjoys, appreciates his teaching position. He is fulfilled and satisfied in his role, which is such a surprising thing for the both of us after years of uncertain times in academia. None of you in the academic world will see his job as particularly spectacular, but it is exactly what we have been hoping for and needing. An entrance, an opportunity, a chance for Joel to do what he has felt has been his passion - teaching introductory level courses. And a step towards us being able to transition from relying on my salary to relying on his. That is something, however old fashioned it may seem, that we've both craved for some time.

This is a celebration, friends! Have a dram of scotch in honor of Joel today!(Other photos are from our annual trip hiking at Mt. Rainier. Oh, out of town friends, we must take you there.)

Why you haven't heard from us

2011-08-07T14:32:00.000-07:00

We have been taking advantage of summer!
*Aweing at North Cascades Highway
*Loving Washington State, our home
*Making strawberry wine to be ready about the same time the baby will be :-)
*Eating more and more and more vegetables from our CSA
*Camping. Lots.
*Beaching it
*Nesting

Have we mentioned we will never again complain about the weather here?

Our Contribution to Society

2011-04-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

I believe that all of the appropriate family members, family friends, church family, etc. have now been personally notified of this event and that it is now safe/appropriate to document it on the blog and facebook. Here is the e-mail Heather sent out a couple of weeks ago:

Hello dear friends,

Joel and I are delighted to tell you we're pregnant!

We're 13 weeks along, and the baby is due October 21st. Everything looks great so far, no problems at all. When we saw the baby on the ultrasound at 7 weeks, it looked very much like a seahorse. Despite how adorable seahorses are, we're rooting for the end product to be a baby.

Incidentally, we found out we were pregnant the same day we found out Joel passed his PhD (One labor ending, another beginning...).

We are beyond grateful for the love and support you all have given us in our lives and marriage so far. We welcome you to celebrate with us as our lives change once again!

Love,
Heather & Joel Shaver

The dissertation

2011-03-21T12:50:00.000-07:00

If you have already heard about this on Facebook or by e-mail, I apologize. I promise this is the last time I will bring it up, ever.

I am writing this post to inform the rest of you that my dissertation, Metaphors of Travel in the Language of Hymns, has been accepted, and I am at long last qualified to receive a PhD in English Language from the University of Glasgow.

If you'd like to read my dissertation, it is available to download as a free pdf file from the University library:
http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2381/

Thanks, everyone, for your support and friendship!

Burns Night

2011-01-25T21:13:00.000-08:00

Haggis stuffed chicken, wrapped in bacon, with 'neeps and tatties. It strangely felt more like true comfort food to me than anything has in quite a while.
We obliged our guests to participate in a read through of the classic Burns poems with Americanized shortbread (who doesn't need a shortbread chicken?!) and of course some good British tea.

P.S. Ginger is a fan of haggis.

Growth!

2011-01-22T13:56:00.000-08:00

This is my garlic! I planted it in October and since the winter, I've been entering and leaving the house from the upstairs front door and haven't been in the backyard much, thus forgetting about the garlic, and neglecting the worm bin. Thank goodness both of those are pretty forgiving during the wintertime. Today I succumbed to the overflowing compost bin on the kitchen counter and finally brought it to the worms to work on. While out back, I ventured to the far back corner of the garden, only to be pleasantly surprised that this whole garlic-planting adventure works! Before planting, this area looked like wilderness, really overgrown like most of the backyard, and I had put a lot of work into making it plantable. When I went back today, there were only a few weeds which I pulled! I guess this mulch idea works too. :-)

We planted Susanville and Chesnock Red, and I'm fairly sure the garlic on the right, which is growing much better, is the Susanville. Should have written it down I guess.
In other events, this is Ginger purring away in Joel's arms.

One reason I miss living in Glasgow's West End

2011-01-21T16:15:00.000-08:00

I took a 2.5 mile walk today. In Glasgow, 2.5 miles encompassed my universe - the University, our house, several main roads, where we bought our food... In (moderately urban) Shoreline, 2.5 miles covers part of our neighborhood.

Glasgow

Shoreline (same scale). Central Seattle isn't even in the picture!
(Images from Google Maps)

Lazy New Year's Day at Home

2011-01-02T13:45:00.000-08:00

Across Washington in the Winter

2010-12-30T15:39:00.000-08:00

This post is for all our non-Washingtonian friends. Every time Heather and I drive across Washington between the Seattle and Spokane areas, we wish we could bring all our friends from other places to show them what our state is like. Of course, we assume you would all actually want to come. This time, as we were driving back from my parents' house in Newport to Seattle, I decided to photo-document the five-to-eight-hour, 320 mile drive. Imagine that you are riding along with Heather, Ginger, and me, as I drone on about each interesting landmark or geological feature. Please try not to fall asleep, as this will be very interesting and educational. After all, you're getting the condensed version!

Feel free to click on any images you find particularly pleasing to see them at a higher resolution.

We woke up in Newport to fresh snow, so Heather had to clear off the driveway with my parents' snowblower. She truly lives for this experience.

Newport is at about 2500 feet (762 meters) above sea level, and there are hills and coniferous trees. The drive from Newport to Spokane, south on Highway 2, takes about an hour.

We pass Diamond Lake, which is frozen over, and the building where my church used to meet, originally Rogers High School, and now for many years the Diamond Lake Grange.

Heather handles snow driving expertly, but some situations are more difficult than others (British friends: the 'lorry' you see in this picture is actually called a 'truck'. The second image features a 'snow plow').

We drive through Spokane, then out on Interstate 90, past the trees into the center of Washington.

The center, which includes such wonderful areas as the Columbia Basin (technically a much larger area), the Palouse, and the Channeled Scablands, is mostly flat with rolling hills or plateaus, and gets less precipitation than the western side of Washington, lying in the rain shadow of the Cascades.

The town of Moses Lake – the lake is also frozen over.

Next, we approach the mighty Columbia River, which flows down the middle of the state, then goes down to form the Oregon border. Driving down into the Columbia Gorge:

The Columbia Gorge is a very windy place, and a large wind farm was recently built on the west side, at Ryegrass.

The land gets a little more hilly, and we approach Ellensburg, the home of Central Washington University and about 600 fast food restaurants aimed at travelers halfway across the state (British friends: after returning from Glasgow, Heather and I had a very hard time remembering how to pronounce Ellensburg properly--hard 'g'!).

Hey!

Now we are starting to climb into the Cascade Range of mountains - to most Washingtonians, the border between Eastern and Western Washington (completely ignoring Central!). Not a very good day to photograph them, but I tried anyway.

Going over Snoqualmie Pass, traffic was reduced to one lane because of an overturned tanker truck. This added at least an hour to our trip, and we had to stop in the tunnel for a while.

Nighttime in the Cascades.

Then home to Seattle! Thanks for riding along. We'll do it again in the summer sometime, and give you a better look at the Cascades!

Some more early Christmas photos

2010-12-21T18:45:00.000-08:00

Check out how awesome my Grandpa is! He is so classy. And I like to think he passed on his financial sweetness to me too - he got this $500 hat for like $3 at a store closing sale decades ago.Some of the hats I knitted for Christmas presents this year:
You can see more photos if you join Ravelry!

The early family Christmas

2010-12-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

Promised photo of my mom's tree, up and decorated.My new niece, Maicie. What a cutie. She has stolen my mother's heart. Why didn't Ginger's entrance elicit so much fuss?
Look at that adorable little tail. I love the sausage body. Can't she stay this small forever? Oh wait, no, she's lab/german shepherd mix.
A portion of the beautiful Christmas present from Justin and Allison.

OUR Christmas tree!

2010-12-11T00:07:00.000-08:00

Well, it's definitely not my mother's Christmas tree. But it is the tallest that could fit in our home.
Our first Christmas tree!

Ginger in front of our extremely realistic gas fireplace.

2010-12-06T21:38:00.000-08:00

Farm out!

2010-12-05T19:46:00.000-08:00

7 adults. 1 llama. The quest to find the perfect 11 foot tree for Mom's home. Oh, and the cheapest.
Allison, Justin, and Joel. Look at all that gorgeous red hair.

Is this THE ONE???!? Quite awesome. I think it was Joel's first choice.We found it! This is not a trick of photography: the tree truly is bigger than all 7 adults put together. My mom is not afraid of massive trees. Now... since we hiked miles into the forest to find the 'cheaper' trees, how to get it back down to the farm??!
How 'bout a homemade yoke? Look at those 2 oxen!
Happy Christmas Tree-ing to you and yours this season!

Before and after

2010-12-05T19:33:00.000-08:00

Our most recent acquisitions

2010-10-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

Any suggestions?

Whidbey Island

2010-10-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

We spent the weekend celebrating with my parents on Whidbey Island - one of the many gorgeous islands in our beautiful Puget Sound. It is my parents' 32nd anniversary, and our 4th. A friend graciously lent us their Beach house, and we were once again reminded of how truly wonderful our home state is. We've gotten quite a few visits to the islands, water, and coast in this year already. One can never have too much.

We fit in a trip to the Knead & Feed for breakfast, a visit to the Coupeville farmer's market for pumpkins and other squash, and much beachwalking, wave watching, and knitting too! I also saw my first Columbo episode - how noteworthy.
Right in front of said Beach house. There are views to the Olympic Peninsula, the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and Victoria, Canada.

The honored couple - 32 years of marriage!
From the Deception Pass Bridge. We saw a seal swimming around in the current. How adorable! He didn't even mind the rain.

Ginger is continuing her study of the church fathers.

2010-10-04T19:32:00.000-07:00

Kitty Kneading

2010-04-26T18:33:00.001-07:00

My parents' kitty, Loki, loves to knead our sheepskin rug. You can hear him purring some at the end. It's the only time he purrs. All other times, he is living up his namesake, causing trouble by attacking ankles, jumping on my grandma's back, and eating long strings of my wool.
(I know the video is terrible quality, but hey I figured seeing a cat kneading a furry rug would make up for anything lacking)

Why we moved back to America: Parades

2010-04-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

Since it has been 4 months since our last post, I have concluded that you must be sufficiently questioning what we have been doing. Last time we posted (excepting the Salmiak Shampoo 'experience'), we were shivering in a very cold Glasgow. Now, we are quite warm here in suburbia. Since we drive everywhere, we never have to wear coats. I forget that quite often, and end up bringing a coat with me, where it stays lonely on the back seat until I carry it back into the house.

Joel and I are both working for the U.S. Census now! Woo hoo, temporary employment! It's going to be fun. (really!)

Anyway, enough about us. What I really want to tell you about is America. It is a funny culture they have here. They do love a parade. And how can one help but join the spectacle? Come and see:

All the awards go to this woman and her doggie for Most Excited Spectator! (Not even in the parade!)This adorable green horse actually moved up and down! Wonders never cease.

A free-flowing wine float is always the thing for family parades...

The Seattle Seafair Pirates - always a joy

This shot exemplifies the nature of the American parade - a constant barrage of BRIGHT colors and tacky decor!

Stayin' true to the cowboy heritage.. gotta love the jacket.

Farm animals on parade. Wonderful.

The daffodil princesses!

My little brother leading his high school band!

Grandma and Grandpa, Joel, Dad and Mom. (Note the free Census tote bag - classy!)

Well, if that wasn't sufficient to fill your need for a proper parade, please come visit. Maybe we can find another one.

Shampoo

2010-03-13T17:54:00.000-08:00

Purely in an effort to be the top Google result for the phrase +"salmiak shampoo", Joel and Heather present for your edification:

Ten Bad Shampoo Flavors

Savory Salmiak (The Finns eat it, but we call it Windex)
Creamy Bleu Cheese
Zesty Garlic & Onion
Revitalizing Kimchi (or Sumptuous Sauerkraut)
Ballpark Franks (It's not summer yet!)*
Marmite Morning (Vegemite if you prefer, mate)
Durian Breeze (Wikipedia says: "The edible flesh emits a distinctive odour, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Some people regard the durian as fragrant; others find the aroma overpowering and offensive. The smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odour has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in southeast Asia." My personal experience has been of a strong diesel flavor with a hint of strawberry.)
Spicy Refried Beans
Mom's Tuna Casserole
Egg Salad

Bonus: Any soup. Cream of mushroom? Vegetable beef? Alphabet, even?!
Any we missed?

*Meat flavors are pretty much cheating, so we tried to limit those. Crispy BLT sounds ok to me though.

This cold country: walking

2010-01-09T08:34:00.001-08:00

The Kelvin River and a defunct railway (can you spot the icicle?)

Sunset in the arboretum - Kelvin walkway

Man in the trees

content with my snowangel

snowy branches

This cold country

2010-01-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

This is an accurate representation of the past few weeks here. As expected, even though there is less than an inch of actual snow (in Glasgow), everyone here is FREAKING OUT. Apparently there have only been 2 or 3 winters colder than this since they started keeping records in the early 1900's. So.. the council isn't exactly brilliant at keeping the roads and pavements/sidewalks safe. I, however, am thoroughly enjoying it, and MUCH prefer this to the incessant rain that is typical of this time of year. I've been walking to and from work, and a lot within work as usual, and yes, it is lovely to walk in the ice and snow. Give me ice and snow any day over pouring down rain.

I do have sympathy for the older folks though. Relying on buses and walking anywhere would be a bit more scary with aged bones and slower reaction times.

Looks like this will stay with us maybe even until we depart this cold country. We really will be moving to warmer climes! (Everyone here has been asking me if I'm glad to move to warm weather.. I think when most Scots think 'US' they think 'California' or 'Florida' and don't realise some parts of the US are similar in climate to here) (The other question I get asked is, 'do you have a job waiting for you there?' Anyone know how I can set it up so I have a job waiting for me? Please? Can one actually do that?!?)

Thanks to Jeanne for the photo!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T15:17:00.000-08:00

We hope you all have had a peaceful season, enjoying the winter moments in whatever place you are.

This is our last Christmas in Glasgow. We return to the states at the end of January, when our lives will face a tumultuous change. We look forward to meeting up with all of you who are stateside in the new year. It has been a season of changes for us - anticipated and unanticipated - and we look forward to the encouragement we'll receive by being close to family and old friends again. We are sometimes a bit terrified of the prospect of starting life over, but we know God has us in His hands, the best place one can be.

Our last year in Glasgow has been full of deepened friendships, opportunities to serve in unexpected ways, and lots of wondering about what the future holds. We've been thinking on the many ways Glasgow, Scotland, and Europe have influenced us as individuals and as a married couple, and wondering how this will mesh with our move back to the states. It will be a readjustment to be immersed in the American culture again! Simple things ... taking buses everyday, only buying as many groceries as we can carry a half mile, and of course the constant nearly intravenous drip of good British tea. We'll now begin a new adventure in life, and we're so happy it means we will be able to see many of you often!

Wishing you joy and peace, all those things that sound cliche but are such a meaningful blessing when they are realised.

(Here are a couple of Christmas-y songs we like this year!)

Parsing (kind of like Snakes On A Plane?)

2009-09-29T06:22:00.000-07:00

Being the condescending westerner that I am, I was enjoying this seemingly eccentric phrasing on the menu of a local Moroccan restaurant:

The Argan bears plum-sized fruits, which are eaten by goats on the tree.

Ha! Goats in a tree! Crazy Moroccans. Then Michael pointed out to me that there actually were goats up in the tree in the photo next to this paragraph.
It turns out that goats actually do climb Argan trees to get at the fruit. Who knew?

Photo from Wikipedia

2009-09-27T13:04:00.001-07:00

For all of you who keep asking what Joel is doing with all his free time now that he's submitted his PhD:

Back to Hungary, part 3: Places that are NOT Hungary.

2009-09-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

This is NOT Hungary.
This is Vienna.
Exhibit A: The cathedral in the centre of the city. Lovely, so dramatic, in the night and the day. The roof is pretty amazing. Vienna had lots of roofs like that, that are different colours, very bright and vivacious. So did the big city in Hungary we went to.
Exhibit B: This is a building in Vienna not too far from the cathedral. I find the painting appealing. (This is not a pun.)
Exhibit C: This is at the War Museum in Vienna. Do you like the armoured man's skirt? Apparently, they didn't actually use the skirt armour in battles. They saved that for special occassions, like fancy shmancy balls and courting rituals, parades, that sort of thing. You know, armoured fashion.

We also went to the Museum of Musical Instruments, which was pretty much the coolest museum we've ever been to. They had Mozart's piano, and some other crazy instruments that seemed like something out of a really intelligent 12 year old's dreams. Joel liked the guitar with a built in foot pedal capo.

This is also NOT Hungary.
This is Slovenia.
Richard took us for superb iced coffee with ice cream and the thickest, most gorgeous whipped cream I've ever tasted.The view from the castle. There were loads of vineyards on the hillsides.
This is inside the castle. We saw endless examples of the type of embroidery I would spend my whole life striving for. I will show you some that I brought back with me later.

We enjoyed our day trip to Slovenia.

This is ALSO NOT Hungary. This is Croatia.The colour of the water. I wanted so badly to jump in and never come out again, to swim in it so much that I turned that immense shade of blue, and it would be part of me forever.
Waterfalls, water falling.
Water falling, falling, falling, splash!
The puppy sleeping on my lap on the drive. When we arrived at the national park, she refused to go up the stairs. She was so tired. Tired and gorgeous.
I LOVE teals and blues and greens all together. It speaks to my soul in such an immense way. It frees my heart. Do you know what I mean? Just looking at even the photos makes my heart feel fluttery in an 'I'm-falling-in-love' sort of way. Is that totally ridiculous? I just love teal water so much.
It was like Disneyland, with all the people! But Disneyland doesn't even come close. I choose natural, clear, teal water over shiny plastic any day.

Intermission

2009-09-13T11:48:00.000-07:00

Taking a short break from our exploits in Hungary, here are some glimpses of our weekend. We took full advantage of the sunny weekend, being fully aware it may be the last bits of Glasgow sun we see as residents here.

Cathkin Braes Country Park - the highest point in Glasgow.

The Braes' shrooms

The promise of my downcast container garden

An evening on the balcony

Hungary, Part Deux: ICE CREAM

2009-09-07T12:59:00.000-07:00

While Joel puts together posts about interesting bits of language and words in Hungary, I will continue to spend my energies on remembering the ICE CREAM. Oh, I couldn't forget anyway. It's part of me now. (Very literally, since we ate ice cream EVERY SINGLE DAY. Sometimes more than once. Oh the glory.)
Now let us join together in the common bond of love for ice cream. Let us realise the creamy goodness, the rich mountains of splendor...

First, the Hungarian national ice cream. This is one we ate sitting under the apple trees in the garden, watching the doggie go crazy. It is vanilla ice cream, hazelnut ice cream, and frozen marmalade, all swirled in together. Surprising, but tasty!

Then there was tiramisu ice cream... one of the great wonders of the world... oh except biscotti which may rise above.

We had green apple ice cream, Russian Cream ice cream, vanilla, coffee, blackberry...

I do maintain the blue ribbon goes to the Sour Cherry and Poppyseed ice cream. The poppyseeds took their responsibility seriously, and did not disappoint.

Oh, ice cream. Oh, a country where the weather allows for comfortable eating of ice cream...

Tonight my dreams will be cold and wonderful.

A List of Hungarian Villages...

2009-09-05T13:02:00.000-07:00

...and the rough translations of their names in English.* A result of our recent adventures in Eastern Europe, guided by our friend Richard and his mom, Elizabeth. This should be all you need to know to tell whether we had a good time. And to form a favorable opinion of the Hungarian language and mindset.

Hungarian Name
Pogányszentpéter
Nagybajom
Almamellék
Kistolmács
Egérág
Csonkamindszent
Böszénfa
Görgeteg
Aligvár
Nyogér
Csepreg

English Translation
Pagan St. Peter
My Big Problem (or Monkey?)
Appleside
Little Translator
Mouse Branch
Amputated All Saints
Abundant Coal Wood
(The) Rolling
Barely a Castle
Groaner (possibly professional?)
It's Dripping

Stay tuned for further details.

*Translations provided by Richard, who reserves the right to find better ones.

Biggest Kitchen Table -- Green Cleaning

2009-07-14T12:32:00.001-07:00

Today's discussion (and I interpret 'today' in the broadest sense possible, encompassing last week, when Rhonda actually discussed it) is on Green Cleaning.

'Green Cleaning' makes so much sense. Whatever you call it. You don't need a trendy name or 'eco-friendly' term to do what our grandparents just did as part of life. Really, it's just about cleaning. It is about simplifying the process, eliminating excess, reducing unnecessary chemicals, and learning how many uses a simple thing like baking soda has.

We've been better at this, but just last week Joel and I had a discussion/minor conflict over 'bathroom cleaner' versus the baking soda method. What it boils down to is that we haven't made it simple enough to do it the right way. Joel pointed out that it's a lot easier to grab the spray bottle of chemicals than to find the baking soda, find a rag, etc. So that is my task for this discussion. Joel has already started by assigning a container to keep the bathroom cleaning stuff in. We use old socks as rags, so there are a couple of those in there. Joel assigned a particular sock to use to clean the outside of the toilet, and I wrote 'toilet sock' on sharpie on it. I think this is probably kind of scary to anyone who happens across it in our flat. I like to wonder what our friends think of us sometimes.

My goals for green cleaning:

Buy a separate baking soda to keep in the cleaning box.
Mix up a general all purpose cleaner that will keep in a spray bottle. I have loads of recipes for this but haven't done it yet. That would make things easier.

What are your thoughts on this? Is it easier to just buy chemical cleaners? Is it worth the initial extra time to use 'green' cleaners? Are you convinced that natural ingredients really get the things clean?

PS Another interesting event -- our friends just gave us their eco-balls, which you use instead of laundry soap, and the balls last 18 months before needing a refill (an example of when greener is cheaper - we will now spend zilch on our laundry for the next year). They gave them to us because the husband missed the smell of laundry detergent in his clothes. Have you ever tried the green option and then decided you like your old habit better?

Biggest Kitchen Table -- Electricity and Water

2009-07-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

Today's discussion was on electricity and water. I don't think we have much to change in this area. We are in rented accommodation, which means we can't change any appliance issues. And I don't think we need to anyway. All the stuff the landlord picked out is energy efficient, water saving stuff. Nice. Although if we had our way, we'd have a slightly less efficient fridge that actually had a fan built in. There is a dishwasher. We don't use this, to save money and save energy and because it seemed like it might explode the last couple times we used it. There is a tumble dryer. We don't use this either, for the same reasons sans the exploding thing. We were used to hanging all our clothes to dry anyway from our last flat which didn't have a dryer, so we figure why use it? We let guests use it if they need to. :-) We like never use our heaters in the winter, hardly ever. We're cool with it. Double-glazed windows, you know.

Water. We're on city council water, and because of Joel's student status we don't even pay for our council tax or water. So they don't really tell us how much we use.

That's all I have to say about that.

Biggest Kitchen Table -- Food

2009-07-06T10:13:00.000-07:00

I appreciate the comments on the last post regarding Living Deliberately and Money. So many of you comment on Facebook, I wonder if you realise I actually haven't been on facebook for over a year, and this is actually a post on our blog! But I do get and appreciate the comments, all the same.

I relate so much to D and T, who both related to how living a transplanted lifestyle makes simplifying life and belongings a lot more... easier? necessary? A little of both, I suppose. Moving to a different country is one of those things where you do begin to realise you are not defined by your possessions. We don't collect much unnecessary junk. We don't buy lots of things, because we realise we'll just have to get rid of most of it again when we leave here. Any spending decisions are truly intentional - is this worth shipping back to the states?

I love that T brought up her intentional choice not to have a TV. We're the same. I think it's been so good and I highly recommend not having one, at least for a while, especially at the beginning of a marriage. That is such a magnificent, underrated way to simplify life, begin to establish what is important to you, and think about spending your time intentionally instead of letting it get sucked away by the wires.
Biggest Kitchen Table -- Food
Today's discussion is on food. I am intimidated to start this blog post, because I want to keep it short, and food is probably the one subject I think the most about. There is so much to say! So I think I will focus on my accomplishments in this area in the past year or so, and my goals for the next year or so.

Things I am glad I've changed in the last year:

I've begun growing! I have my two tomato plants, and lots of spinach. I planted lettuce but the aphids enjoyed those and as such I have had to abandon them. I'm doing it the good old fashioned way without chemicals.
I've learned to like: mushrooms, tomatoes, plain yogurt, Greek yogurt, green olives, balsamic vinegar. (I know, I know, how could I not like those things before?)
We make lots more homemade.
I make our breakfast granola. I feel like this improves my day so much! I love doing this!
Read Nourishing Traditions. I've started applying her ideas more to our cooking and eating. She really gives convincing arguments for fermentation, sprouting seeds/beans, etc.
We cook mostly everything from scratch.
We buy local a lot more, and are a lot more conscientious when it comes to this. It's fairly easy to do here, besides the issue of citrus. I definitely draw the line when it comes to foods from south africa or south america; that's pretty much the furthest away you get here. We can get everything we need from the UK or Spain at the furthest. Except limes.

Goals - in the next year or as soon as possible:

Clean and reorganise our cupboard. It's shameful, really. Full of all the pots/cooking things, as well as all our grains/cans/pasta/flour/etc. So haphazard.
Defrost our fridge. I don't even want to talk about why we have to defrost our fridge. Sometime I think I'll do a post on our fridge, to show you what we have to work with here. It has about 3 cubic inches of space. I'm exaggerating just a little.
Try growing a couple new vegetables. I expect that during the next growing season, we'll be living with the parents. My growing capacity will still be limited although I will have a lot more outdoor space, at least for pots.
Grow garlic
Buy predominately organic dairy products
Research & start composting. It's just impossible in this flat, but I'm trying to research a bit more and figure out what would be feasible to do once we leave this place.

Future goals - long term:

Use open-pollinated / heirloom seeds. In other words, the way our grandparents used to grow things. Keep the same seeds from the same produce year after year. The books Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and The Omnivore's Dilemma convinced me of this. I might start this with tomatoes next year.
Grow zucchini/courgette, more tomatoes, rhubarb, beans, squashes, onions, garlic, cabbage, lots more veg.
Learn more about taking care of soil.

I think I'll cut it short from here. Food is one of those subjects that I can go on and on about. I think many of you are passionate about it as well. Let's keep encouraging each other and learning from each other in this area! A few of us have become fairly proficient at living in a small place while still trying to live within our morals when it comes to food and food systems.

2009-07-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

The sky... this is one thing I will miss about living here. Not that this particular photo is award-winning, but the sky here tends to be quite outspoken. During the summer, the sunsets last for hours. The winters have very abrupt, very magnificent sunsets and sunrises. In the winter I find joy in watching the sunrise from the bus stop on my way to work. In the summer, the closest we see to a sunrise is the dusk after the official sunset. Clouds. The clouds stretch, reach out, exist, and when they aren't dominating the sky, they showcase lovely light and colour. I will miss Scotland's sky.

Tonight I went to a friend's birthday night out, came home pretty early, and sat on the hospital's ledge at the corner of our street, watching the sky change colours. Joel is at a gig, so I had the luxury of independence and loneliness. Who can feel lonely when watching such beauty? (no offiense to Joel's company!) While I was sitting quietly, an old Scottish woman walked by and started talking to me (as they so often do). She told me she was going to pick some grass for her cat, that it helped her stomach, and went on to tell me about how she so would love to let her cat outside, but the Cat Protection said there was too much traffic. So she settles for bringing her cat grass. The woman told me she often gets grass from Bearsden (just outside of Glasgow), that's how spoiled she is! I love these people who share their life stories for no apparent reason. I will miss that too.
This is Joel, with the rhubarb cake I made on his lap. I don't want to gloat over the fact that he's slowly beginning to like rhubarb, I really just want to show how sacrificial his love is, to be prepared to like rhubarb, for my sake. This is truly a wonderful man, folks. Seriously, have any of your partners been prepared to give up a lifelong adamant detestation of such an assertive food?

Okay, now let's address the matter at hand: The Biggest Kitchen Table discussion. Today is on Living Deliberately, and Money.

Living Deliberately: This is about living with intention, having your life goals in mind in your everyday actions. It is a departure from living for the moment. For me, I first began thinking about this and practicing it in high school. My close friend who acted as a spiritual and personal mentor to me, Lori, taught me about what it means to live intentionally, and caused me to really meditate on this. I believe we do fairly well at this. It is about a balance - not living fully in the future, but living the present while thinking about and preparing for the future. My goals are varied, alive, and I like to think simple. I want to grow my own vegetables - I've started that this year, with windowpots full of spinach and tomato plants. Just a small step, but a step nonetheless. It helps me learn some things slowly, and hopefully in the future I'll have access to some real dirt to grow things in.

Money: Joel and I do well managing our money, out of necessity, and a conviction that 'your money is where your heart is'. We have been given hard lessons to learn in our married life, centred about being dependent and accepting help from others. I hope this prepares us for a future in which we are able to help others in the same way.

We're very careful with our money, and apart from bills like rent and electricity, and my student loan payments, the only thing we really spend money on is food. Food is an area we would like to spend less money on, by making more things ourselves, and growing things ourselves. The spinach has been a success. The main hindrance to making more things homemade is the time factor. As we both essentially work full time, it is difficult to live up to our aspirations We often experiment with this; we were making our own bread for a time earlier in the spring; Joel has made yogurt on occassion; we were in the habit of a weekly from-scratch pizza night.. but when things get busy, these things fall away and we end up buying bread. In that case, we buy nice bread - we tend to buy Polish bread that doesn't have any preservatives - but of course buying things is more expensive, and often not as good quality, as homemade. Both of us look forward to a time when Joel is working, and hopefully I'll have a bit mroe time in the home to do things like this. Food is very important to me (you may have notices). So I look forward to tomorrow when Rhonda looks at the food issue.
Our money goals are essentially: -to eliminate debt (all of the student loan nature) -to have a savings account

I hope this isn't too much information, I know we don't usually share so much on the blog. Anyone have any thoughts about any of this?

2009-07-01T14:00:00.000-07:00

Rhonda from the Down to Earth Blog is setting this week aside to look at how well we are sticking to our goals of simplifying life, reducing excessive belongings, and taking care with the way we manage our households in this way. As this is something I've been focusing on more, I thought I'd join in with her and see if I notice any ways I can make our life a bit more simple and sustainable.

One thing I expect to focus on is reducing the number of disposable items in our lives - we try to do this but even the past couple of months I've been realising more things we could easily do.

I'll be recording my conclusions here. Rhonda is doing this every day of the next week, but I'll probably follow along at my own pace - I can't keep up with the daily blog roll.

Hope you are all well, feel free to pick up ideas along the way!

Joel and Heather's Guide to alternative tourism

2009-06-27T03:59:00.000-07:00

Or: Our Third London

Having traveled to and enjoyed London together twice before in the past three years (I'd been once before in high school as well), Heather and I decided to pay London a final visit before leaving the UK. We'd seen and done most of the typical touristy stuff (at least, all the touristy stuff you can see and do for less than £5), so we wanted a less metropolitan (but equally cheap) experience this year. The more well-known, touristy London is definitely worth seeing — especially if it's your first trip or you have a bit of travel money saved up — but there are tons of other interesting things to do in less crowded, less maddening areas.

Monday:
We arrived by train at London Euston station. Immediately upon exiting, we stumbled into the British Library (serendipity!), which houses such national treasures as the Magna Carta, the original handwritten Alice in Wonderland, the Lindisfarne Gospels, and two of the oldest existing Greek Bibles: the Codices Sinaiticus (4th century) and Alexandrinus (5th century). After dinner (Pret), we met our welcoming and hospitable (Polish) CouchSurfing hosts, Gregor, Joanna, and their two children. Gregor has very wide musical taste and introduced me to one of the best musical ideas I've ever heard: Polish folk reggae! Here's a video (warning: Youtube). Jamaicans in the snow!!!

Tuesday:
The Roof Gardens in Kensington are Richard Branson's private garden (and nightclub) on the roof of a six-story building in central London. There are three gardens on the roof (Tudor, Spanish, and English Woodlands), with trees, flowers, shrubs, ducks, and even four pink flamingos ('Bill', 'Ben', 'Splosh', and 'Pecks'). This was definitely a highlight of our trip. It's pretty surprising to walk out on a rooftop and find such a nice garden. Doesn't cost anything to see during the day — just call ahead to make sure there are no weddings or events going on. From there, we go to Kensington Gardens, which are tacked on to the west side of Hyde Park, where we eat a picnic breakfast and sit by the water. There's so much green space inside London! We did indulge in a couple of touristy activities today; we checked out the Portobello Road Markets area (the actual market is only on the weekends), and went to Westminster in the evening to sit by the Thames and look at the Houses of Parliament for a while. Most importantly, we stopped at the Algerian Coffee Stores, which we discovered last year, to buy tea and coffee. Why did I buy Colombian when they have so many other hard-to-find varieties of coffee? I don't know. I'm bad at last-minute decisions. Heather bought some Ti Kuan Yin, a really good choice.

Wednesday:
Oxford. What can I say? It's impressive, ancient, and overrun by tourists (to whom most of the city's doors are barred and bolted tight). We got ice cream and watched tourists trying to propel their rented punts and stay dry at the same time, then went for dinner at the Eagle and Child. This, as you may know, is the seventeenth-century pub at which the Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, et al.) met every Tuesday morning for 30 years to discuss whatever legendary authors, philologists, and theologians discuss. We were highly impressed with how low-key it all was. They did sell t-shirts and had pictures of the Inklings on the wall, but the pub did not have any hint of that tacky shrine feel that tourist attractions seem to aim for. It was still very much a functioning pub, with decent prices, good food, and warm ale. Oxford was a bit of a mixed bag for us: it's good to have finally seen the University and the Bodleian Library (or their exteriors); on the other hand, it's not a good place to visit on a budget, and tourism in a University town seems problematic. There's no way, as a tourist, to participate, which is surely the whole point of the University as an institution. Also, did not succeed in obtaining a boater hat for Heather. Apparently they are no longer in fashion.

Thursday:
Spent the whole day in Hampstead Heath, 790 acres of forest, bogs, ponds, and fields to the northwest of central London. Its status as a park dates back to the 900s A.D. It boasts one of the best views of the city, apparently protected by law, from Parliament Hill (a.k.a. Kite Hill). There are also ponds for swimming (a sign reads: 'Warning: the water is cold, opaque, and untreated. Deep silt.') and fishing (catch and release, no barbed hooks or live bait), although we hadn't come prepared for either. We had great weather, got a bit sunburned, wandered aimlessly in the woods, climbed a tree, ate tinned fish for lunch, and envied all the people with dogs. If we ever come back to London, we will definitely spend more time here. In the evening, Gregor cooked us a traditional Polish dinner with fried pork chops and boiled potatoes; everything covered in dill. Amazing.

Friday:
Took the train home; tried to write postcards while the cars semi-successfully attempted to negotiate the rails.

In summary, our favorite activities are sitting and walking, for both of which London is an ideal location.

P.S. There are more pictures from our trip here on our Picasa page.

The most promising knitting results so far:

2009-06-07T09:59:00.000-07:00

This is a matching hat and bootie set that I knitted for Scarlet, the baby girl due to arrive any moment now to our pastor and his wife here in Glasgow.
The hat is this pattern. It's simple and fast (the joy of knitting for babies!), and I love how it turned out! The ribbon weaves in and out of the little eyelets around the hat.The booties are Saartje's Bootees on Ravelry. These are pretty simple, I had a bit of trouble with the straps, but worked through it somehow. Whether or not it's how it was meant to be done is fairly irrelevant, as it turned out fine!

The wool is 50% wool, 50% alpaca and several mothers I asked thought it would be soft enough for a baby. The photos don't do the wool justice, it really is beautiful. A dusk purple, with the most subtle little pink here and there, if you are actually looking for it.

What do you think? I'm quite proud of them!

Sewing!

2009-05-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

I made this! This afternoon! I used this pattern. The fabric is heavy duty cotton, really thick, I think some sort of upholstery fabric or something. It made it a nice, thick bag that has some substance.

The inside fabric is the same weight. The lighting is fairly atrocious, but I don't think the pink stripes are quite so garrish in real life. I dunno, I'm not into pink anyway.

As you see below, it's reversible! So if one liked garrish pink stripes, they could turn it inside out. I don't think I would.

The bag has a flat bottom - which is pretty cool, considering I'm not a master seamstress.

Our sewing machine was given to us by Christine, our Glasgow friend who moved to Boston last year. She's German. She gave us odds and ends of extra fabric too, which is what I used for the bag! So, this was free to make! Amazing. I love free. We pulled out the sewing machine last week finally, and repaired some clothing. This bag will be filled with some basic essential oils, some natural cleaning recipes, etc and given to our friend for a bridal shower I'm going to next week. She's been wanting to learn some more natural cleaning from me, so I thought I'd put this 'starter kit' together for her.

Now all I need is some more fabric, and I could make more! It'd be a great bag for keeping knitting odds and ends in, or even a beach bag, if it were bigger.. (and if there was a beach).

2009-05-05T12:47:00.001-07:00

This evening I got the chance to do some things in the kitchen. I made a lasagne which is now in the fridge ready to be baked for tomorrow's dinner. I made rhubarb crumble (Nigella's recipe from Feast) with some early rhubarb from Yorkshire I got for cheap. The crumble is is cooling on the stove now. I also had time to put away the clean dishes and wash all of the newly dirty ones I created tonight.

Being able to do household tasks, particularly food-related ones, really gives me contentment. I feel confident that I am coping with life well when the flat is reasonably tidy and the food situation is not completely erratic. I do find it very difficult to keep up with domestic tasks when I work full time. Weekday evenings are notoriously bad for being able to cook a dinner as well as tidy and still feel like Joel and I get some time to talk to each other. So often, things are not as tidy or organised as I would like. However, those things are less important than building up our marriage and ensuring we are on the same page and don't feel neglected by each other. Often, we leave the housework (but probably not as often as Joel would like :-).

I was able to do so much this evening because -we had leftovers for dinner -Joel went over to Michael's this evening to get advice on fixing his bass -my evening event was cancelled.
So you can see this is not generally possible to get to accomplish so much on a weekday evening.

I consider this evening an energising break. Does that sound strange, when I spent it doing tidying, cleaning, and cooking? That is what I enjoy doing. Mostly the cooking part, although I do really enjoy washing dishes when I am not rushed and overwhelmed by lots to do.

I came across this article that I had read a couple of months ago, and thought it was worth sharing with you. It is about the value of homemaking/householding. Another excellent read is this article from Rhonda at Down to Earth (which incidentally would be my most recommended blog).

In the last couple years Joel and I have become more and more wanting to be responsibly domestically. This includes eating food we make ourselves, so we can avoid additives and get more natural flavour and nutrition; cleaning with natural ingredients like baking soda and lemon juice to we don't use unnecessary chemicals in the home; and making it recreational to cook. Incidentally, all of these things not only ensure we are healthier, but they also save money. There are loads of areas we have to improve in, mostly because we don't have time to do all the things we would like, like baking all our own bread (although that was working well for a monthish in the late winter).

The challenge we have at the moment is that both of us are 'working' in some form or another, and thus we do not have a homemaker. We hope that in the future I will be able to stay at home, and this will be a priority for us. I look forward to being able to focus more on making wise household decisions and building my skills in areas that are often forgotten these days.

I know many of you who read (women and men) are very skilled at various aspects of homemaking. Do you find contentment in it? Fulfillment? Joy?
Of course if you have any tips of easy ways to make our lives simpler and more homemade, do share!

Okay I suppose I better get started on the rhubarb crumble, seeing as Joel doesn't like rhubarb!

Update: Mm that rhubarb crumble is delicious, with custard (storebought, not homemade!) over it. I think Joel may even like this one (though he will never admit it!).

PS Grandma B, I would have used your rhubarb crisp recipe but somehow have lost it. :-)

Up North - Banchory, Aberdeenshire

2009-04-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

Hello friends! As you may have surmised, our lives have been very busy, and blogging hasn't been on the top of our to-do list. Sometimes we really get caught up in the actual living that we neglect sharing our lives with others. Living itself really does take quite a lot of energy, doesn't it?

We have been so grateful for spring literally blossoming around us. It's now fully light when our alarms go off, and stays light long enough for us to forget to make dinner until 7pm. Wonderful! This week has been warm, I suppose it hasn't truly been over 60 Fahrenheit, but it has ironically felt like summer (My office, however, has actually been over 80 Fahrenheit). The cherry trees are blooming, and we've enjoyed a couple of bicycle rides. There's a lovely bike path next to the River Clyde that goes to Glasgow Green, a large green park just outside the City Centre. We rode there after work earlier in the week and really enjoyed getting some sunlight and exercise.

But what I really wanted to tell you about was our journey up north last weekend. We went up to Banchory, a small town in Aberdeenshire, to visit our good friend Michaela (there she is!). Michaela is a close friend here, who we feel mutually encouraged by and truly appreciate the time we get to spend with her. She is teaching up north just now, and so we bussed up and spent the weekend with her at her parents' house, with 2 adorable boxer dogs and sunshine. It was a bit like going back into winter, as you can see. We took a hillwalk up a local hill and were surrounded by snow and cold sunlight. We also went to the sea... which we love. To live on an island surrounded by the sea, it is a shame how difficult it is to get to see broad, open sea. Ah.. peace. Contemplative harmony with the world. I love the sea.

It was wonderful to catch up with Michaela, hear how she is doing in her life, and spending lots of time outside. The photos are from our hike up the hill (the snowy ones), and our walk by the sea, in Stonehaven. The castle is Dunottar. Nice, eh?

Hebrews 6:9-20 (NASB)

2009-04-01T06:19:00.000-07:00

But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, "I WILL SURELY BLESS YOU AND I WILL SURELY MULTIPLY YOU." And so, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. For men swear by one greater {than themselves,} and with them an oath {given} as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a {hope} both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

This will help you understand my research

2009-03-13T02:36:00.000-07:00

From Dinosaur Comics

Ethan Beaudoin

2009-03-06T01:14:00.000-08:00

I'm very sad to say that my friend Ethan passed away on Tuesday night after a sudden battle with sarcoma. If you think of it, his wife Stacey and daughter Chloe could use prayer. It's a sad thing knowing that I won't be able to visit and catch up with him when we get back from Scotland, but a good thing to realize that it's a postponement, not a cancellation. I'm so glad to have known Ethan and Stacey from living at UCU in Seattle, and glad to have heard Ethan's testimony about how God used Stacey to bring Ethan to Him.

If it's useful or of interest to anyone, here's a link to the recordings we made in college of Ethan and Micah's songs.

Title here

2009-03-05T09:17:00.000-08:00

Wow, look here.

Knitters go overboard.

That's pretty cool, but I can't really imagine ever coming to a point where I've knitted so much for friends and family that I can now knit for lampposts. Although, come to think of it, maybe I should be knitting primarily for inanimate objects until I actually start to turn out some decent work...

Tumblr

2009-02-10T00:31:00.000-08:00

Hi, it's actually me this time. I've recently started a tumblelog. Don't worry, it will never replace this blog (which isn't a real blog anyway). I'm using it to keep track of things that are either interesting or boring but useful to me somehow. A lot of the things I post will be to do with my dissertation, probably - scraps of text, links to sites, etc., so don't expect much. If anyone's interested, it's here.

Thoughts on Winter in Glasgow

2009-02-08T09:30:00.000-08:00

Here we are, continuing to plod along through the winter.
It's currently snowing. Lovely, yes. But it's still not really snow. It's more that teasing kind of snow, that whispers in your ear, "you can look at me, but I won't stay. I'll disappear almost as soon as I hit the ground. And you'll be left merely with a wet face/coat/sock/trouser leg."

I think I still prefer it to come down and visit Glasgow.

Life, work, studies continue, in the unmagnificent way it tends to happen during winter. We have been having lovely saturdays. It tends to be a day to get caught up in the kitchen, in ways. I bake a loaf of bread for us to eat through the week. I bake other things. Last week it was flapjack. So magnificent, I must share that with you at some point. Energy bars. More mayonnaise. Ketchup. Muffins. Etc.

I'm looking forward to soup this week.

Enough with the food, I suppose.

Did I tell you, in January I decided the start of a new year was a wonderful opportunity to start a new skill. I've started knitting. I tried my hand at it a few years ago, but this time I am really going to learn it. I've got the basics down, and must show you the hat I knitted Joel. It's 50% wool, 50% alpaca, and it's soft and brown and warm. Before that project, I accidentally knitted a hat for a deformed baby head, so if anyone knows a baby that has a weird lump on the sideish-top of his head, let me know.

When we came to Glasgow, I thought, "Wow, I'll spend the winters learning how to play my banjo, and developing my Spanish!" Neither of those things have come through, but I have learned to cook some, and now am knitting. I also got into aromatherapy a bit, which enhances our life and cleaning in ways. Knitting is my current absorption, but please don't expect anything grand for quite some time. I knit in my spare time. So not as much as I would like. I knitted last night while watching a french film, which is quite admirable considering I can't understand french and had to read subtitles while knitting a new (and weird) pattern. It went pretty well. I have the start of a knitting project, and new knowledge of french knife-throwing circus acts who have suicidal tendencies.

In other news, I cannot seem to get my mind off of this:

I made it last summer. It's a rhubarb crisp with honey and vanilla, and it is divine. Joel doesn't like rhubarb, so I get to eat the entire thing myself. Waiting for rhubarb to come into season...

How is your winter going?

Broccolate: A New Culinary Delight

2009-02-05T11:28:00.000-08:00

Heather seems to have dropped the proverbial ball lately in updating all of you wonderful fans with new recipes and adventures in food, so I thought I'd pull my equally proverbial weight. This easy, affordable meal is the Windex of the food world: it's perfect for a main dish, a side, or a dessert, and it goes well with any style! Here's the recipe:

Steam some broccoli. I used our Pampered Chef microwave steamer, with lightly salted water. I like it with a little butter.

Add lots of chocolate syrup.

Enjoy!

Heather points out that, if trying this on your own, you shouldn't use Hershey's syrup, which contains mercury.

The promised photos

2009-01-17T08:26:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the best pics from our trip back to Washington/Idaho. There are lots more we'd like to have from Moms and Dads, friends, etc! Please send them if you have any good ones. Especially ones of cats. We like those.

This is us in Newport, at Joel's house of youth. What beautiful snow!!

The Lokster (Loki)... how can something be so freaking adorable and at the same time so obnoxious??

My first experience with a snowblower was grand. I always loved mowing the lawn growing up, and this is similar, but has the fabulous snow chute thing. Awesome! I keep thinking there must be some use for the massive amount of excess snow around during the winter... someone has got to capitalise on this! I'll be coming up with ideas. If you have any I'd love to hear them.
This is a humongo danger icicle outside of Joel's Dad's classroom! It's like, thicker than YOU are! This is the kind that is caused by bad design, and causes further problems in the walls and ceilings. Nature conquers architecture! Mua ha ha...

*Thanks to D & T for the USB camera cord thingy.
**Here's more photos of our trip back to the states.

Back in Glasgow.

2009-01-13T10:14:00.001-08:00

We've been back in Glasgow for 6 days now. We're still coming to peace with our return. We had a magnificently beautiful time back in Washington State. We couldn't have asked for more lovely moments with family and friends. True thanks to each of you who made time to see us and made us feel so welcome and.. at home.

Highlights of our trip:

The SNOW!! Not only did the west coast have record-breaking snowfall the first week we were there, but Eastern Washington had 3 feet! We had a surpassingly enjoyable time shovelling snow, going sledding, shovelling more snow, drinking tea, shovelling more snow... and using the snowblower! I was delighted with every aspect. Growing up on the west side of the state never afforded me experiences with frozen lakes, dangers of snow weight on rooftops, or sharing snowblower stories with neighbours. I love it.
Driving across Washington. Joel and I repeatedly expressed fascination that we are natives to such an unbelievably beautiful and varied place. Even though we have travelled that journey many time before, coming back to it after a 2 year hiatus brought back resounding affirmations that we love this state, our (metaphorical and hopefully one day literal again) home.
Seeing all of our grandparents well. We are so thankful that despite ongoing health issues, all of our loved grandparents have been well and we were able to have visits with them. Nothing like time away to make you really appreciate people's character, wisdom, and advice.
Being with both of our families on Christmas. Joel's parents were so kind as to drive west to spend the holiday with my family. Having the opportunity to spend it with both sides is wonderful, and having families who get along and love each other so much is a blessing beyond what we could ask.
My parent's crazy new cat, Loki. He's beyond insane. It was quite fun. Joel and him became inseparable friends (inseparable: often joined by the cat's bite and Joel's foot). Here's hoping he calms down a bit over the years! (No more jumping on Grandma's back, kitty.)
Being able to catch up with true friends. There were some we didn't get to see, and most we'd love to spend more time with, but we soaked up the time we got with each of you. Thank you!

As always, we invite you all to come visit us in Glasgow. Most of you know our couch has been well broken in by those before you! Re-beginning our journey here in Glasgow, we appreciate your thoughts and prayers that we can remain steady and focused on the tasks at hand and finish strong. One year left!

(Pictures to follow. We have left/lost/misplaced all 3 of our USB camera cord thingys.)

We're Coming to America!

2008-12-09T12:32:00.000-08:00

Cliffs in Orkney. Isn't the water gorgeous???

Yes, it's true, ladies and gentlemen, Joel and Heather are actually returning to the states. For the first time in over 2 years, much to your joy and/or consternation, we are coming back for a visit! We'll be in Washington state for 3 weeks, splitting the time between the west side and the east.

Here is a cordial invitation from my Mum:

Dear Friends,
We wanted to have a special gathering for Heather and Joel while they are here from Scotland. We're hoping as many of you can be here as possible. I know it's a busy time of year so if you can't don't feel obligated. We will have an Open House on Sunday, December 21st from 3:00 - 7:00 in Puyallup. If there are other people that we might have forgotten, feel free to invite them. We don't want anyone to be left out! Appetizers and beverages will be provided.

This will take place in my parent's house in Puyallup. If you are interested in coming and don't know where this is, please send me a message somehow (preferably NOT facebook) and I can give you directions. As for all of you eastern washingtonians, there is potential for a similar opportunity which we will let you know of as/if it develops.

If you can't make it to either, and have a burning desire to see us, please let us know!

Just a reminder that this is in that book

2008-11-26T03:03:00.000-08:00

Since Luke reminded me today. Read it if you're interested...

Luke 6:27-30 (NASB)
"But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back."

6:33a
"If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you?"

6:35
"But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men."

No one is really mistreating me at the moment, and I can't think of any 'enemies', but this is the attitude I want, especially having benefited from it in others. Also, I'm sure this relates to 'The Economy', 'National Security', and 'Foreign Policy' somehow, but I won't speculate.

Rosie's Chickpea Curry

2008-10-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome one and all to the most wonderful recipe that you must make part of your life. Now. This has become one of our standard, well-loved dinners.

There is a community centre nearby us that has lots of different classes and activities, like stained glass, which we were going to last year at this time. It's called the Annexe, and it's in Partick. They also have a gem of a cafe, which serves healthy and delicious lunches. This is their Chickpea Curry, courtesy of Rosie the cook.

If you've ever taken heed to anything I've ever said, I urge you to try this curry. It's heart-warming, flavourful, and will make your day better.

Rosie's Chickpea Curry

2 tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 tin coconut milk
3 tablespoons Patak's Balti Curry Paste (use any curry paste you can find, and add more to taste. I always add double what she suggests. Different curry pastes will add different flavours, so let me know how yours turns out!)
2 large onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
Square inch chopped fresh ginger
6 dried apricots, chopped
1 roasted red pepper, chopped
2 roasted potatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons olive or sunflower oil
a good handful of fresh coriander (cilantro)

Roasted vegetables - roughly chop the pepper and par boiled potato into large chunks and sprinkle with a little oil, roast in oven for 15 minutes.

Heat oil in a saucepan.
Add onions, garlic, and ginger. Fry gently.
Add apricots and remove from heat.
Stir in curry paste.
Gently mix in the chickpeas.
Stir in the roasted vegetables.
Add the coconut milk and stir.
Return to low heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
Add the coriander and serve.

Serve with grilled pitabread, or naan, or boiled rice and mango chutney. Eat like a madwoman and afterward give your belly a reassuring rub.

Reptilian Autumn.

2008-10-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

It's been a good week. Busy, but good busy. So many great things to pack in.

Yesterday I saw a baby gecko that had just hatched that day! It was soo adorable.
I also petted a python. It had beautiful green and black patches!
This is all miraculously part of my job. Next time I complain about my job, you have certification to smack me.

The colours all around are irresistible. Gorgeous oranges, bronze, gold, scarlet... I love it. Doesn't it make you want to dye your hair a beautiful deep rich red? I wish I could but with Joel it'd just look ridiculous, both of us being red-haired. Oh well.

I have cooked so many things this week it's intimidating to think about all of it. Part of being busy has been many many social things, and what else do you do for that sort of thing? I cook. But today I don't post about it. Tonight holds my life's calling: teaching someone how to make guacamole.* Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Why don't you go make yourself some? Come on, you don't even have an excuse. I know, avocados aren't exactly in season, especially in Glasgow, but hey once you taste it, could you really fault me?

In direct contradiction to my last statement, I am making an intentional effort to cook with seasonal ingredients. This has included buying a butternut squash (which turned out pretty decent especially for our first time), roasting a pumpkin, and thanking God for all of the on-sale apples and pears! Oh I made pear butter too. Mm delicious. I may tell you more about that later.

*Update 26.10.08: It has been undeniably shown to me that showing Scottish teenagers how to make guacamole is not in fact my life's true calling. While opening a can of refried beans I got a huge deep disgusting cut in my finger and it bled all over the kitchen. Then at 3 am it opened up again and bled all over the bathroom. Then we went to the hospital till 6am. It's been more than a week and the wound still isn't all closed up. Eeeeeww.

Our Summer with the Folks: Installment 1

2008-09-21T10:02:00.000-07:00

In the grand tradition of this blog, I have at least 300 posts to get through all at once, so I can slack off again for another three months. Last year, Heather's parents visited us and we traveled all over Scotland and Norway with them. This year was my parents' turn! This time around, we stayed in Scotland, but split the time between Orkney and the Rest of Scotland. This provides me with a perfect excuse to do two posts. Orkney needs its own post.

Who you calling a demi-savage?

Though we had an eventful two weeks, I must say they were much less packed than last summer, and we were able to spend a fair amount of time chillin' in the greater Glasgow area, cooking (as you've no doubt noticed) and seeing the local sights: City Centre, the Botanic Gardens, Loch Lomond, etc. The folks got to meet Basil and our other friends, see our church, and generally be reassured we were still alive.

One priority was to find the MacFarlane homelands: though I'm becoming increasingly aware of the decided American-ness of the quest for 'heritage' and 'ancestry', I've decided to continue to embrace my roots... just more quietly. Also, my dad was totally into finding Loch Sloy, which is basically MacFarlane cow-stealing HQ. We found it - or at least the hydroelectric plant that drains its water, and the mountain that we would have had to climb to see the actual lake. Close enough. Photo op.

The rest of these pictures are from the long road trip (by UK standards) up to Orkney. Highlights were Dunrobin Castle (nice castle, Robin!) huge windfarms, Cromarty Firth, and good ol' Highland scenery. Unfortunately, we were in a hurry to catch the ferry to Orkney, so we did miss some of the cool scenery Tighe and I saw last winter, but we did get to see a lot of the more northerly parts I hadn't seen yet.

As usual, there are lots more pictures here (Update: just fixed the link).

Rye Bread

2008-09-20T14:37:00.001-07:00

Wasn't the Cold Ham Water post a lovely distraction from the usual focus of edible food? Courtesy of Joel the Cook. Now, back to the status quo... with Rye Bread. We bought some rye flour at our favourite shop in Partick, which sells everything in plastic bags for low prices. The guy who runs the place buys it all in bulk and passes on the savings to his customers. He sells everything from bulk spices, flours, oats (even pinhead oats, mind you), and pet food too! We used to buy all of Basil's food there. He even has aquariams full of snakes and other reptiles and fish in the back. What an awesome shop. I think it's called something like Partick pet food and grain supply store.
We used this recipe for rye bread. We substituted treacle for molasses, as you do. I think we can call this a success. We definitely used the caraway seeds, and let me tell you that is VITAL to rye bread. We'll be enjoying this...

Cold Ham Water With Dill Garnish

2008-09-13T10:21:00.000-07:00

If you have been paying attention to this blog in the last several months, you may have come under the impression that Heather is the only gourmet in our household. This impression is mistaken; I'm actually the more talented chef, and today I'd like to share one of my favorite recipes with you. Cold Ham Water is a variation on a popular recipe, which I first heard about on my favorite cooking show. This is a much simpler version, however, which doesn't require special 'water boiling' equipment.

Cold Ham Water
Ingredients:

Water (cold)*
Ham (thinly sliced)**

Dill Garnish:

Dill (garnish)

Directions:

Place ham in water-tight tray or bowl.
Add cold water (to taste)
Garnish with dill

*If cold tap water is not available, refrigerate warm or lukewarm water overnight until cold.
**I used 'cooked ham' sandwich meat, but 'smoked' or 'honey glazed' will also work.

I should mention that I discovered this recipe inadvertently due to a steady drip in the ceiling of our refrigerator.

Mayonnaise

2008-09-11T10:19:00.001-07:00

I made homemade mayonnaise yesterday. If you don't know me well enough, this is basically equivalent to a vegetarian making a steak dinner. I don't eat mayonnaise. I don't even like it having a presence in our (very small) fridge. HOWEVER I do put Joel's happiness above my own discomfort, and Joel loves his mayonnaise. Thus our fridge is a mayonnaise-friendly fridge.

Since coming to terms with the fact that we will most likely always be a mayonnaise-keeping family, I have come to the conclusion that if we must have mayonnaise, then at least we can have non-preservative laden mayonnaise, with minimal cost and in controllable amounts. By making a small batch, I am restricting it's fridge presence while contributing to Joel's happiness. Wow this post is getting way too long for something talking about mayonnaise...

Anyway I made mayonnaise. It took me like 5 minutes, looks pretty much like crap, so I guess it's about right, and cost nothing. We had all the ingredients in the kitchen. Now, as I've told Joel, it's only a matter of creativity before I can vary it up by making garlic mayonnaise or something.

Here's the recipe I used. Dead simple. Don't support the mayonnaise industry! Make your own instead!

Mayonnaise (based on a few recipes, among them this one)

Mix one egg, 1 tablespoon lemon juice (or vinegar), 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper, and about 1/2-1 teaspoon dry mustard.

When this is mixed, gradually add in 1 Cup of oil (I used 1/2 olive oil, 1/2 sunflower). As you keep mixing it magically turns into the congealed mass of white known as mayonnaise.

Celebration!

2008-09-10T14:12:00.000-07:00

Happy one-loan-down-one-more-to-go Day!!!

As of this month, I've paid off my smallest student loan! This is incredibly encouraging to me, and having just one more loan (I'm not even counting Joel's at this point) gives me hope that there will be an end to loan payments!

Following brilliant and sensible advice from Get Rich Slowly, and another article that I cannot seem to track down anywhere, I am keeping my persistent determination strong. Instead of seeing this loan pay off as a break for the bank account, I've raised my other loan payment by the difference. I was paying about $50 for the newly paid off loan, and $100 toward my other one, but now since the small loan has been paid off, I just increased my other loan payment to $150. I've been paying that much toward loans the last 2 years, and despite low wages and many financial hardships, we've been making it, so now is not the time to decrease payments! This way I'll be able to pay off my final loan sooner rather than later. I asked the woman on the phone how long it would take me to pay this off at the new payment rate, and she said until 2015. Seems like an awful long time, but hey it will be here quick! About 6 years (If that seems like a long time, just think, 9/11 was actually 7 years ago tomorrow). And if things go as planned, I will be able to increase my payments at some point and pay it off even sooner.

Also, we aren't paying towards any of Joel's loans at the moment b/c he's still studying. This helps me to be able to focus on paying off my loans.

Celebration! Everyone pick up a penny off the sidewalk in thanks for my first loan paid off!
You can do it too!

Victory Gardens

2008-09-08T10:35:00.000-07:00

The greatest thing of today.

And for all of you super-Americans, the name should make you happy.

Things like this make me love life, people, and even America.

R.I.P. Basil 2007-2008

2008-08-26T09:52:00.000-07:00

Let's all take a moment to remember the delight Basil brought us all. More than a pet, we've lost a best friend.Basil: Haiku in Memoriam

Legs up in the air
Basil was flat on his back
The end came too soon.

Now lettuce has a name!

2008-08-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

This is Salanova® lettuce. There were rows and rows at the store today and it looked so gorgeous I had no reason not to buy one. It's a gorgeous head of lettuce, if I've ever seen one. It looks eyecatchingly different than any other lettuce I've seen. Now I'm wondering of the ethics of buying trademark lettuce... The website's tag line for the lettuce is "Now lettuce has a name!" I'm not sure if they were missing something?

Joel leaves, home subsequently shatters.

2008-08-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

Food waste is up. Way up. So far I've had to throw away:

a half bag of salad
leftover couscous with sweet raisin/apricot chicken stuff
leftover rice (it was too late for rice pudding)
an apple
a lime
there's some ham nearing the end.

This is getting dire, folks! I need the man's belly!

Basil is down. Something is wrong with my adorable wee beloved cretin. He isn't as fiery as he used to be, he isn't even trying to bite my fingers when I stick them in his cage. When I hold him he doesn't resist me pulling out of his cage, and he doesn't run for my shoulders right away either.
These numbers are all messed up. There's two number ones and these are ALL the sort of problems no one but JOEL can fix. Let's petition for him to come back.

London

2008-08-06T10:36:00.001-07:00

Joel says I should post on London. Okay... but I'll be thinking about food in the back of my mind the entire time. We stayed with a lovely Couchsurfer from France. This made our time in London a time we were unwilling to leave.

Joel the Tourist here on The Strand. This is his "searching the map wearing my hat beard and tie dye and trying to fit in like I'm perfectly normal" pose. Is it working?

We went to the original Twinings shop on The Strand, which has been there since 1706. We liked the Chinaman holding the real live pigeon (look closely!).

Next time YOU are in London, go to the Algerian Coffee Store. They have a billion different kinds of coffee and tea. I bought a few of those amazing tea explosion thingys that are like a globe of tea, then when you put it in hot water it opens up into the most beautiful delicate flower blossoms... makes good gifts. Joel got some Arabic coffee and some Peaberry coffee. Mmm deliciousness.

Another highlight was seeing King Lear in the Globe Theatre, Shakespeare's theatre. It sounds like one of the tacky touristy things to do, but it was seriously cool! All the costumes are made in traditional methods, meaning they take like 5,000 man hours to make.. and they had old school music. All for only £5 a ticket! For the standing floor tickets. It was pretty sweet being close enough to the actors to touch them.

It sounds like we did tons, but it was actually a relaxed trip. Since this was our 2nd time to London, we didn't have to go to all the top tourist attractions and we could chill and go on nice walks instead, and see some of the other little things. We went to Camden markets too. One afternoon we took the underground to the very last westernmost stop, and it took us to Richmond, this romantic riverside grassy area with ice cream and boats. This is the Thames! Pretty different from the city part of the river. We enjoyed the sun and relaxed and then I got dog poo on my jacket. I'll leave those photos out today. I enjoyed this trip to London immensely more than our last. Last time it was early january and it was freezing and we were cold and hungry the whole time. Now I see that I could actually live quite happily in London. (Just like 80% of the rest of the world.) Now it's your turn! Go see London! And visit us while you are in the same time zone.

Bramble & Chocolate Bread

2008-08-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

Mmmm Mmm Mmmm. Come on, say it with me. Mmmm Mmm Mmm. Oh yea, there we go. Oh yea it looks so amazing, looks so delicious, looks stellar! Let me tell you, it is. It is. I made this from a recipe from A Cook's Tour of Scotland, by Sue Lawrence. This book is a glittering gem with tons of classy recipes using local produce. It tells a bit about the different areas of Scotland and some culinary traditions in each area. There are some recipes I may not use quite as much (Fresh Dulse Soup - Dulse is seaweed. This recipe is prefaced by "When picking wild seaweed, ensure it is from clean water and that there is not a sewage plant lurking just around the bay!"). But there are tons of recipes I am eager to experiment with (Gooseberry Crisp). Oh speaking of gooseberries, I was at the little produce stand the other day and the worker was saying the gooseberries are really cheap today. I asked, "What do you do with them?" and he so cleverly replied, "eat them."

Anyway, back to the Bramble & Chocolate Bread! Brambles are blackberries. I'm not sure if it's a Scottish thing to call them brambles or what. Please tell me if you know! I am still a novice at yeast-related matters, but this was absolutely delicious. My bread has never gone horribly wrong (touch wood) (Did you know here they say "touch wood" whereas back home everyone says "knock on wood"?). If my bread ever did turn out horribly wrong, I would probably give up altogether so I think I have God's blessings in my bread-making attempts.

I used some leftover mini milk chocolate chips we had, together with Green & Blacks 70% Dark Chocolate (i.e. what heaven is made of). Green & Blacks is the only choice for an aloof chocolate snob. It will even turn the snobs into beautiful human beings with consideration for the earth and an understanding of all things lovely. It's that amazing. I think mixing some dark and milk chocolate is definitely the way to go with this recipe. If you eat the bread cool, you can taste each kind encouraging each other, and coating the blackberries to reach glittering paradise in your mouth.

I still have half of the loaf left (yes, I shared). Do you think it will last till Saturday when Joel gets home?

If you want the recipe I could post it. Or email it.

Summer Spinach Superbity & Joel's Protein Salvation

2008-08-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

On the day of summer Glasgow had last week, a simple salad felt like the perfect way to eat without spending time with the oven on. Then we could spend more time outside! I made cous cous with sundried tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, and lots of cumin and sea salt. After throwing this into a fresh spinach salad with olive oil and lemon juice, presto! Five minutes and we were eating our Summer Spinach Superbity. Mmm.

Afterwards Joel timidly said ... he was still hungry. It had slipped my mind that he is a huge man with very real protein needs. So my enterprising self threw together Joel's Protein Salvation. I sliced some fresh sourdoughy bread, topped it with cooked minced lamb and mushrooms with rosemary, then some cheese and left under the grill for a few minutes so it was all cheesey-melty and crisp-bready. That satiated him. The sunshine gives me energy, thus the quick thinking and relatively successful results.

Habitual Pudding

2008-08-04T11:58:00.000-07:00

Ever since we've known each other, one of Joel and my habits has been to make rice pudding. It has been a happy result of my inability to estimate the dry rice = cooked rice ratio. I usually end up making far too much, which leaves us with plethoras of cooked rice. Thankfully, rice pudding is a wonderful thing.

When Joel's parents were here, we ended up making rice pudding once again, and promptly devouring it. Then getting to admire my beautiful bowls. (5 gorgeous bowls for £1, charity shop in Orkney. Oh yeah.)

How do you like your rice pudding? We like ours warm with plenty of raisins, cinnamon, vanilla and/or almond, and sometimes if we are feeling amazing, rum. Then we smother it all in plenty o' delicious milk. Joel's parents thing eating leftover rice pudding for breakfast the next day is appropriate. I can't seem to justify that. How 'bout you?

The Kirkwall Hotel & Restaurant

2008-08-04T11:38:00.001-07:00

While in the Orkney's, we ate a superb dinner at The Kirkwall Hotel. Above is our appetizer, assorted seafood deliciousness. The Orkney's know their seafood, and they don't joke around about it. It's serious stuff. Serious seafood deliciousness.

Apparently they joke a little bit with their salads. Above is our side salad that came with the meals. Quite adorable, really. I've recently begun a quest to like tomatoes, but it didn't feel necessary to eat the yellow one you can see there. When I signed up to like tomatoes it didn't include yellow ones.
In true form of the Shaver's trip to visit us, 3 of us ordered the same thing: it was Seafood Pasta this time. I took a picture of it but it does not look appetizing at all in the photo, so I instead will regale you with the deep satisfaction it brought me (and a photo of the Orkney Sea the seafood came out of). Penne pasta with mixed seafood, in a garlic tomato goodness sauce. It was fabulous, but I do have to admit it wasn't quite as earth-shaking as the pasta dish I had a O Sole Mio in Glasgow a few weeks prior. That one was stellar, it was Fusilli with Salmon in a cream and vodka sauce. Oh, man. That was undebatably Heaven expressed through pasta.

After the meal we couldn't resist having some Orkney Ice Cream (reminiscent of earlier that same day when we couldn't resist Orkney Ice Cream, and the day before, when we couldn't resist Orkney Ice Cream...). They know how to treat their cows in the Orkneys.

Joel can post on the non-food-related aspects of all of this when he gets back from Brighton.

Grilled SeaBass

2008-08-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

I found a great deal on whole seabass, and our group of seabass virgins enjoyed it immensely! Before cooking, I rubbed it inside and out with olive oil and "Nantucket Off-Shore St.-Remy Rub". (Who can resist anything with a picture of Van Gogh barbecuing aubergine??)After throwing the seabass under the grill, we whipped it out and Joel's mom (hereafter referred to as "Mom") showed me a simple substitution for filleting a fish. After it's been cooked, you gently begin to tug on the tail, and firmly keep tugging and the tail gradually separates from the fish, bringing with it the spine and all the bones! You tend to use fingers a bit at the start to begin the fish/bone divorce. Then you are left with a gorgeous seabass fillet. Kudos to Mom. One of the many benefits to family in town.

Linguistics can be good for you!

2008-07-31T08:23:00.001-07:00

Here is a recent post by Roger Shuy on Language Log that I found encouraging. There's always plenty of interesting stuff in linguistics, but I haven't found a lot of encouragement so far. I remember when I signed up for the linguistics major at University of Washington and one of the lecturers said something to the effect that "if I had a nickel for every time someone asked me what I'd do with linguistics, I'd have a lot of nickels".

Crookston Castle

2008-06-30T01:23:00.000-07:00

OK, let's see if I can get a couple more 'travel' and 'local culture' posts in before my parents arrive on Wednesday! Back in May, when it was still summer, Heather and I had a free Saturday. There are still a few castle/ruin-y places around Glasgow we have been meaning to visit, so we decided on Crookston Castle, near Paisley. Rumors of Paisley's quality charity shops/thrift stores may have influenced our decision. The Antonine Wall will have to wait for another day...

I won't say too much about the castle. It was built by the Stewarts in about 1400, but got pretty badly damaged early on in its history. It has a nice tower from which you can see the Campsie Fells, a little of Glasgow, and a lot of housing schemes. The moat is pretty cool, but the grounds around the castle tend to be frequented (especially on sunny days) by large groups of intimidating adolescents. The ones playing football/soccer aren't bad, but the ones with cases of Stella are less hospitable. This may be why the castle caretaker has an Alsatian/German Shepherd.

This is one of the better ruins we've been to, slightly nicer than Bothwell Castle, we think. This is mainly because you can climb up so high in the tower.

Once we got back to Paisley, we weren't able to find the amazing charity shops, but I did get a record number of beard comments for one day. None were incredibly original, so I won't bother to post them here.

Fried Trout With Almonds

2008-06-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

A fresh discovery at Sainsbury's: Trout fillets are for sale for a typical price. However, peel your fishy little eyes and look next to those trout fillets, and you find ... "trout fillets: various sizes". Ah ha ... this is a package of trout fillets that are not all exactly the same size, so they sell them way cheaper! They are all good sizes, the only difference is the packaging isn't quite as appealing. Same fish though. I bought a pack and it ended up being more than enough for the two of us for dinner.

I used this recipe from my Encyclopedia of International Cooking (a large heavy book that I fear to bring back to the states):

Fried Trout With Almonds:
Season 4-6 trout* with salt and a little pepper. Dip them in milk and then in flour. Melt 4 tablespoons/2 ounces butter with 1 tablespoon oil and saute the fish for 5 minutes each side or until golden brown and flakes easily. Remove the trout from the pan and keep warm.

Drain the fat from the pan and melt 4 tablespoons/2 ounces more butter. Add 4-6 tablespoons slivered or sliced almonds and cook, shaking the pan continuously until the almonds are golden brown. Add juice of 1 lemon and 3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley, and pour over the trout. Serve.

*I used 4-6 trout fillets, and kept all other amounts the same. It was tasty. However I had a similar dish in Prague which was made with whole fish and it was absolutely gorgeous. Can't go wrong with butter and almonds.

We had steamed broccoli (also delish with the almond stuff) and boiled new potatoes on the side.

Basil (Rhymes with Razzle-Dazzle!)

2008-06-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

Here is the newest addition to our family! He is adorable. We got him from our friend Himara who is moving back to Sri Lanka after 5 years in Glasgow. She needed to find a home for little Basil, and had no takers! I emailed our landlord who very graciously said he would overlook the 'no animals' rule as he didn't want Basil to be homeless. Aww. Basil is not homeless.

He is so friendly and I think Joel and he are going to be best friends. He likes to sit on Joel's neck (or anyone's neck, but I'm not used to that sort of thing yet). I think he likes Joel's beard a lot.

He likes mushrooms and carrots. He is used to eating lots of veg. He is a light sandy colour, with the trademark red eyes. Nice guy.

Lamb

2008-06-15T14:21:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago, I found an incredible deal. I got an entire leg of Scottish lamb for only £3.60. Wow, what a clever shopper I am! It's normally about £11. I cut slits in the lamb and stuck garlic cloves in the holes, then I rubbed the whole leg with olive oil and herbs de provence. Easy as. We threw it in the crock pot so it was ready and smelling delicious by the time we got home from work. Oh what a savoury and belly satisfying dinner! You can know how good it was by the fact there are only photos from when it was still raw...

I'm going to keep my eyes open at the supermarket so we can do this more often. Joel loooves meat, and we both love the taste of lamb. It is probably our favourite meat (Joel can't decide between lamb and bacon). We ate it this time with cous cous, which is the perfect accompaniment to lamb. So nice when you can get some of the lamb juices on the cous cous. Mmm are you hungry just reading this?

My Favourite Colour is Granola

2008-06-15T13:59:00.000-07:00

Update on muffins (17 June 08): This batch of muffins was seriously THE BEST muffins EVER. Unbelievable. The three of us in the house this week have exercised such amazing self-control to not indulge and eat them all when the others are out of the house. I remembered I added almond and vanilla extract. The almond extract turned out to be the perfect amount (I just kind of start pouring and stop eventually so not sure on the measurements). And I forgot to tell you, instead of the struesel, I added a mixture of oats and brown sugar (half and half), which ended up being delicious but not quite as gorgeous as the photo which doesn't have a topping at all. The muffins are really really moist and oh so delicious. Oh, and here's the recipe link for Jessie.

Well guys, we've been cooking more and more lately! This week has been pretty full of culinarities, some common and some a bit unusual for us.

I just finished a batch of Blueberry Streusel Muffins, minus the streusel this time. I have used this recipe over and over and it is the best muffin recipe! It's so easy to interchange it and adapt it to whatever kind of muffin you want. I've made chocolate with chocolate chunks, lemon poppyseed, and of course the blueberry. I added a couple of tablespoons of wheat germ this time, because hey, why not? We can feel a bit healthy and enjoy our muffins at the same time, eh? Wow, look at that beautiful juicy blueberryness just waiting to burst in your mouth.. mmmmm. Blueberries.

I made another batch of granola yesterday (how fast did we go through that last batch?!?). This time I put in less rye flakes and less pearl barley flakes. I added some wheat germ (yes, we're regular!), and some linseed. I also added peanut butter, which adds a beautiful friendliness to the whole experience. In general it turned out okay, but I think it would have been better if I had baked it on a lower heat for a bit longer. I think it got a bit overdone. It's still good, and I like all the different seeds and such. It makes me feel so healthy and nourished! mmmmm. Granola.

Our friends Wheaton and Jessica have this idea that Joel is a hippy. Where did they get that idea - the bell bottoms? the earth tones? the subtle smell of patchouli? The obsession with incense? the tie-dye? I'm not sure what gave them that conclusion, but anyway, Wheaton and Joel have agreed that Joel's favourite colour is granola.

Our trip to Poland, attempt no. 1

2008-06-02T01:24:00.001-07:00

Today we are proud to feature a guest author, Joel Shaver, posting about a somewhat new topic for this blog: travel. Seriously, guys, Heather's making me look bad, with all this 'posting about events within a week of their occurrence' stuff. Forget that - I'm all about the nostalgia.

You may or may not have heard that Heather and I had been planning a trip to Krakow, Poland this past March. We were particularly excited to visit such attractions as Wawel Castle, a really nice dragon, and the Wieliczka Salt Mine (hundreds of miles of tunnels, salt chandeliers, and a salt sculpture of the Last Supper!). Not to mention all the sausage and bread we could ever want (as if Prague weren't enough).

Of course, none of this happened, because we missed our flight. Instead, we hastily booked a train ticket for Newcastle, England, home of A Statue of Earl Grey (yes, the tea guy), Geordies, and a not-too-shabby Castle Keep, a distinctively castle-y square-shaped one. The town is situated on the Tyne river, and is well-known for its impressive collection of bridges. The most recent of these, the Millennium Bridge, is actually capable of moving (theoretically for ships, but really for shock value), which it does several times a week, to the accompaniment of distressing electronic music and sampled heartbeats.

Other highlights included the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, located inside an art-deco 1950s flour mill, a Roman fort (part of Hadrian's wall), which we couldn't see because the visitor centre was closed, and the ocean (Heather's favorite). As usual, we got some pretty good pictures, which you can see here. We enjoyed Newcastle in spite of its unfortunate situation outside Poland, and would recommend it to potential visitors. We found a pretty good Polish deli, too.

Now back to Heather...

Finnish Cardamom Coffee Bread

2008-06-01T12:04:00.000-07:00

I tried my hand at bread yesterday. I mean real bread, made from yeast. That is a culinary area I have not in the least developed, and I had a wary interest in attempting it. I was afraid that if my first attempt resulted in a loaf resembling something very un-breadlike, I would abort the adventure completely. Thankfully, a lovely golden loaf brought happiness to all who came in contact with it!

There are many lovely looking recipes on the Whole Foods website. I chose this Finnish Cardamom Coffee Bread, and Joel and I made a haphazard venture into the art of braiding dough. The picture is of Joel's loaf, which turned out much more visually peaceful. Mine was a bit more long and lean, and looked like some kind of twisted baguette.

It tastes light and sweet, with a subtle cardamom flavour. There is sugar sprinkled on top which makes it an oh so pleasant experience to savour a slice (pure unrefined sugar, the only kind we use). I thought I was being clever and froze one of the loaves, however it is only one day later and the first loaf is half gone already! Mmm.

On another note...
This morning was a day just like yesterday - bright sunshine with promises of warmth. The forecast said rain, but hey, did we believe them? There was no way it could rain when it looked so gorgeous. Off we went to church, me in a summery skirt, neither of us with jackets. Well, turned out it's Scotland, and it did rain. We walked home afterwards in the rain, me with a newspaper over my head. A nice rain though, it was still warm out. When I got home I thought porage sounded so good! I made porage with fresh blueberries, a touch of extra thick single cream, and topped with a sprinkling of brown sugar. Mm it was perfect and made me want chai. I would strongly suggest porage with fresh blueberries.

Yet another calorie-consuming post from Heather

2008-05-26T14:19:00.000-07:00

Now available at our local supermarket...

This has provided us with endless hours of love and laughter.

Funny, I never even liked grape juice when I lived in the states. Now it just tastes SO GOOD!

I wonder if it is because I haven't tasted anything grape (besides real old-fashioned grapes) since leaving the states a year and a half ago. They don't have grape flavoured things here. The closest thing (Joel doesn't think it's close) is currants. They have currant jam, currant everything.

Shame on us for buying things that are so incredibly non-local. Everyone has their weaknesses.

Granola

2008-05-25T01:06:00.001-07:00

I made some granola yesterday. It is pretty different than granola I've made previously. Instead of just oats, I mixed mostly oats, and some rye flakes, and some pearl barley flakes. This gives it a bit more of a chewy texture, b/c one of those requires a bit more cooking than typical oats. It also makes it taste a bit more healthy and interesting. For the nut and seed part, I added a mixture of
almonds, cashews, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds (I used up all the bits left in the cupboard). The sunflower seeds put in a bit of interest to the flavour. I think I put in a bit of chopped peanuts too, which I wouldn't do the second time, b/c I think it's made it a bit more salty/savoury than I would prefer (They were salted peanuts). After it all cooled, I threw in a bunch of raisins to top it off. All in all I think it's good, and it feels like it's filling up little pockets of nutrition all over my body that normally get missed (with the pumpkin seeds and barley and rye flakes and all). Mmm.

Joel's roast

2008-05-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Joel made a roast! It was his second time, and it turned out delish. It was basically a mushroom & onion beef roast, and I made roast potatoes (another reason our marriage works, pls refer to previous post re. hamburgers), steamed red cabbage (with red wine and cloves) and steamed carrots. We ate some leftovers tonight, and they were possibly even better than the original. The flavours were nice and settled in.

All the veg we used were from www.thewholeshebag.com, an organic vegetable delivery service we just started using. Our farmer is based in West Lothian, near to Edinburgh. For £10 each Wednesday, we receive a bag full of freshly pulled organic veg. He also includes a newsletter which details what is in the bag, when it was pulled from the ground, and tips on how to use lesser known veg like the fennel that we got this week. We get new things each week. I am excited to let this widen our veg eating habits, and learning to like new veg. This is definitely the next best option to growing your own veg, which is an impossibility in Glasgow. Our back garden is pavement with some admirably persistent weeds growing between the cracks, and the supply of garden plots in Glasgow is shameful - I've heard there is a 4 year waiting list to get a plot! Thankfully places like The Whole Shebag exist and so we are able to be that much closer to the ground our veg comes from.

I hope you agree...

2008-05-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

You are in a grocery store. You see a package of delicious grapes for £2 (or $2). Then you see a different package of equally delicious grapes for £2.50 (or $2.50). Which one will you choose?

I am guessing the answer would be the cheaper ones. And rightly so. However, what if you found out the grapes that are a bit more expensive actually benefited the grower, the grower's children, and the grower's community?
What if you found out by buying the more expensive grapes, you were actually contributing to building schools for children who don't have access, or getting clean drinking water to small villages, or ensuring the people's fields are cared for properly so they can keep producing the grapes?
What if you found out by paying the bit extra, you knew the grape growers would work in better conditions, receive decent wages, and live a decent life?

You may have guessed, the more expensive grapes are Fairtrade. By buying Fairtrade products, we can know we are contributing to the benefit of disadvantages families in generally poorer areas. I spend time thinking about this, and I want to challenge myself, and you, with this. If we know that by paying a bit more, we are benefiting people in many ways, is it not our moral responsibility to do so? As fellow humans, and for some of us, as people who strive to live with Christ's mercy, doing good when we are able, should we not buy the Fairtrade label products when we can?
I don't think this is something to feel obliged to do. In fact, I think it is a wonderful opportunity to do good in others' lives. And easily done.

"Anyone then, who knows the good he ought to do, and does not do it, sins" James 4.17

I do not see this as a political issue. I am not trying to preach politics. I see it as an issue of humanity, of bettering our world and our communities. Of giving people opportunities. I want to enact this in my life more and more. I have a long way to go.
If you see these labels on a product, you can know it is Fairtrade and the money you spend is benefiting communities and families. Our stores here in Glasgow stock many Fairtrade products, usually bananas, grapes, limes, coffee, tea, sugar, etc. Lots of different things. I'm sure the store you usually shop in does too. Have a look! You can know you are doing something good for minimal cost and maximum rewards.

What makes our marriage work:

2008-05-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

Hamburgers.

There have been times when Joel is not so emotive, if you know him you know this is fairly often. Sometimes he's a bit flat, and if you are looking for an exuberant response you better just go elsewhere...
Well in those cases, I have found the solution...
suggest we can have hamburgers for dinner soon!

I did this last week and Joel went from about the excitement of a nervous turtle straight to the unharnessed hype of a chihuahua.

Maybe we should have hamburgers every night.

Names I Have Been Called

2008-05-09T01:12:00.001-07:00

Jesus: Is He really a true Irishman?

Since moving to Glasgow, the variety in names I'm called by strangers has increased dramatically. In Seattle, I admit, the 'Jesus' count was pretty high, but, other than one lady on the Ave who asked me if I was a 'true Irishman', Seattleites have been fairly unimaginative.

Contrary to the opinions of many Americans, I actually do not 'fit in perfectly' in Scotland, and my (suave? distinctive? grotesque?) appearance has elicited comments from people on the street with surprising frequency. Among the more imaginative names I can now claim - in addition to a still-rising 'Jesus' count - are 'Hillbilly Willy', 'Scooby Doo', and, oddly, 'Kelsey' (the person who called me 'Kelsey' also asked if my thumb was broken and whether I was Amish). Other helpful comments directed my way have included 'your face is on fire' and 'look at the state of him...'

Yesterday was a two-pointer, with one more 'Jesus' and an entirely new one to my experience: 'Worzel Gummidge'. I was particularly surprised at this last comment, because, personally, I had never seen the resemblance. For those of you who don't know (probably nearly everyone who reads this), Worzel Gummidge was the main character in a British children's TV show from the 1970s. He was played by John Pertwee, who some of you (Dad?) will recognize as the third (and third least annoying) Doctor Who. The Worzel Gummidge character is perhaps even more perplexing than the Doctor: he is a mischievous talking scarecrow with a set of interchangeable heads. My friend James' experience verifies that, despite the (ostensible) good intentions of the show's writers, such disturbing imagery often had a traumatic effect on children.

Presumably, my similarity to Worzel Gummidge is limited to my shaggy hair (time for a trim) and possession of a hat. I'd like to think that my Glaswegian commenter regards me as a potential friend, a welcome addition to West End culture, rather than a macabre pastoral oddity.

P.S. Here are some clips from the show, if you like to scare yourself:

The introduction
A frightening song after which Worzel Gummidge verbally abuses children. Observe their terrified expressions.
Part of a distressing episode involving a seesaw and free tobbacco

Which is the real Worzel Gummidge?

I can be political too...

2008-05-01T01:47:00.000-07:00

I really liked the BBC 4 'Thought for the Day' today by Rhidian Brook.
link
I don't think it's too unrealistic to look for candidates who aren't afraid to express their thoughts, even if they're not the life of the 'party'.

Since it's almost summer again

2008-04-25T11:18:00.001-07:00

It must be almost time to post some pictures from Tighe's visit this winter! We hired a car (Tighe drove), and went on a monumental road trip through the highlands, visiting Tighe's ancestral home of Tomintoul, and a castle or two.

Did I ever tell you about last summer?

2008-03-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

There are a bunch of things that happened last summer, and I never told you guys about all of them. First, my cousin Erik came over. He came to Glasgow and didn't know where I lived, so went to talk to the University. The University gave me a call, and then he came over and stayed with us for a while. While he was here, our friends Robb and Andrew came too, so we all went some places and saw some cows and a ruined castle and a river and a dam with a fish ladder (in Pitlochry). We also spent a day in Edinburgh hanging out and looking tough.

After everyone left and Heather's family came, and then they left, and September came, we realized that things were getting colder, darker, and wetter, so Heather and I went camping (near a town called Kilmahogg). In Scotland you can camp where ever you feel like camping as long as you're polite and don't scare the cows or chickens, so we camped in a ruined building of some kind up on a hill. There were sheep all around us and we could hear them all night. I think I have a recording somewhere of all the sheep, so I could post that later. Anyway, here are some pictures. As always, there are more on Heather's Photobucket site.

I learned in my yearbook class that it's bad to leave too much white space in between pictures and text, so I have to write something here.

My Muse is a dud

2008-02-11T01:45:00.000-08:00

There is among poets a time-honored tradition of writing one's best work in dreams; the most famous example is Xanadu, which came to Coleridge in (what we will call, for argument's sake) a dream. Apparently, the very plan for Kubla Khan's pleasure dome was itself inspired by a dream (this from the all-knowing Wiki).

Upon waking this morning, I realized that my muse had struck in the night, and I immediately called Heather to pen down the lines I had been given in my sleep. The poem that appeared on the page suggests to me that the muse enjoys a greater synergy with subjects who, like Coleridge and John Lennon, are willing to invest the extra capital in chemical aids. It is possible that the historical pattern will hold true, and that this will be my greatest-ever work of poetry. Fortunately, my career depends solely upon my prose skills.

I'd like to add that my muse seems to have been consulting the works of Isaac Watts, which collaboration I fear I may have brought upon myself: his hymns are the subject of a large portion of my thesis.

It is with mixed feelings that I submit, for your edification and for posterity, my dream-poem, which I wrote upon a phantom chalk-board below my friend Tim Petersen's composition in Icelandic, a work of incomparable genius which is lost forever in the mists of slumber:

I am the earth.
The earth was a tree.
Its people were happy
'Til I sat on a bee.

They cried out with one voice
To object to the thing,
And I found that their noise
Was as bad as the sting.

Monteverdi, fer cryin' out loud!

2008-01-18T04:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a really nice song from Monteverdi, from before Italian opera got annoying! (link) The soprano is Olga Pasiecznik from the Ukraine, and the group is a Polish chamber ensemble called Altri Stromenti. You can buy their CD here if you want, on Magnatune. That would be cool...

P.S. I got the album image from the Magnatune website.

Here are the words:

Confitebor tibi Domine in toto corde meo,
in consilio justorum et congregatione.
Magna opera Domini:
exquisita in omnes voluntates ejus.

Confessio et magnificentia opus ejus,
et justitia ejus manet in sæculum sæculi.

Memoriam fecit mirabilium suorum,
misericors et miserator Dominus,
escam dedit timentibus se.

Memor erit in sæculum testamenti sui;
virtutem operum suorum
annuntiabit populo suo,
ut det illis hereditatem Gentium;
opera manuum ejus veritas et judicium.

Fidelia omnia mandata ejus;
confirmata in sæculum sæculi,
facta in veritate et æquitate.

Redemptionem misit Dominus populo suo;
mandavit in æternum testamentum suum.

Sanctum, et terribile nomen ejus;
initium sapientiæ timor Domini.

Intellectus bonus omnibus facientibus eum;
laudatio ejus manet in sæculum sæculi.

Gloria Patri, et Filio,
et Spiritui Sancto.
Sicut erat in principio,
et nunc et semper,
et in sæcula sæculorum. Amen.

I will thank the Lord with all my heart
in the council of justice and the assembly.

Great [are] the works of the Lord:
[they are] sought out in all his goodwill.

his work [is] confession and grandeur,
and his justice remains forever.

His miracles were made into legends,
the merciful and gracious Lord,
he gave food to those who fear him.

The memory of his promise will be forever;
the goodness of his works
he will announce to his people,
thus let him give that heritage of the Gentiles;
the works of his hands [are] truth and justice.

All faith [is] entrusted to him;
and established forever,
made in truth and equity.

The Lord sent redemption to his people.
he commanded his covenant forever.

Holy and frightful [is] his name;
fear of the Lord [is] the beginning of wisdom.

A good understanding to all of them who act;
the praise of him endures forever.

Glory to the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning,
and [is] now and always,
and [will be] forever. Amen.

Praha (ask for the horká medovina!)

2007-12-29T05:03:00.000-08:00

Hi! It's December! I believe we last met in October, when I was telling you a story about Norway. I'm skipping several chapters (again) in order to update you on more recent happenings, specifically our pre-Christmas trip to Prague (the ancient city of). Prague is a dang old town - it started in the 11th century or so, and even the "New Town" goes back to the 1400s. As our guidebook said, when in Prague, never trust the word "new." Highlight: best hot mead ever!
The Praguers have a pretty high opinion of their city, too - they've been calling it Mater Urbium, the Mother of Cities for several centuries. The picture here is of the famous Astronomical clock from the 1400s, the Old Town Square, and the Týn cathedral.
The main reason I'm being so prompt about all this, however, is what we saw outside of Prague in the town of Kutná Hora. Absolutely the best part of our trip was seeing the ossuary there. This "bone church" is decorated with the bones of roughly 40,000 people, most of whom died in
a plague in the 14th century. The collection includes four free-standing bone pyramids, huge bone vases, a bone coat of arms (note the bone raven in the lower right-hand corner, pecking at the eye of a skull), and a bone chandelier containing every kind of bone in the human body.

There are a couple more pictures from Prague that I think are worth posting: One from the TV tower with giant babies, and the other from a cool baroque cemetery. As usual, more pictures are available from Heather's Photobucket page here.

The Ehli Family in Norway

2007-10-03T03:06:00.000-07:00

ollowing a tearful parting with brother Jeff, gone to pursue his fortune in America, the Ehlis make their way north, accompanied by their trusty and strikingly handsome son-in-law, Joel. The voyage across the North Sea is long and perilous, but at last our craft makes landfall at the village of Sandefjord, where we manage to hire a worthy vehicle to convey us for the rest of our journey. Late in the night, the dauntless Ehlis are joyfully re-united with their intrepid and tireless Norwegian kinswoman, Sigrun, who is to accompany and direct us. Sigrun plies us with food and wine, and we rest for the night.

Arising with the dawn, our party ventures forth. The eerie light of the northern sun casts mysterious shadows, wherein may lurk any manner of trolls, nisse, tusse, huldre, or other wights of the Norse wilderness. After endless hours of driving through mountains, valleys, and woodlands, a ferry is found to take us across the fjord to Volda, near the ancestral home. There we meet more of Randi's gracious kin, who give us wonderful food, comfortable lodging, and pleasant conversation.

The next day begins with a visit to the churchyard where many of Randi's predecessors are buried. Paying our respects, we continue to the ancestral farmland itself, the fabled Velsvik. As we walk the familial grounds, we became aware of a bond reaching through the ages, linking us to this place. This bond is only strengthened by the seemingly endless supply of cakes, berries, and iced delicacies which we are subsequently served by our hospitable relations.

The following two days of our journey include a harrowing journey to Oslo over icy mountain passes, through the fjord of Geiranger, whose sheer slopes rise directly from the waterline to the knife-like peaks of ice, towering far above. It is here that the heroic Justin narrowly defeats a frost giant in single combat. Once safely in Oslo, after meeting more of the kinfolk and examining relics of the Viking age, we spend one last night with Sigrun and cast off once again for the shores of merry Scotland.

Further visual aids may be accessed here.

The new digs

2007-09-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

We moved to a new flat 3 weeks ago, but we haven't put up pictures of the new place yet. There are three reasons for this:

But, hey, it's warm, bright, and comfortable, and the view's not bad.

Ehlis Invade Scotland!

2007-08-16T01:26:00.000-07:00

Heather hijacks the Transport Museum

I'm way behind. Two months ago, my cousin Erik and our friends Robb and Andrew all came to visit at the same time! This post isn't about them: I'm going to go backwards. Last month, Heather's family (now my family) came to stay with us for a week, exploring pretty much the whole country. The kids all slept in the lounge-basically the coolest slumber party ever. Then we all (sans Jeff) got in our longboat and headed for Norway. Here are some pictures from the Scotland week. Oh and here's the link to where most of the pictures are, though you might have to sift through Norway.

Chillin' at Glasgow University

Ehli Kids @ Linlithgow

Ma and Pa Ehli guard Edinburgh

Heather decorates Linlithgow

Family picnic!

The gang in Luss

Gratuitous Glencoe Scenery