Our Borders Vacation

The weekend before last, Alette, Japhur and I took a short vacation to the Scottish Borders. The map below shows our route, and you can click on the above picture to see our photos.


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One of the highlights was the town of Peebles which is an attractive, historic town. We had lunch there, in what' s now becoming frequent pub visits for Japhur. On Saturday evening, we dipped down into Northumberland, England and stayed at the Coach House Hotel in Crookham. It was very quiet and relaxing with some great views of rolling hills just outside our window. Japhur much preferred this B and B to the less posh pub we stayed at Friday night.
We spent the early part of Sunday on windswept Holy Island (Lindisfarne), which offered some wonderful views of a hill-top castle, surrounded by the sea.

The one disappointment of the trip was Berwick-upon-Tweed; a lovely sounding place, that was quite pretty, but only from far away. Once we arrived in the centre of town, not much was open and there didn't seem to be a decent pub or restaurant for lunch. It did have a nice grassy walk around town, atop the former walls of the city, but that was it. We wished that we'd stayed in Lindisfarne for lunch.

We took the scenic drive home along the coast, stopping in St. Abbs to snap the photo seen above. We think this might be the diving mecca that Tanya and Pat mentioned to us before we left. There was basically nothing in St. Abbs but divers and diver-related establishments.

Other highlights en-route included:
Kailzie Gardens
Traquair House, the "oldest inhabited castle in Scotland", sporting at still-functioning brewery
Priorwood Garden in Melrose
Too many ruined abbeys to name
Forest walks at Harestanes Countryside Visitor Centre
St. Aidan's winery

Showtime (Again)

On Sunday night, I had my second musical performance. This was a solo guitar and singing performance, as a followup to my recent class on Guitar Accompaniment and Interpretation through the Scots Music Group. I performed the song Edward, which Alette and I first heard performed by Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller back in November. It's apparently an Irish version of a Scots ballad (though there seem to be many songs for which the heritage - either Irish or Scottish - is a little unclear).

This performance was at the equivalent of an 'open mic night', known as The Big Seat by the Fire, and took place at St George's West (a mere 10 minute walk from our flat, and shown in the picture above). There were about 20 performers in a very supportive environment. I'd like to return, perhaps next month with some Canadian songs. I'm leaning towards some Neil Young, though Alette is suggesting a Gordon Lightfoot. Any suggestions?

Coast of Fife

On Saturday, Alette, Japhur and I went for a drive along the coast of Fife. This is an area on the east coast of Scotland, just north of Edinburgh. Our route took us from Edinburgh to St Andrew's and we tried to stay as close to the water as possible. Our goals were to take a nice drive, but also to explore areas of the country that might be nice for future, longer visits. Since we don't own a car, we made use of our City Car Club membership, and drove a Vauxhall Corsa Automatic (it also came with clutchless manual) from their East Market location.

It was a beautiful day here on Saturday (sunny and 13 degrees) that made for a great drive. And there were definitely some noticeable changes as we drove along. The first part of our trip, along the Northern coast of the Firth of Forth, just opposite Edinburgh, presented a number of former coal mining towns such as Aberdour, Burntisland, the aptly named Coaltown of Wemyss, and Leven, from which the above picture of Japhur on the beach was taken. While there exist some older structures and architecture, these towns appeared slightly more modern, perhaps from post-coal rebuilding.

We stopped for lunch in Elie, where Japhur had his second visit to a pub, the Ship Inn. This time he was allowed to stay inside with us (as opposed to be relegated to a garden area). Continuing up the coast, we stopped next in Crail. This was a very nice, little town. It didn't seem as crowded or as touristy as the others, perhaps since it did not have much sandy beach (though did have a nice grassy area for walking along the water).

Our final stop was in St Andrew's, a town known to most for either its golfing or its university. The University of St Andrew's is the oldest in Scotland, and third oldest in Britain (after Oxford and Cambridge). It's a very small town, has some nice areas for walking, especially through the University and old castle ruins.

We didn't make it as far as Dundee, but will try to reach it, and even further to Aberdeen on a future visit (likely by train). You can see pictures of our Fife tour by clicking the picture above.

Trampoline Kitties

I was sure that my first post concerning our neighbour's trampoline would relate to a major injury sustained by one of their children (in case you're wondering, it's already served up several bouts of whining and crying). Afterall, it has no side protectors, and has easily jumpable walls on two sides. But those pictures will have to wait. For now, it's in use by neighbourhood cats. Sorry - no pics of them actually using the trampoline.

Mike's Visit to Oxford

I visited Oxford for three days this week to attend, and present at, a conference. The conference was a lot of fun: I was able to get some good feedback on my research, saw some old friends, and met some new people. It took place at St Hugh's College, one of nearly 40 colleges that comprise the University of Oxford.

There was also some time for a tour of Oxford. Click on the picture of the Oxford canal to see my photos in Picasa.

Showtime

Saturday evening was my first performance as a member of The Practice Choir. Faithful blog readers will recall that I joined the choir in January. The performance was at Old St Paul's Church. It was a fun performance, and from the audience member that I asked (Alette), it was quite a good show. Despite only being an amateur choir, it's amazing how a strong sound can come together with a group after 3 months of practice. And as I noted previously, many members have been in the choir for several decades. I know that I regularly aligned my pitch to more experienced members around me.

What helped as well was the addition of an orchestra and soloists for the performance; our rehearsals were only with the choir, until the rehearsal the day of the performance As noted by Alette, having the orchestra and solists added some variety, as well as some professionalism to the performance.

Unfortunately, we've been terribly forgetful about bringing our camera when we go out, so no pictures this time. Too bad too since I had to buy a new, white dress shirt for the performance.

Zack and Miri make my homesick

Just to clarify before moving on, it's Alette writing this post. Mike takes no responsibility for the contents of this post.

What is it about the latest installment of Kevin Smith's oeuvre that has gotten me feeling homesick for North America?

The snow? That's definitely part of it.

The crappy rusting boat of a car they drive around in? Gotta say I miss those environmental disasters. Edinburgh is especially about the mercedes and the land rovers and all that money--for lack of a better word. People don't seem to drive buckets of bolts over here.

Seth Rogen? I admit I've had a soft spot for him since Freaks and Geeks. He seems to be all over everything these days.

The utter crudeness of the movie? They can be crude over here but not in the way North Americans are crude. North American crudeness (at least the stuff in the media) tends to be juvenile in a way that's actually kind of redeeming. There's a sort of sense of innocence beneath all that crudeness. Crudeness over here seems to be mostly edged with viciousness, an edge of violence, hate even.

The schmaltziness? Kevin Smith's movies are always a little bit sweet under all the crudity. It's that schmaltziness that gets the Brits all contemptuous of North American productions, of North Americans in general. But I miss it, at it's best the schmaltziness and innocence show a compassion that British cleverness has no interest in. See the difference between The Office UK and The Office US.

Or maybe it's just me and not the movie at all. That seven month slump. All the newness over here is past it's freshness date. Whatever the cause, watching Zack and Miri make a Porno has made me realise just how much I'm missing North America right now.