Scotland Adventures

Again- we're recapping 2014 today on Caledonian Road... and today's adventures take us to the bonny hills of Scotland! The hubs and I snuck up for a long weekend away... spending a day in Edinburgh before staying with some extended family of friends from church. It was amazingly wonderful of them to welcome us in their home, and the highlands of Banchory (I think we were right on the border of the highlands, honestly) were breathtaking! Loved it!

Edinburgh... a city of ups and downs, winds and alleyways... just breathtaking!

The hubby took me for an early morning coffee, and then up to Calton Hill to watch the sun come up over the city!

Then we hired a car and began the drive to Banchory.

Our friends took us for an afternoon walk up Scolty Hill. It doesn't even count as a mountain in Scotland, but it had me stopping for breath, and the views from the top were incredible!

The afternoon sun still lit the hillsides, while a wall of rain travelled down the valley between.

We even got to see a rainbow!

Remnants of August's heather still dotted the hillside, though we were a month too late to see truly purple hills!

And the stone walls were covered in moss unbelievably thick! Such a contrast of stark, barren hillsides with rich, overgrown valleys. Breathaking!

And not bad for a wig too! Especially if you're going for the chia pet look!

On the way home, we drove through high altitude, dry wind-swept valleys. Honestly, parts of it reminded me very much of my old home in Colorado... driving over Monarch Pass on the way to Gunnison, no guardrails between you and the drops, the fog lower than the treeline, and a barren beauty all around.

We loved Scotland!

Out-and-Abouting

Well, again, I find myself needing to make up for mass amounts of missed posting opportunities. The last couple months have been full of lovely experiences with plenty of photo ops, just not the time (or discipline) to follow through and post about them. So I'll take January to catch up from 2014 and post the pics I have left.

Here are a few days worth of being out and about.

Every September (yes, I'm so far behind, I still have pictures from September!) London hosts and 'Open House London' event, where buildings around the city, normally closed to the public, open for one day. Though there are tons of buildings available, the more famous structures have long queues to get in- meaning you have to pick one, maybe two to see in a day. This year, the hubby and I chose to see Lloyds of London (i.e.: the inside-out building!) It was equally as impressive on the inside-- though the 2 hour wait took its toll! :-P

The view from the bottom:

   

The views from the top:

I can't believe how packed in everything is, and as you can see, there's still more going up!

Though frankly, at the end of the day: it's still a desk job-- at which you share a 4x6 desk with four other people. Not my cup of tea!

From the outside- the 'guts' of the building look pretty cool. Elevator shafts on the left, ventilation on the right.

Right next to Lloyds is Leadenhall market, a covered arcade where parts from Harry Potter were filmed! :-)

They had a display of books that I kind of loved, kind of hated for how they ruined so many books!

And we found a 'mini' Gherkin... though it's not really very mini at all...... and its made out of Legos!

Up the street, about halfway between Lloyds and our home, is Bunhill Fields, a cemetery for non-conformist (ie: not Church of England) pastors throughout history. Here is John Owen (who the hubby is studying for his ThM and hopefully PhD and John Bunyan!

Right across the street is John Wesley's chapel and home.

I love that we live here, right next to so much history!

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All right- enough of London for now! I took a day trip with a friend to Manchester. She was looking at the university there so I had the day to tour Manchester myself. Quite frankly, I wasn't too excited. I mean, what's in Manchester? But actually- it was a lovely little city. Reminded me of some of New England's small cities--- maybe Philedelphia?

And I discovered the John Soanes Museum... a little museum with gorgeous historical reading rooms!  I mean, LOOK!

Ah!!!! Look at these libraries!

 And the sunset lit up the arches of this church so beautifully, I considered it a lovely end to my day.

I still love my London-- but Manchester's all right too!

A Visit with The Inklings

Well, as I took the month of October to focus on the 31 Days Challenge, I feel a bit out of the loop with my normal blog posts. However, October was a very busy month here in the UK, and I have lots to make up. I'm not sure how much I'll get in, as we're traveling again back home for the Thanksgiving holiday, but we'll sneak in a couple posts and see what we can do.


At the beginning of October, my friend, Danielle, came for a visit. We took a couple day trips during her stay, and one of those days found us in Oxford. Its an absolutely gorgeous city, so rich in history, it's almost mind-boggling! But I think the highlight of the day was our visit to The Eagle and Child, the pub where the Inklings used to gather.

For those who require a quick lesson, the Inklings were an informal literary discussion group whose most famous members include JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis. I've read differing accounts on the details, of this being the location where The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was first read, or where perhaps Out of the Silent Planet, still in its infancy, was handed over for inspection, or even where The Lord of the Rings was introduced (apparently, to less than unanimous approval)! The details may be fuzzy, but some semblance of truth remains, and lends to its visitors a spirit of admiration and joy-- as do the writings these men left behind.

And it was lovely to share this with a dear friend. We may not have written any great prose, nor thought any truly great thoughts, as others before us have, but the time was sweet and the shared memory lovely.

In his book, The Four Loves, CS Lewis writes on friendship:

In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out. By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets. Now that Charles [Williams] is dead, I shall never again see Ronald's [Tolkien's] reaction to a specifically Charles joke. Far from having more of Ronald, having him 'to myself' now that Charles is away, I have less of Ronald... In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious 'nearness by resemblance' to heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each of us has of God. For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest. That, says an old author, is why the Seraphim in Isaiah's vision are crying 'Holy, Holy, Holy' to one another (Isaiah 6:3). The more we thus share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall have.

What a sweet description of shared friendships, and what a blessed expectation of our future adoration of the shared Christ!

"My happiest hours are spent with 3 or 4 old friends in old clothes tramping together and putting up in small pubs." CS Lewis

As Danielle and I left the pub, we passed a small group of tourists asking the staff "at which table the Inklings had sat" to which he quickly replied "Actually, at this table right here. Shall I wipe it off for you?"

As the Inklings met every week of the term for almost 30 years, (and the pub was renovated the 60s), I sincerely doubted his sales pitch. In fact, probably every tourist in there that day thought they were sitting at that very special table.

But we certainly enjoyed our table, enjoyed pondering the stories within those walls, and will treasure the memories we took with us as we went on our way into the grey Oxford streets.

31 Days of Cheap & Free Decor: Day 31- Be Content

You know what the absolute cheapest way to decorate your home is? Be content with less.

I love that I've been given ways to furnish and decorate my home cheaply. I love that the internet and DIY show me how to give old furniture a second life. I want to have a home that is beautiful, calming, welcoming. I want to have a home that people love to visit.

But a home can also be an idol. And furnishing it and decorating it can be an idol as well. If I continue to always want more, better, newer, cooler... that could still be greed. If I'm worried about what people think when they visit, that could be fear of man. If I'm wanting change all the time (even if it's free), that could be discontentment.

Check your heart. (As I've realised I need to check mine.) God gives us good things. God gives us earthly joys and pleasures. But check your motivation. Are you building a sweet home to provide joy and comfort for your family and those you have over? Or are you building a cushy little kingdom- to your comfort, your good taste, your diy abilities. What are you hoping for with every project you complete?

A friend of mine admitted once that as she sat down to start a project, she realised she was already imagining all the great feedback she'd get when she posted pictures online. I've been guilty of the same thing more often than I care to admit.

Maybe the best thing for your home to put away the paint and the sewing machine, log off Craigslist and ebay, and just sit. Thank God for what you do have. Maybe go for a time without something you know you could get cheaply, to remind yourself that you don't need every creature comfort right away. Look outside your home to the needs of those around you.

Maybe, for a time, do nothing new, and just be content.

31 Days of Cheap & Free Decor: Day 30- Don't Get Greedy

I'm a bit ashamed to admit this is a lesson I've been having to learn lately.

I've never thought of myself as a greedy person. I'm moved so often that I don't often become attached to things or places. My home has been almost entirely second-hand, and I liked it. I never felt like I had to have designer furniture, or even new. Didn't that at least get me out of the 'greed' category on sin?

Then came the coffee table incident.

I love my coffee table- I really do! The problem was that it was like the fourth coffee table I'd had in a month. Or close. When we first came, I used a black Ikea lack table. £5. Easy. It worked, but it was small, and more modern than I like. A couple months ago, someone lent us a small wood table. I liked the look much better, but still, it was more like an end table than a coffee table and we were constantly moving it around to whatever chair we were using. So, using some pallets and wood I found, I made another one (not pictured). I was okay... but an awkward size for our living room, and the pallets were a bit too uneven to sit a drink on. Then I found this, and yay! I love it!

But it wasn't just the coffee table. It was summer and people were clearing out. So I was picking up Freecycle finds a couple times a week.

In my mind, every change was an improvement. And they were free. But I realised that I was becoming known for having 'new' things, even if they were second hand. I realised that wanting something better can still be greed, even if it doesn't cost a penny.

There are some amazing bargains out there. If you have the time and freedom to pursue them- do! Enjoy it! Save your money for better uses and make your home a place of beauty on a budget! But don't let a constant desire for 'more' rule your life. Don't let greed slip in.

** Even Apartment Therapy has decided to write about greed this week!**

31 Days of Cheap & Free Decor: Day 29- Bribe Your Husband

So this is our guest room. I'm standing in the doorway, and the only thing you can't see in the photo is a 2x3 table with a trunk on it that I use for storage. This room is teenie-weenie.... and higgly-piggly. There's not a right angle in the whole place! As is true with many old London homes, walls, floors, and ceilings are all just slightly askew, meaning that the angles are all a bit wonky. On the end where I'm standing, the room is about five feet wide (152 centimetres). On the far end, where the futon is... well, it's less.

When I saw this futon on Freecycle, I measured the walls. Right below 140 centimetres. Maybe 137 at the very back, but that would be right up against the radiator, so we could leave a few inches. Perfect fit!

But when we got it back.... it was no where near fitting! I realised that I had measured the wall at about waist height, not at the floor. The baseboards are each 1.5 cm, and apparently, the walls narrow as they go down. The width at the bottom 130 cm. (To recap, that means there's about 3 in difference from waist height to floor. And there's a 9 in difference from one end of the room to the other!)

Hoo boy!

But the darling hubby buckled down, and with an ancient circle saw that we borrowed (no, seriously, it was so old it barely worked at all!), cut down all the slats on the futon base so that it would fit into that end of the room! It took 45 minutes. And that AFTER he'd taken me to pick it up, loaded it in the car, lugged it up to our flat, and assembled it. He's a keeper.

I know half my home musings would never come true if it weren't for a patient hubby who helps carry paintings, mirrors, and tables down the street, who pulls sofas up to a third floor window with a rope, and who wheels sofas half a mile down the street on a dolly!

I owe that man a good steak dinner!