August, 2017: the sun is shining on the edge of North America, but the foghorn still cries its warning to the clouded sea. Two paired blasts per 60 seconds; a signature to identify location by sound. In the dark, you need to know which horn you’ve heard. This is Cape Race lighthouse, which holds oneContinue reading “Mercury in the Bath”
Tag Archives: Scotland
Grocery notes from the UK
Just a few quick things about groceries… 1) People in the UK are really into tomatoes. I don’t mind — I like tomatoes too — but I don’t require a boiled tomato for breakfast every morning, or tomato sauce (Ketchup) on everything. My favorite evidence of this near-obsession was when I was exploring the largeContinue reading “Grocery notes from the UK”
A WHAT tide?
Yesterday I woke up early and had a lovely home-cooked breakfast consisting of orange juice, tea, fruit salad with yogurt, cereal, brown toast with butter and homemade jam, black pudding, sunny-side-up egg, bacon, mushrooms, and a boiled tomato. About halfway through a lovely Spanish couple joined me — both architects from Barcelona — and weContinue reading “A WHAT tide?”
WARNING! Something!
I pulled over to blog about this. So, warning signs. On the road. There are lots! It’s super helpful [mostly]! But. So you have the obvious ones: [exclamation point] [squiggly line] SLOW Curves ahead, cool, got it. [red sign with picture of a sheep] Cool, watch for sheep, thanks. You have the helpful ones withContinue reading “WARNING! Something!”
Left. Left. Left. Left.
When I told people with experience that I was going to rent a car (for the first time ever) in Scotland and drive a manual transmission around the country on the ‘wrong’ side of the road, I got some very nice advice, some of which is loosely paraphrased below: “Nah, you’ll be fine. But everyContinue reading “Left. Left. Left. Left.”
"Would you care for some beans on toast?"
Yesterday I left Edinburgh and took a six-hour train journey north, through Inverness to the tiny town of Golspie on the North Sea. Last summer I stayed in a little inn in a little seaside village in Scotland as well. That village (Stonehaven) had a population of 11,000. Golspie has a population of 1,650. So.Continue reading “"Would you care for some beans on toast?"”
Haggis, black pudding and Irn Bru
Edinburgh! Hurrah! Last night went to a great pub tucked away from the main street down some stone stairs on a Close (which seems to mean sort of a pedestrian-only alleyway into the warren of stone buildings) called Devil’s Advocate – great big stone cave-like space. I had a traditional Scottish cider, battered and friedContinue reading “Haggis, black pudding and Irn Bru”
Aberdeen and Stavanger
I woke up early in my room at the inn, and spent a little while convincing myself to get out of bed and partake of the included ‘full Scottish breakfast,’ which I eventually talked myself into. I went down to the restaurant adjoining the pub, and had: Grapefruit (canned, I think) Orange juice Tea YoghurtContinue reading “Aberdeen and Stavanger”
Shastified, Continued 