Oldie weds

Offically no longer newlyweds and soon to become Old News. Hurrah!

Oh so fyne

Dinner at the original and first Loch Fyne Oyster restaurant. While I did not partake, Mark slid 2 babies down.

bring out the Dom

Time to open the LOVELY wedding present from Nancy F.G -- the 1998 Dom. A delicious post hiking/pre dinner treat. Well worth the wait. Yum.

cruising on a Sunday afternoon

getting the cobwebs out on the mini cruise on Loch Lomond. Air. Sun. Clean water.

you take the high road and I'll take the low

Literal view from our room!



















Also celebrated with old fashioned (gross in my view) old fashioned sweeties -- aniseed twists, black bens and bon bons from a local store in Inverary. Hearkening back to the good ole 70s in the UK for Mark. We also won $1 from the Mary/Frank US sent scratch off lottery tickets.

Anniversary #1!

Our first weekend away in 10 months! All the beauty of the Western Lochs only 2 hours from our house. Stunning, unspoiled and raw beauty. And the Lochs are nice too.

Here we stop for lunch on our way to our B&B on Loch Fyne. The blue skies were dreamy.

charming blogs

It is such an excellent descriptor -- charming.

And now my pal Joyce Jones has joined the charming gang by launching her v cool Charming Dreamer blog with neato things like movies and travel photos. Impressive work courtesy of her Mac!

Check her out at:
Charming Dreamer

keep on keeping on

Alas, Charming Gardener is not on hiatus. Just gone quiet. Into work mode. Things just going. Not lifting my head for looking askew at the world with the detached wondering or feeling the chirpy newsy note place either. Just plodding along. Not bad. Just is.

I do see a light coming this weekend as we spend our few spare ££ and are going to the Western part of Scotland to stay in a cute B&B for our FIRST (how did that happen so quickly) marital anniversary. I envision air, green, lochs, bottles of wine, looking across the table at Mark's calm face. Which will be much preferred to the glimpse of him that I am seeing now.

flower boxes a bloom at our flat

sunny sunday daffodils

another charming one

at last, Mary J's wares are for sale! All my favourite t-shirts are now available to y'all. Plus, is nice to read where 'Maeve' comes from!

http://www.charmingmaeve.com/

all the while

as I watch birds die, my brother is being wined and wowed at Elton John's New York gala 60th birthday party.

I await further news of celebrity shoulder rubbing, but did receive a breathy and excited voice mail on my mobile about having a smoke with the Scissor Sisters and then another message with the running tab of celeb party goers that he shared a room with including, but not exclusive to:

- Emma Thompson
- Barbara Walkers
- Sharon Stone
- Eric McCormick
- Tony Bennet
- Pierce Brosnan
- Kiefer Sutherland
- Diane Sawyer
- Kid Rock
- Liz Hurley
- Donatella Versace

I hope for photos. And no more birds lose thier heads in my back garden.

gross but true

According to The Edinburgh Evening Paper... from February 2007

A SPARROWHAWK clutches a pigeon in the Grassmarket in the latest of a series of attacks in the Capital.

The bird of prey is usually found in woodlands but has recently been seen venturing into the city. At Christmas, a number of pigeons on the Royal Mile were killed by sparrowhawks.

RSPB head of species Duncan Orr Ewing said he thought they were nesting in nearby Holyrood Park.

He said:

"The Royal Mile is perfect for hunting because there is plenty of cover and lots of birds. They won't go hungry there. A large female will easily take a pigeon.

"They'll fly low along the buildings for cover then appear round the corner and surprise their prey, catching them in mid-air.

"They will eat their prey where they kill it."

There is thought to be a population of about 30 pairs of sparrowhawks in Edinburgh.

And one of them came into our world.

update

Murdering bird just flew back to find his supper. And wouldn'tya know it, Mark had JUST took it to the bin in the street. He stood on the grass just looking at the spot where he left the guy, like "Wha? He was just here! Damn. What am I going to tell the Mrs?" Now Mark has me feeling gulty that his babies are going to go hungry. And he must murder again.

dead bird in the back yard I know, I know it's serious

(Sing to the tune, "Girlfriend in a Coma" by Smiths)

Violent afternoon in the backyard.

Bird of prey, possibly Golden Eagle swooped down on to an unsuspecting lone pigeon wandering around our garden at about 3 this afternoon and "Whoosh"... feathers literally flying, Mark yelping (He was in the conservatory studying with a front row view) and suddenly the pigeon is headless. And lifeless, The murdering hawk flew away without its snack and now we have a dead bird in the back yard. We thought the hawk would return to, I dunno, eat it? Play with it? Show his pals? Alas, no.

It is distracting and odd. And am thanking he universe for having someone like Mark who can brandish a garbage bag and make it go away. I don't feel compelled to bury him. We weren't even friends. He was trespassing. Still, I feel for the guy. He never saw it coming.

one of the best

And most unsung delicious sensations is that subtle irritation in your eyes, but not enough to really even be a conscious thought in your head. And then discovering an errant eyelash stuck in your eye.

Suddenly it all makes sense. And once it is gone, it is a miracle. You were uncomfortable without really knowing why. And then suddenly, all feels nice again.

This
Feels
Like
Life

my weekend culinary feats

1) 2nd time roasted mushroom risotto from Jamie Oliver's Italy cookbook
2) thai butternut squash soup
3) banana and pumkpin bread (after the miracle of discovering Libbys canned pumpkin at the health food store around the corner)

hate and love

Things I hate
1. starting to feel my age
2. the awkward time between finishing a good book and starting the next one
3. re-runs you have seen so many times you can glimpse one scene and call the episode
4. not knowing if I am too old to reproduce
5. after I ask “what, pardon me” 3 times and I still can’t understand a Glaswegian accent
6. not knowing where we will be living/what we will be doing in 6 months
7. my round reflection in store windows
8. having a temporary job
9. not knowing where I belong
10. my never ending black-bruised fingernail
11. not taking advantage of free time

Things I love
1. my new MacBook
2. having to figure out my taxes. Again.
3. feeling lifted when spending time with people I really like
4. good pens
5. remembering I like music; the new Patty Griffin CD
6. not knowing where we will be living/what we will be doing in 6 months
7. the first purple crocus heads popping up
8. having a temporary job
9. belonging wherever I go
10. my Amaretto shade of nail varnish
11. King of Queens
12. a whiff of possibility
13. blended soup
14. having more things I love than hate

i feel his pain

me and sam let it out

Do I contradict myself?/ Very well then I contradict myself,/ (I am large, I contain multitudes.)
- Walt Whitman

an andy but a goodie

proud jaffes

oldies but goodies, plus a sesame seed size McDonald

Friend

my sweet Helena Sweet

2 of the fab sibs

more wi highlights

mom & me & shovels

restorative

I leave the US today after my 15 days and I feel better leaving than I did arriving.
7 beds but all good ones.
Many memories.
Many connections and reconnections.
I came feeling like I wanted to get off the ride.
And I am leaving considering getting back on.
Deeply restorative and feeling healed.
And I'm not just talking about my cold.

so far

• 21 hours from Edinburgh door to Schaumberg hotel door
• Jet lagging with a cold

things I am already grateful for

• the offer of rye as a toast option at the breakfast buffet
• pickles in my virgin bloody mary with lunch
• a cheerful attitude so eager and nice that you would think it fake if you didn't know better from customer service
• Nice Polish immigrant taxi driver who won a Green Card lottery in his 60s
• cold that hurts your teeth and makes your eyes water
• the immediate and plentiful water on the table as soon as you sit down
• the cute young French bellman who just drove me to Target so I could stock up on cold
• supplies, kleenex with lotion and a few sale tops
• the flat screen TV in my room, where I am going to retire now with my Target goods and my jam jams... only to resurface for my coaching class tomorrow morning

Good night America

can't stop

sighing

Is weird, but I catch myself letting out a great big one about every 20 minutes.

It is oddly satisfying and oddly disturbing to sigh so heavily on a sunny Friday.

Sigh.

birthday fairies

Thanks to all my birthday fairies who sent notes, cards, emails, presents, warm thoughts, blog poems and calls my way to celebrate my personal holiday. Makes a gal feel nice. And maybe stave off the grumpy old woman status for another year.

39 is the new 39.

birthday eve

Spent the birthday eve at the Imagination Workshop with the girls- Louise, Pauline, Janet and Sharon. Painting and gluing and playing. A perfect antithesis to any birthday aging nonsense. Plus I made a pretty treasure box.

ode to 38

It never feels like what you'd imagine
if only you imagined this far
but usually my brain only went until about now
but now I stop and pause and see what it is
this year I've done
come and gone
surprising where I've found ground and where I've lost my feet
how simple things are hard and the hard oddly easy
I've not done it all with grace and light
Scrappy and scrapy
but job done
Beyond getting by I want the flow
It is the up and it is the awake
And the map I am drawing
Mustn't lose the pencil
In order to go I have to be there
Here
I am
Awake

passed

my Theory test! (33 of 35 correct!)
whahooooo
Now onto a driving lesson to see how good (or bad) I am at driving here and book my behind the wheel test.

new words

Spaeggie (a Shetland word only) – the feeling in your muscles the day after you work out
Stookie – a cast (like when you break your arm)

These must be Scottish only as Mark never heard of either!

virtue

I just made an NHS dentist appointment.
Not only hard to find, but true to the spirit of clean living.
And one of the only real resolutions I attempted to announce for 2007.
Not bad for day 9.

in theory

I take my UK theory driving test here on Thursday morning and should really be studying my street signs and roundabout structures and calculating how many meters away from the car in front of me I must be.

Honestly, after almost 23 years of driving, it seems way way boring. Things are just the same enough to be deadly dull and different enough that I really do need to read the 4 library books on the test and the Highway Code.

Then the fun begins and I get to start worrying about my practical test -- where I have to reverse AROUND a corner! Um, can anyone do that?

Sometimes I hate goals. said the cheery life coach

babies

I'd like to publicly welcome 2 new humans into the world with congratulations and happiness showered on the good people who are their parents.

Right- Andy and his brood including new Nick, Anna and Sam

Left- Long awaited Sam Jaffe and proud Mary (Note - this just in -- this child, too , is Nick! Not the baby Sam! I've just been informed. Now to get the real Sam on film. But mostly, Mary looks so damn good with an infant on her arm)

tasteless

I've had the mack daddy of all colds since Boxing Day (that's Dec 26 for all Americans).

And I have totally lost my sense of smell. And taste.

All of my special post Christmas meals have been lost on me. The scent of the Scotch pine Christmas tree... missing. The world feels bland without it. My sense of hunger is weird. I am not craving anything. Nothing is exciting to me. But the wet wool smell of the bus or Mark's feet is no longer offending either.

It is strange to have 2 such powerful senses removed. And being a girl driven by nice smells and flavours, I don't quite feel myself.

new year crew

Visiting Canadian & Dutch contingent for Hogmany eve!