December 6th

Once again we woke up to snow.  Another four to six inches fell this morning, with both Edinburgh and Glasgow airports closed.  It surprised everyone to find that we were once again snowbound, but hopefully it will be better tomorrow.  The weather is supposed to be in the low teens tonight and and low twenties tomorrow.  Rain in the forecast for Friday and if it stays cold at night that could make a great mess.

We made an offer today on the house for let in St. Monans.  It has some wonderful features but the town itself has some great history.  We took some photo's of the church which was built in the late 1200's basically 800 hundred years old.  It had been there 500 hundred years before the United States was formed as a country.  It is Church of Scotland, which to us is a Presbyterian Church and still has services every Sunday.

We've searched high and low for something we would enjoy living in, something with history, a past, giving us the feeling of being part of the past and this is what we've found.  What do you think?

Actually this is the Newark Castle ruins, also in St. Monans, but hasn't been occupied since the 16th century.  It is just a little further down from the church.  History abounds all around the area and some things like the church you can still enjoy as it was meant to be, others like this you can only imagine.

Now this where we hope to live when we return to Scotland.  The red door is the entrance into what is a three story terrace house, with the walls connected on both sides.  The windows to the left are part of the house.  The downstairs window is the kitchen just off the entry with one bedroom downstairs, and a door to a small enclosed courtyard in back.  Upstairs is the living room room window and the bathroom.  On the third floor is the master bedroom and another bedroom.  It is completely furnished because it has been a holiday rental so I wouldn't have to do anything but move in.  How nice is that?

The town itself is an old fishing village and has an attractive small harbor at the end of the street where the house sits, perhaps half a block down the road.  Although there aren't as many fishing boats as in times past, there are some of them left and several active fish markets in town.

There is also a historic windmill, built in the late 1700's to pump sea water into large cast iron pots.  Coal was mined nearby and burned under the pots, to boil off the water and leave the salt, which was quite valuable in those days.  An early example of a wind turbine in Scotland....

Love to all,
Dawn