Catching Up

It's been too long since our last blog post, but I can imagine we would be forgiven if everyone understood the sheer magnificence of the spring we've been having here. We've been trying to take advantage of the best stretch of weather we've seen since we arrived by getting out, either to he countryside of Scotland, the golf course or just the back garden.

As I say, it has been glorious. We've had blue skies, sunshine and unseasonably warm temperatures for the better part of 6 weeks now. At one point people in Scotland were even complaining about the lack of rain and moor fires were becoming common. The weather has of course convinced every little piece of flora to start flowering. Rhododendrons, roses, poppies, bluebells and lillies are all making their appearance. The apple tree which we rescued out from under the giant Rowan tree in our backyard is covered in blossoms and the bees are happily buzzing about ensuring there will be apples in the fall.

Our little vegetable patch is doing quite well too. We reclaimed a small area from the raspberries and blackberries. It gets good sun and we found the soil to be rich and black, so we have high expectations. My experimental Brussel sprouts have done too well, perhaps, and require some serious thinning. The parsnips, carrots, beans, corn and mange-tout have all sprouted and even the rhubarb plant we gave up for dead last year has come back, Lazarus-like, with renewed vigour and two new leaves. We're only waiting on the beetroot, which leaves me a little disappointed because they're perhaps the tastiest items.

Fiona has also been taking advantage of the excellent weather to improve her golf game. She's taking weekly lessons with the American Women's Association and, like our Italian classes, she's the star pupil. Her instructor is convinced she can play scratch golf and she's making her way towards that. I'm a little reluctant to go out with her now, for fear of being demoralized about the sorry state of my game. But when the weather is nice, it's hard to fight the urge to go out. Fiona's dad was in town for the last three weeks and while the two of them played more regularly, we did have one occasion to all get out on the course together. I guess I would have had more to complain about if my approach to the 9th green hadn't landed where it did, right between the Porsche Cayenne and Mercedes in the parking lot.

Fiona and Roger also did a fair bit of hiking. I could always tell when I got home whether they had been out that day by the sound of Casey snoring loudly from her bed in the living room. Our poor little puppy was whipped into shape by the series of mountain hikes undertaken. Fiona and Roger both took lots of pictures, and because they were hiking off-season, mid-week in Scotland, the family desire for beautiful landscapes completely devoid of people was satisfied.

We've also been enjoying the sunroof of our new car. Despite being roundly mocked on purchase, it's proven a great feature. We're quite happy with the car, even though it is perhaps a little smaller and less powerful than we would have liked. But we give ourselves high-fives for the environmental and financial sensibility of it.

We joined the UK equivalent of NetFlix last month and have started receiving movies from our list. We included a great many documentaries amongst our choices, as we always enjoy learning something new together. One of the first to come through was "Food Inc." If you haven't seen it, I suggest you run out and rent it. Some of the information was absolutely shocking. While we've been buying 'Freedom Food' endorsed meats for some time, this movie has pushed us to further question what we eat - where it comes from and what it costs (beyond the price tag).

While Roger was here I was told I had to go to Paris for a company symposium. Since the symposium started on the Monday after a long weekend, we decided to tack on a personal trip as well. We left Scotland on Friday afternoon, just as William and Kate were saying their I do's. We had a great time showing Roger our favorite sights. The highlight was on Saturday. We went out to Versailles to tour the gardens. All the fountains were on, with different music playing at all the stations. It was wonderful. When we got back into Paris we got dressed up and went to Pere Claude for dinner, which was, as usual, absolutely amazing.

We've got a little more traveling planned in the next month. Fiona is off to Istanbul on Wednesday with the Women's Association. We then get a chance to test the impact of our Italian lessons with a trip to Florence at the end of the month. To top it off I've booked a trip to Vienna for Fiona's birthday in June. We're looking forward to all of them.

So that should leave you all caught up with our coming's and going's. We'll try and get a little better about regular updates, but if the weather holds out I can't promise anything.