Scotland, Part II

The next part of the trip, we drove north up to Inverness.




First stop was Scone Palace in Scone. It's the crowing place of Scottish kings. And it has a hedge maze so now my life is kind of complete because I can say I've been in a hedge maze. The maze will be a little bit better in a few weeks when the leaves are actually blooming, but I'm not complaining.

Scone Palace

Hedge maze with fountain at the center

And of course there is the Stone of Scone, which is a replica, the original being kept at Westminster Abbey, according to the sign.


So, thanks to all at once and to each one,
Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.
---from Macbeth

Stone of Scone (replica)

After Scone, we continued north and this is where we made our mistake. We did not take the A9 (the main road) and instead decided to go through the middle of the Cairngorms National Park. We wanted scenery. This was our first day in the car. My sister was driving and we were all a bit stressed with the very small roads, weird passing/parking rules and it wasn't a really nice ride for us. Then to top it off, the Cairngorms are just finishing with winter and were brown, brown, brown. I live in Utah so I know about brown mountains and I think they have their own beauty. But... not the best scenery we've ever seen, which is too bad because pictures online are really nice. Yeah, we just came a few weeks too early for some things.  And I didn't take any pictures of that part of the trip.




We finally made it to Inverness and decided we were not getting back in the car until the next leg of our journey. So basically, we had a full day in Inverness that we had planned to go to Culloden or Fort George and just didn't. We wandered around the city and took it easy. It is a beautiful city but one day is plenty of time there if you don't actually get out to see other things.

Inverness Castle - still used today as a court house

Forget which church this is

The river is lovely

Scotland, Part I

I'm back from my trip to Scotland. Overall, I have to say I loved the country and the people were very nice, those that I interacted with, at least.

View of Edinburgh Castle from Princes Street gardens

This trip it was me, and my mom, and my sister. We had a good time together. The only times we really argued/got mad/yelled/anything not happy happened when we were in the car. Driving together on foreign roads and on the "wrong" side of both the car and the road did make for some interesting times.


We flew in and out of Edinburgh. It was a fun city to visit. My favorite things we did in Edinburgh would have to be:
1. Mary King's Close tour
2. Botanical garden
3. Holyrood Park/Salisbury Crags/Arthur's Seat


I don't have any pictures of Mary King's Close because they weren't allowed. A "close" is a small street/alleyway. Edinburgh is built on a hills and sometimes they built over other buildings. Mary King's close is basically a street that is now underground because it has been built over. I love underground things so this was definitely something I enjoyed.


The botanical garden was just a nice walk away from traffic and people. I love gardens and flowers so this is another thing that appealed to me. I loved the Glass House and all the different varieties of plants and flowers they kept there.

No idea what this is but very cool

Glass House

We hiked up the middle of Holyrood Park and went to the Salisbury Crags part. I did not go all the way up to Arthur's Seat but my sister did. The gorse is in bloom and it was a very nice hike, although very windy at the top. 

View from Holyrood Palace: Arthur's Seat is peak on left

Arthur's Seat and the gorse in bloom





Salisbury Crags

The weather was fantastic for us. It was a little chilly on a few days, but it didn't rain on us until the very last days.  We spent about 4 days here and then picked up our rental car and headed north.

I love the rooftops: reminds me of Mary Poppins



Greyfriar's Bobby on Candlemaker Row



Easter Weekend

My Easter weekend was fantastic.

Friday night I got to babysit my 1 year old nephew. He’s so adorable!  We went for a walk…and then had to go for another walk because he climbed back in his stroller. Then we played with toys and I managed to get him to go to sleep right before his parents came home.  

Saturday I slept in and then the family spent the morning at my mom’s house.  The kids decorated eggs and we had a barbeque. We do the candy, eggs, Easter bunny part of Easter on Saturday. Then I went to my sister’s house with my mom. Anna bought a bunch of pea gravel (?) or whatever it’s called to put around her raised garden beds and my mom and I helped her. Then on the way home mom and I went to the drive in at Maddox for dinner. I love their turkey burgers. It’s been a long time since I had one.  I haven’t done yard work in a while now. I can’t say I really miss it.  

Then on Sunday I went to church. I had signed up to volunteer to sit with the primary kids once in a while so their teacher can make it to Relief Society for a break and yesterday my turn came around. So I went to Primary and sat with the kids during sharing time and singing time. It’s been awhile and I forget how disruptive some of the kids can be. But I also felt the spirit so strong singing those primary songs. It was a good way to celebrate Easter. 

After church I cooked. A lot. Ok – maybe not that much because I used my Instant Pot which made it easy.  I was tired of cooking by the time I was done, though. Now I don’t have to cook anything for a couple weeks. I’ll just have to add some fruits and vegetables to a few things I have frozen.  I had ripe bananas so I tried baked oatmeal that I can freeze for breakfast. It was ok. Not sure that I love the recipe I used but I would be willing to try another baked oatmeal recipe when I’m finished with these.

Anyway, it was busy but nice and relaxing at the same time.

A Little Different Tuesday Night

Last night I did something a little out of the ordinary. A lady that I’ve worked with for years (in fact I applied for and got her job when she transferred to another division 14 years ago) is leaving the company. Some of her coworkers contacted me to see if I wanted to attend a little get together for her.

So yesterday after work, a coworker and I drove to Riverside, UT which I consider to be on the way to the middle of nowhere.  I’m sure the people who live there would disagree, or maybe agree with me and be happy they have very few neighbors.  Anyway, the lady who hosted is very nice and welcoming and had made A TON of food plus her husband cooked Dutch oven potatoes that were heavenly. There weren’t too many of us so we sat around the big kitchen table like old friends and ate and told stories about work and life and we laughed so hard I was crying a few times. I haven’t laughed like that in a long time. We had only been planning to stay a little bit but ended up there until almost 8:00 pm. It was truly an enjoyable night and I had a lot of fun. I wish my friend all the best in her new endeavors.

All too often I opt out of social situations. Sometimes in my want for solitude, I don’t realize that I also need people. I do get out with friends and family but should make sure I do it in balance with my “want to be alone” self also. And, as I was reminded of last night, sometimes getting out with almost strangers can be a lot of fun also.  LOL – I just don’t want to do it too often.

Favorite Books in a Series

I just finished a book by one of my favorite authors in a series that I really love. It got me thinking about my favorite series and wondering if I could rank a top 10 list.

I think I can.

The order gets a little murky the farther down I go, but these are favorites from childhood up to now.  To be on the list I have to own every book in the series (or so far if they are still being written) and they have to have the same (or mostly the same) characters.

1. The Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander

2. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

3. Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs

4. Vicky Bliss by Elizabeth Peters

5. The Queen’s Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

6. The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman

7. Lady Julia by Deanna Raybourn

8. Kate Daniels by Ilona Andrews

9. Arcadia Bell by Jenn Bennett

10. Egypt Trilogy by Linda Lee Chaikin

Ok - I tried, but depending on the day the order can really change except for maybe the top 5, so here are the next 10:

11. Mag Force 7 by Margaret Weis and Don Perrin
12. Sword Dancer by Jennifer Roberson
13. October Daye by Seanan Mcguire
14. Every Trilogy by Ellie Marney
15. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
16. The Others by Anne Bishop
17. Shades of Magic by V.E. Schwab
18. Art Lover's Mysteries by Hailey Lind
19. Dragonlance: Legends by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
20. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling

Ha ha... I'll stop there. There are a few others that I could list or swap but this is good for today.

How is it March Already?

This year I bought the kids tickets to Disney on Ice for their birthday present. The ones old enough to go, at least. We went on Saturday. The kids had fun so I guess it was worth it. As an adult I would have liked to see more figure skating type of skating but that’s just me. Then yesterday after family dinner we played outside with bubbles. It feels so good to have Spring coming. It’s supposed to be a beautiful week here.

I tried to catch up on the news this morning and then after the first depressing story, I decided I’d had enough.  Some days I just can’t do it.

I’m not the savviest social media person by any means. I use Goodreads, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, in that order. Goodreads is definitely the place I waste the most time. What can I say, when I’m not reading books, I’m reading about books. I save recipes on Pinterest but other than that, I don’t spend a lot of time there anymore. Instagram is fun but I don’t use it all that often. I’ve tweeted exactly 10 things in the 3 years I’ve had my Twitter account.  I get on FB when I get notifications, mostly to get rid of them. I’ve been cutting way down on social media.  I’m happier when I’m not constantly inundated with bad news and crazy goings on.  I like seeing family fun times and good things about people but any more, I feel like I have to wade through a bunch of junk to see that. So I just don’t and I don’t miss it.  Like everything in life, I suppose balance is key.  

So lots of family time this weekend and it was great. It’s definitely where I’d rather be spending my time. We have ideas of some things we want to do together this spring and summer and I’m looking forward to it.

It's February And That Means...

It’s birthday shopping month! My favorite time of year. :) Just kidding. But I do believe that I can celebrate how I want and I have to take care of myself since nobody else will.  

This year I’ve decided to start a new tradition, or I should say add to my tradition, and I’m going to be making some donations to a few organizations that help immigrants and refugees.  I’m still thinking about where to put my time, but while I’m deciding that, I can do this now. I’ve got a couple organizations I’m looking into and I feel good about my decision.  I regularly donate to a few other places plus my church humanitarian fund, but I think making this a tradition for my birthday will be a good thing. I have so much and others have so little, I really should have been doing this long ago, but at least I’m doing it now.

Since I just finished a big clean out of my house, I’m trying not to go overboard for shopping month.  There is a bottle of perfume I want. I need a new pair of walking shoes and I have a few books to buy. All right, who am I kidding; it’s a stack of books. But I’ve culled it down. Truly, I have. And some of them I’m going to go buy at local bookstores. By local, I mean in the same state as I live in. It’s so sad I don’t have a good bookstore in my city. Although probably much safer for my budget.  

Anyway, that’s the plan. Faith and action, tears and laughter, finding happiness and good in spite of all the sadness and anger I also feel.