Travel

I hope you don’t get sick of hearing about our Scotland trip, but I wanted to tell you about a little adventure we had one day.  (If you’re in a hurry, you’ll want to skip this post!)  I’ll try to get back to the occasional normal post after this, although there’s precious little excitement happening around here.

We spent our first week in Scotland at Isabelle‘s exploring the beautiful area around Edinburgh.  There were castles, abbeys, churches, golf courses, and scenic little villages.  After that first week, we decided to go and spend a few days in the Highlands.  We stayed in a little hotel in Dornie, just within view of the beautiful Eilean Donan castle.

The first night in our hotel, we met a fun group — a camera club of 10 people from Darbyshire in England who were in the Highlands for a week to take pictures.  On the second night, we compared notes from our first day’s activities, and they said they’d been on a long drive to have lunch in a potting shed.  “You must go — it’s a real experience and it’s something you’ll talk about for a long, long time!” they said.  When my plan for the next morning sort of fell through, we set off with these instructions that I barely remembered — “Turn right at Shielbridge, go over the mountain and just drive until the road ends.”  So we drove.  Over the mountain.  On skinny little one lane roads.  Absolutely fantastic, unbelievable scenery.  And lots and lots of sheepies.

Did you see the sheepies in that picture?  Well, after driving for what seemed like a very long time, we thought we might have missed a turn somewhere, so we asked a young woman on the side of the road if she’d ever heard of the place that serves lunch in a potting shed.

Hmmm.  She thought for a minute.  “Yes.  I think if you go back up the road to the second house by the candle place, that’s where they serve lunch in a potting shed.”

We went back up the road and turned into the drive of a very pretty Scottish manor house.  Hmmm.  There was a shed.  And what looked like a small parking area.  But no signs.  So, I walked up to the house, and into a very cluttered vestibule to ring the front door bell.  A big pair of waders that had just been stepped out of stood in front of the door and there were two, wet, friendly dogs there to keep me company.  After a few minutes a …. ok, ManoftheHouse, you must cover your eyes now.  Ok?  So, a ….. HOT, mid-50ish gentleman with an even HOTTER Scottish accent answered the door.  (Think Sean Connery with hair.)  Flibbertygibbet‘s “breath in, breath out” advice was ringing in my ears.  Lost or not, this camera club adventure was really working out for me so far!

Ahem.  I asked Mr. HOT Scotsman if he served lunch in his potting shed.  (Stop laughing, I really did!)  He sort of laughed and I explained the whole thing to him.  He thought awhile and said I must mean “Sheena’s Tea Hut, but that’s about 20 miles from here.”  Then he came out to the car and showed us on the map where we needed to go.  And if there’s one thing we learned in the Highlands it’s this:  20 miles isn’t really 20 miles.  It’s WAY longer.  Maps, while an accurate picture of where you need to go, are in no way accurate about how long it will take you to get there.  But what the heck, we had all afternoon so we thanked Mr. HOT Scotsman and continued on our way, chuckling at the fact that his neighbor thinks he serves lunch in his potting shed.  (He’s probably serving something in his potting shed, but I don’t think it’s lunch, if you’ll forgive me for saying so.)

Anyway, we followed the map, and sure enough, we eventually came to the end of the road.

And the beautiful little village of Corran.  We crossed the footbridge over this beautiful little river (as instructed by Mr. HOT Scotsman.)

And on the other side of the bridge, lookie what we found!

A Buck!  At this point TheManoftheHouse is freaking me out by telling me if this guy decides to charge us, we’ll be in big trouble.  So we sort of freeze, except that I’m wildly snapping pictures.  We have to get around him, so we start inching forward.  And that big rack decides to walk up and sniff us!

I’m having a fit — although calmly snapping pictures.  TheManoftheHouse manages to get past him so I just sort of stood still and he walked past me.  You would have thought he was a skunk or something.  Anyway, we went to the end of the path, turned left and there before us was Sheena’s Tea Hut at long last.

It looks just like a potting shed!  There was a group of 5 people crowded into the little shed and we stepped inside.  One of them was having chicken noodle soup and it was drizzly and cold, so I told Sheena we’d like some soup too.  She was all out because “I had a big group of 10 people in here yesterday and they cleaned me out!”  So, we had a scone and probably the worst hot chocolate I’ve ever had but the atmosphere was wonderful and Sheena (a great grandma) was just as charming as could be.  We talked to her for quite awhile.  (And used the facilities too, ’cause the camera club said you should do that — she takes you into her house, through her hall, and into her own private bathroom!  Where, conveniently, I might add, there’s a little donation jar LOL.)

During the course of our conversation, Sheena mentioned that she gets lots of visitors.  “Supposedly, I’m on the internet.”  And, indeed, she is.  (If you click on that second link and scroll down to the end, you’ll see pictures of Sheena and of the inside of the hut because I’m a dope and didn’t take any.)  Sheena also told us all about the buck.  They think he’s about 18 or 19 years old and he’s been coming to Corran for about 9 years and as Sheena said “I love him to bits!”  The town feeds him and he’s always there except when he’s in rut.  There’s a long story behind it, but they’ve named this little buck Bin Laden.  Does this look like a Bin Laden to you???

Yeah, me neither LOL. The camera club was right though– we had a fantastic adventure driving to Corran and it’s something we won’t soon forget. Corran sits right on a little bay surrounded by mountains and the scenery is stunning. Look at these gorgeous little fishing huts, each with their own painted door.

And our timing couldn’t have been more perfect.  It was rainy and drizzly, but because it was fall,  we were able to see all the beautiful orange on the mountains. As you can see there was snow at the higher elevations too.

So.  If you’re ever in the Highlands, take the advice of the camera club and go visit Sheena — it’s something you’ll talk about for a long, long time.

XOXO,
Anna

P.S.  You need to run and check out Camille‘s blog — she’s having an AWESOME giveaway!!!

Ooops!  I didn’t mean to take so long between posts.  I’m sort of buried here, catching up and weeding through pictures from Scotland.  And wrestling with the fall leaves.  At least, until today, we’ve had beautiful weather — we got home just in time to enjoy some very pretty trees.

While we were in the UK, I managed to meet a few more bloggers.  TheManoftheHouse was fantastic and deserves an award for going along with me.  My first meetup was with the fabulous Lucy Locket.  She, of the famous mini-quilt swaps (she’s swapped a ton of quilts — I don’t know how she manages to get them all done) and three adorable children.  We met at K1 Yarns in Edinburgh.  Lucy doesn’t live in Scotland — she lives in Northern England but when she found out I’d be in Edinburgh, she rode the train for several hours to spend an afternoon with us.  We had a great time in K1 Yarns and I just can’t say enough about the shop and its owner.  She even made us each a cup of tea to drink while we visited.  (She was probably hoping that if we were drinking we would shut up.  We talked non-stop and then talked and giggled some more.)  We sat there and exchanged gifts and chatted for at least an hour, maybe more — I lost track of time.    Here we are in our Wilson pose with the quilts we exchanged.

Lucy looks like she’s up to something, doesn’t she?  I gave her a little mini-quilt replica of the quilt I made for Isabelle and she made me a little quilt with an embroidered rendition of a drawing that the children did for me.  Isn’t it adorable?  Can you see where it says “Scruffy helps with Anna’s sewing”?  Too Cute!  I just love it!

Thank you Little Lockets!  And if that weren’t enough, Lucy made me a crochet hook roll.  I’ve been meaning to make one of these forever and just haven’t managed to find the time.  I’m so excited about it — I’ve put a few of my hooks in it already.  I’m sure I have more, I just don’t know where they are.  Now, as I find them, I can put them in their new home.  Look at the cute japanese fabrics that she used.

But wait!  There’s more!  Lucy really spoiled me — she also gave me some ribbons, a notepad, an ornament, adorable recipe cards (which don’t show up well, but trust me they’re awesome), drawings from each of the children and a very cool Cath Kidston bag from Tesco (which, unfortunately is under all of the loot!)

After we exchanged gifts and did a little yarn shopping, we walked down the big hill and visited a few more shops.  Of course, we had to stop by Cath Kidston.  We did a lot of oohing and aahing — mostly over the prices!

We also went to a fun kitchen shop and then Lucy took us to Whittard’s, where I asked her to help me pick out some tea for BigDaddy (since I know nothing about tea).  We even saw one of Isabelle‘s rainbows along the way.  (Speaking of Isabelle, check out this picture — I think she’s teaching that catlet how to study quilting stitches!)

Before I knew it, our afternoon was over and it was time for Lucy to go back home.  We went with Lucy to the train station and bid her farewell.  Thank you SO MUCH Lucy for taking the time to come and see us.  I had a fantastic time and really enjoyed finally being able to meet you.  And thanks to you and the children for all the goodies — I love them all!

Toward the end of our trip, we had yet another blog meet up.  (I told you TheManoftheHouse was very patient!)  Because of our airline schedule when we flew home from Scotland, we were told we would have to spend an overnight in London.  (Oh darn LOL!)  We decided to make it several nights and as an added bonus, while we were there I was able to meet the Flibbertygibbet’s Gail and Make It Up’s Abi.   I met Gail when I very first started blogging.  She had a fabric swap that I joined.  And Abi was one of my partners from that fabric swap.  We met at Waterstone’s Book Store so that TheManoftheHouse would have plenty to do while we visited.  Wow!  What a fun duo.  We talked and talked — Gail was full of good information about everything from London to book suggestions for my upcoming book group (thanks Gail!) and Abi was just as sweet as could be — she had a hard time getting a word in edgewise!  They’re both very talented and have lots of fun stuff on their blogs.  Two hours disappeared before I knew what happened.  I had so much fun getting to know them — it’s so fun to meet people you’ve been e-mailing and reading about for awhile.

So.  Where’s our Wilson picture???  I’m SO MAD.  I forgot to take a picture!  I can only attribute it to being on London overload and being clueless.  Next time Ladies — we NEED a Wilson picture!  We did exchange gifts however.  I gave the girls bunny pin cushions and look at the adorable Liberty Christmas ornaments that Gail gave me.

Aren’t they beautiful? They’ll be perfect on my glass ornament tree and they’ll always remind me of our get-together. Thanks Gail and Abi for taking time out of your busy week to come and meet us. (And thanks for the yummy hot chocolate!)  I had a wonderful time!

Now, back to work. Are you all busily working on Christmas gifts yet? I’m starting to get nervous. I’m hoping to start a few projects this week. Happy Monday!

XOXO,
Anna

Whew!  My breakity break is now over — it was actually over on Sunday night, but it was extended by a sick computer.  Fortunately TheManoftheHouse was able to work some magic so now I can post!

Thanks for all of your great comments about my break.  I’ve had fun reading them all.  I’m sorry to disappoint those of you who were hoping I was off making fun things to share, but TheManoftheHouse and I have had a fantastic adventure and these two adorable kitties were the focus of our trip:

Many of you may recognize these cuties as the catlets from In This Life.  I’ve long been a big fan of Isabelle’s blog, so in June/July when she mentioned on her blog that she was in need of a catlet cat-sitter in late October, I jumped up and down and begged and pleaded “Pick Me, Pick Me, Please Pick Me”!!!  If you don’t recognize the catlets, you might be wondering why I would spend my vacation cat-sitting catlets when I have a fat catlet of my own.  It’s because the Life Family lives here:

The famous city with the castle on the hill — Edinburgh Scotland!  It was so exciting I could barely stand it all fall long.  A trip to one of my favorite places in the whole world and a BIG blog meetup with Isabelle!  Here we are in one of my traditional Wilson poses (and no, it’s not 2006, my map is old):

I can’t even begin to tell you how much fun I had meeting Isabelle and her wonderful family.  They were the ultimate hosts.  Mr. Life picked us up at the airport and we spent the evening with them before they left the next morning on their vacation.  I felt like we were old friends who just hadn’t seen each other in a long time.  We talked non-stop.  Isabelle served us tea and cookies.  We talked some more.  Then we met Daughter2 and Isabelle’s mother, and Isabelle made dinner for all of us.  And then, we talked even more.   I wonder if we could have talked forever?  Even the men seemed comfortable.  The Life family was so gracious in entertaining us and explaining our catlet duties and I felt so guilty because surely they had preparations to make for their trip.  (Maybe they didn’t sleep that night!)

And do you know what the best thing was?  Isabelle and her family and the catlets and her home were just how I imagined them.  She’s just as clever and witty and funny as she is on her blog.  The whole Life family is just the nicest family you could ever hope to meet.  I think we both had a lot of fun with the situation with our real-life friends, who all seemed to be scratching their heads.  When I told my co-workers that I was going to cat-sit for a friend on my vacation they looked at me as if I’d lost my mind.  Until I made them guess where my friend lived.  (For some reason most of them guessed Hawaii.  ???.  Do I look like a Hawaii girl???)

Isabelle was so much more eloquent in her description of this whole blog-friend phenomenon than I could ever be.  I love how she expressed it as an intimacy.  You should go read it and you’ll know why I’m such a big fan.  (You should also go see the adorable pictures she took of a catlet and Daughter2 wrapped up in a ribbon just for me.  I’ll take them both Isabelle!)

Now, back to the catlets.  I feel like their auntie.  I’ve been with them since they arrived at the Life household and I’ve watched them become teenagers.  They seemed to adjust pretty easily to our presence.  But then, I arrived with a kitty favorite — yarn.  What’s not to love?  After the first night, Sirius warmed up to me and spent every night thereafter on my legs as I knit.  (I knew to put my legs up from seeing pictures of Sirius happily stretched out on Mr. Life’s legs.)

Cassie, on the other hand, was a little more aloof.  While Sirius wanted to play most evenings, she was sleeping.  In contrast, Sirius went out to conquer the neighborhood first thing every morning, but Cassie stayed around for her time with the yarn ball (not so much me, but the yarn ball).  Don’t worry, the catlets were never left unsupervised with the yarn — I’ve learned that hard lesson with TheEmptyNestChild.

Cassie made up for her aloofness by the end of the week though.  She very politely begged us not to go on the evening before we left.  (Notice the kittycat version of red-eye LOL.)

TheManoftheHouse and I couldn’t have felt more welcome…by the entire family.  And as an added bonus, we met the adorable Daughter1 and her husband.  They came to visit one night and on another night we even had dinner with them and Isabelle’s charming mother.   I was sorry that Isabelle and Mr. Life weren’t there (and that we weren’t able to meet the famous Dr.Son), but really, how cool was that?  If I didn’t have the pictures to prove that the whole trip happened, I might not believe it myself.  When I started my little blog almost 2 years ago, I never, EVER imagined that it would lead to actually meeting a blog friend, let alone a blog friend in another country.  And what the heck — now we’re international cat-sitters!

So, I’ll stop writing now so you can rest.  When I come back I’ll tell you about the rest of our trip (with more bloggy meet-ups).  I took something like 1200 pictures.  !!!.  Don’t worry, I won’t make you look at all of them, but I think it’s an indication of what a great trip we had.  The weather wasn’t always the best, but it was perfect for Scotland.  This occurred almost every day — except for when it snowed.

Isabelle was so worried that the weather didn’t cooperate, but we were so excited to be in Scotland, we hardly noticed.  Besides, when you get lots of rain, you get lots of rainbows.

We’re lucky to see a few rainbows a year here in the midwest, but I think we must have seen one almost every day in Scotland. They were beautiful! Now when I see a rainbow, I’m going to think of The Life Family. I can’t thank them enough for the tremendous opportunity they gave to us. I only wish we could repay the favor. Don’t you want to come to our cornfields Isabelle? I could show you the Ugly Tree and TheEmptyNestChild and Amish people. And maybe my quilty peep Jewels could hook Mr. Life up with a train or two.  Think about it LOL!!!

XOXO,
Anna

YooHoo! Anybody still out there? Sorry for that little blog break and Thanks for all your awesome wedding picture comments (btw, in case I confused you, I didn’t take those photos — which is a darn good thing as I had a hard drive crash last week and don’t know yet whether my pictures can be recovered — but that’s a story for another day ;-) )  Also, I’ve had a few “where are you?” worried e-mails (you guys are so sweet!) so I thought I better pop in for a quick visit.

It’s been all play here in Thimbleannaland this last week with my aunt’s visit. We’ve been having a great time doing all the things that we love to do … quilting, shopping, knitting, baking and EATing! I’ve probably  gained at least 5 pounds, but they’ve been worth it.

Our local quilt guild had a quilt show last weekend and my aunt and I went to a class there with Kim Diehl (which I’ll blog about later.) One of the vendors was a new shop called Caroline’s Cottage Cottons. Since we’d already planned to go to Shipshewana on Friday, we (MeMum, Auntie and I) decided to check out Caroline’s shop in Rome City, Indiana. It’s a darling little shop and I’m looking forward to seeing them grow.

A very big bonus (and surprise) for me was that Caroline’s was only about 3 miles from Gene Stratton Porter‘s home on Sylvan Lake. I LOVED reading Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles when I was a girl and I’ve always wanted to visit her home. The picture above is the grave site where Gene Stratton Porter and her daughter are buried.  Have any of you read her books?

Here is a picture of her cabin.  It looks out on Sylvan Lake and the setting is just stunning.

In addition to being an author, she was a naturalist and wildlife photographer.  There were a few examples of her wildlife photography and I was amazed at the close-ups of butterflies and flowers that she was able to capture in the early 1900’s.  They told us she spent hours and hours patiently waiting in the woods for the perfect photo.

She also had a sun room with many windows and a tiled floor.  She used to open all the windows, throw birdseed all over the floor and sit among the visiting birds.  Many of her books were made into movies and in the early 1920’s she moved to southern California for health reasons and to expand her film business.  Sadly she died there in a car accident in 1924.

She had a beautiful garden and my pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice.  Just to the left of the picture above was a long brick walkway covered by a wisteria arbor.  Unfortunately my pictures were very dark, so you’ll have to use your imagination.

If you’re ever in Northern Indiana, or if you’re a Gene Stratton Porter fan, her “little” cabin in the woods/on the lake was well worth the visit.  (Oh, and there was a picnic pavillion, so bring a picnic!)

More next time!

XOXO,
Anna

TheFirstChild is working in an internship this summer and he takes great delight in calling me frequently, crying into the phone, and bemoaning the fact that, oh, boohoo, the Dr. let him go early so he HAD to go play golf. Sort of a “You’re working and I’m Not.” (The first time he did this, his wailing was so convincing, I thought something was wrong. And btw, I’m very happy that he’s getting this little break, as I know that when school starts in the fall, he’ll be so busy he won’t even be able to spell G-O-L-F.) His most recent phone call came just as I sat down in my plane seat on my way to Newark last Monday.

So, Monday night, I was sitting in my hotel room, on the fence about whether I would go into NYC on this trip. On a whim, I decided to check the Good Morning America website and see who would be the featured artists for their Summer Concert Series in Bryant Park. Now, I’m not much of a music buff, so normally, I have no idea who the featured artist is. (Remember my trip last year when I happened upon Hannah Montana Who???)

But, this time — oh, how I knew the featured artists! Boyz II Men are the all-time favorite group of TheFirstChild, so that did it. I HAD to go into NYC and take pictures for my little cherub. But first, I HAD to call him, wailing into the phone of course, about how oh darn, my return flight on Friday wouldn’t be until the afternoon, and oh, boohoo, I guess I’ll just have to go see Boyz II Men in the park! That one phone call was SO worth all of TheFirstChild’s “You’re Working and I’m Not” phone calls. Boy, was he ever jealous!

Before this concert, I had no idea what Boyz II Men even looked like. I just knew that they were an R&B group, so it was fun for me to see them in person. And I must admit, I was a bit misty eyed, standing there in the crowd, remembering how TheFirstChild had played so much of their music in high school. It was also fun to see Diane Sawyer and Robin Roberts up close. They’re both so thin and pretty!

Boyz II Men have a very impressive music record. Their hit “End of the Road” (which they had the whole audience singing acapella!) spent 13 weeks as #1 on the pop charts, breaking Elvis’s record of 11 weeks for “Don’t Be Cruel”/”Hound Dog” (sorry Gurney!) Then, their hit “On Bended Knee” replaced their “I’ll Make Love to You” for a 6 week run on top of the charts. Only Elvis and the Beatles had ever replaced themselves on the pop charts.

The concert was way too short (what do you expect for free LOL!) They sang a Motown medley from their new album of old Motown Hits. That was fun as they were dancing too. Then they/we sang “End of the Road” which was very cool. When they were done, I went to the area where I thought they would leave the park.

First Robin Roberts came out. There were very few people hanging around and she stopped to talk with a few women. What a nice woman. She’s recovering from chemotherapy treatments and her hair is coming back in — isn’t she beautiful?

Then Boyz II Men came by. There were maybe 10 of us standing there (not counting security and people walking down the sidewalk.) They stopped and gave autographs, so now TheFirstChild has illegible scribbles on a piece of paper LOL. I have no idea who these kids are, but the Boyz were SO nice to their adoring fans — they took the time to chat with them, autographed a poster that these kids had, and posed for a picture with them. I was very, very impressed with their kindness.

All that excitement was over by 9:15 a.m., so I decided to head south and check out this beauty:

The Brooklyn Bridge. The day was just beautiful as I walked across it (I took the Statue of Liberty picture above from the bridge.) And now, Ms. Charmed, I won’t get lost if I need to go there again!

XOXO,
Anna