Day Thirty

Being house bound does have some limiting effect on life.  Since I haven't been out doors for days and I can't think of a single thing to take photo's of around the house I am just going to have to sign off with nothing.
Perhaps tomorrow will have something worthy of my blog.
Love to all,
Dawn

Day Twenty Nine

My how time flies, we've been here almost a month and now have less than a month until we return home for the wedding of Allison and Bill.

We have been completely snowed in with no way to drive out for the past two days.  Today Robb ordered something called "snow socks" for the car.  Something akin to chains, but easier to put on.  They are supposed to be delivered by mail tomorrow or the next day.  I didn't see the mail man today as he has to walk down to the houses to deliver the mail because of the snow, but we'll see.

The lightning and snow that we saw yesterday is uncommon and the weather people aren't sure exactly what happens.  They call it Thunder snow.  I tried to find out more information on the Internet today but there isn't much about the phenomena.

Not much going on today, Robb and I are trying to just stay warm as it is below freezing outside with a strong wind blowing.  It is supposed to be sunny tomorrow and a little colder- nice place to cuddle.

Love to all,
Dawn

Day Twenty Eight

The snow has not stopped since I posted my blog yesterday.  What was a light dusting has turned into one of the earliest heavy snowfalls in the UK since 1993.

 
Tried to take some of the same shots as yesterday.

Someone tried to drive down the road, I think to visit with the elderly lady next door but their car became stuck and a tractor came and pulled them up the hill.  Needless to say, we didn't even try to go any where.

It has continued to snow off and on all day, with winds at thirty miles per hour, thunder and lightning even while it snowed.  A wonderful storm to see and be inside and warm during!

But that left me with little to do all day so I thought I would show you one of the oddities of this house.  Now in Mary Poppins one of the first things she does when is hired is re-decorates her room.  She walks over to this little mirror on the wall, removes it and then pulls out this large mirror from her wonderful carpet bag.  She makes some statement like "I prefer to see all of my face at one time" or something similar.  Well I know just how she feels.  Here are the mirrors over the sinks in all three bathrooms.

This is the mirror over the sink in the "Master Bath"  As you can see where the flash is you can sort of tell my height.  I can only see the top of my head and certainly can't see my teeth while I brush or put on make up.

This is the mirror over the sink in the family bathroom that Robb uses, the cord you see is the electrical turn on for the shower.  Again just the top of my head

This is the third bathroom in the guest bedroom.  It is a little lower than the others, but still no whole face.  I think that one needs to be at least six feet tall to use any of them, and woe be to any one shorter, ie, me, or any children.

There are two little desk mirrors and one on the wall in the guest room.  Yes it too is hung high enough for only a six footer to use.

But fortunately, in the master bedroom, hidden in a corner, with no light was a thin wall mirror.  I moved a chair, bought a TV tray to make my make up/hair dresser and now I can see all of me, just like Mary Poppins.  I only wish I looked like her.

Well, the weather outside is frightful, and my honey is so delightful and waiting for me to finish so I'm off to bed!
Love to All,
Dawn

Well we went to bed with it snowing heavily with some of the largest snowflakes I have ever seen.

 But all we woke up with was a light dusting of snow that had been wet but was now frozen like a sheet of ice.

 We did think to go out this afternoon
but after three or four attempts at going up the
drive way, we went back into the house
defeated by the road.  Mexican food and the craft shop will have to wait for another day.






DUNDEE WEATHER FORECAST- remember Zero on the Celsius scale is 32 degrees!

Detailed ten-day forecast			°F | °C
Day	Forecast	Description	Precipitation chance
Today 27 Nov Details	Mostly Cloudy High: 0° Low: -4°	Day: Partly cloudy skies. High 0C, humidity 75%. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.	40%
		Night: Cloudy with flurries. Low -4C. Winds ENE at 10 to 15 mph.	60%
Tomorrow 28 Nov Details	Snow High: 2° Low: -1°	Day: Snow. High 2C, humidity 75%. Winds ENE at 15 to 20 mph.	95%
		Night: Mostly cloudy with snow showers. Low -1C. Winds ENE at 15 to 20 mph.	90%
Monday 29 Nov	Snow Showers High: 2° Low: -1°	Cloudy with snow showers. High 2C and low -1C. Winds NE at 10 to 15 mph.	80%
Tuesday 30 Nov	Snow Showers / Sun High: 0° Low: -4°	Mostly clear skies. High 0C and low -4C. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.	70%
Wednesday 01 Dec	Snow Showers / Sun High: -1° Low: -4°	Mostly clear skies. High -1C and low -4C. Winds NE at 5 to 10 mph.	75%
Thursday 02 Dec	Afternoon Snow High: -2° Low: -11°	Cloudy with snow showers. High -2C and low -12C.	40%
Friday 03 Dec	Cloudy / Afternoon Sun High: 1° Low: 0°	Mostly clear skies. High 1C and low 1C.	50%
Saturday 04 Dec	Scattered Flurries High: 2° Low: -5°	Drizzle and scattered flurries. High 2C and low -5C.	95%
Sunday 05 Dec	Clear High: 3° Low: -9°	Sunny skies. High 3C and low -9C.	40%
Monday

It looks like we will have a delightful week, hopefully we will be able to make the meetings Robb has set up.  All of the northeast coast of Scotland is going through this spell of winter weather so I am sure other will have to cancel as well.
Love to all,
Dawn

Day Twenty Six

 

My beloved who I am so very thankful for.

Well as you can see, we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.  Today we had turkey sandwiches with cranberry sauce and tonight a re-creation of the feast without all the work thanks to the microwave.


Once I had finished cooking, I am afraid that my foot was finished as well, and my beloved did all the cleaning and put everything away.

 

But a nights rest and I was up and doing house work, putting away our Thanksgiving decorations and getting out my $10.00  Christmas tree and decorations.  I put the tree in the window behind the couch and we can see it in the mirror on the other wall while watching TV.  I want you to know that the tree is 6 feet tall, and sitting on the window sill so you can see how tall the room is.  A 12ft tree would fit in here with no problems.

 The only problem with this beautiful tree is there are no angels on it.  Tomorrow Robb has promised to take me to a craft store so I can buy fabric for wings and some type of face to create angels out of the scallop shells we've gathered.  Once I have angels on it, the tree will be perfect.

 

Oh and Robb has found a Mexican Restaurant for us to have lunch at tomorrow.  It is called Rancho Pancho in Dundee.  Does it seem like everything I write about includes food?  Must be something in the air!
Love to all.
Dawn

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thanit.

Our love and prayers to all,
Dawn and Robb

Day Twenty

Tried walking around and decided that another day in bed with my foot up will be better.  Robb thinks some of the bruising is subsiding, but the pain has changed location and hurts in a different spot this morning.  Keep praying!
Love to all,
Dawn

Day Nineteen

Would love to post something wonderful today but not so.  Last night we attended the wonderful lighting of the town of Dundee.  We and a few thousand others braved the weather and sought the down town and the lighting of all the street lights.  We enjoyed the parade, which we didn't see, enjoyed the pipers which we heard, went to St. Pauls for the different musical groups and ran through the rain to the shopping center before heading towards the car park.  On running through the rain to the car park I stepped, somehow in a hole, a crack I am not sure, but ended up with my ankle twisting.  I have spent the night and the day in bed, with a wonderful husband caring for me, giving me meds, wine, dinner and whatever I needed as the day progressed.  I am still in pain if I try to put my foot to the floor, and in a three level home, fine it difficult to say least.  I am going to bed and hoping that tomorrow will find the pain less and that I will be able to move about on foot rather than on bottom.
Love to all,
Dawn

Days Seventeen and Eighteen

On the road with appointments with Robb.  We actually made it through the Scottish border land and dipped into England.  The ride down was eventful as we left during peak traffic while everyone was on their way to work.  It was the first time we've been in heavy traffic.  Suffice it to say Robb did a wonderful job of driving, and I did a wonderful job of keeping my eyes and more importantly, my mouth shut.  The lanes seem smaller to me on the motorway, and of course on the highways I know they are smaller.  In the small towns one does a sort of dance as you drive.  Making a wavy progress by going over and around parked cars into the on coming car lane and back again.  This weaving in and out takes a certain timing and if you stop or slow down you make everyone else out of sync.  Robb had a couple of stops, but most of the time it would be seamless and all keeps moving.  It has come back naturally to him and he does a great job.

Our Tom Tom has a great feature on it in that we were able to turn on and that is it will tell us where all the castles are as we drive along. (And we seem to have a thing about Scottish Castles).  So while on the trip we stopped at two different castles.  One is closed for the season and is called Ayton Castle.

This Castle is close to the border of England and is still privately owned but the owners do open it up for tours during the summer.

This next Castle is only a few miles from where we are staying and is open as a hotel.

 Fernie Castle Hotel

 It looks like it would be a nice place to stay, expensive though. 

They have this tree house suite that rents for 500 pounds per night.  We won't be staying there anytime soon.

We'll continue our search for the perfect Castle as we continue to drive around, may be we'll find one for sale!








I continue to look for a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.  In our little town a cute figure of a turkey was placed on the corner of the street.

We called about getting one, but they won't be ready until Christmas time.  These "whole Turnkeys" were only 40pounds each.  He did have some frozen ones if we wanted that, but as Robb said they were probably frozen since last season!  I still keep checking the markets and have yet to find a whole turkey, but did fine a whole duck for only 8 pounds.  Who knows, this year may be chicken.

Friday is Christmas Light Night in Dundee, music, parade, food vendors, and the lights turned on at nine, sounds like home and I am sure will be great fun.

Love to all,
Dawn

Day Sixteen

Today has been a lazy, foggy day.  Robb has been busy working on calls and emails as we are going to be travelling for the next two days.  I don't know if I'll be able to do the blog while travelling, but I'll catch you up when we get back.

I have just been wandering around the house and thought that I would show you some of the funny things that are so different from the way things are done in the US.  Here is photographs of the faucet in the master bathroom.  The bathtub and bidet are done in exactly the same way which could cause a bit of an ouch in some cases.

This is a "mixed water tap" meaning that the cold and hot water are in the same faucet instead of having separate ones which is the norm over here.  But if you turn off either the hot or cold you can see that the water isn't really mixed at all but it comes in on it's side of the faucet.

This is with just the cold water on.  You can put your hands under the water and be burned and chilled at the same time.  In the tub the foot on the left side gets burned from the hot water while your other foot freezes from the cold.  Most people over here, plug the sink and fill it with water rather than let it go down the drain like we do.  I am sure that they use less water, but you have to remember to wait.  I do worry about the Bidet though, tender spot to burn.

In the bathroom that Robb uses it has a stall shower.  But the wonderful thing about this shower is that it is

ELECTRIC-

Yes, you read that correctly.  In order for the shower to work there is a ceiling pull that must be turned on.  Now I was always told that water and electricity were a bad mix, but here it makes for a wonderful, hot shower.

I took a couple of photo's of our near neighbors, but unfortunately, I didn't have any carrots or apples and felt like a heal when they started coming over to where we had parked.  The baby is about six weeks old.

Hope your day is as relaxing as mine has been.

Love to all,

Dawn

Day Fifteen

Today was all about cars.  Robb decided that we didn't need the larger compact car that we had rented to begin with and decided to "down size".  Now down sizing here in the UK can be dangerous.  You can get really really small cars.  Without knowing exactly what we were down sizing to, off we went to the Enterprise car rental shop in Dundee this morning. 

We were driving a Vauxhall four door large compact when we drove in

Dark greyAutomatic with all the

bells and whistles

And we returned home in a

Light grey

Compact

With very few bells and whistles.

Being ever a good steward of his company's funds, this new car cost us 7 pounds less each day and uses less petrol because it has a smaller engine.  I actually liked it better because you sit up higher in the front seat and could see better out the front window.

Speaking of windows, this new car now sports our latest addition in the world of electronics in it's front window.  Our new Tom Tom, with the sweet English voice of a lady we christened Eglantine (from which movie kids?), was installed.  We had a meeting in St. Andrews today so she had her first try at getting us where we needed to be with less frustration, time and gas that the previous navigator had been providing.  Other than telling us to turn down a street that had been for pedestrians only since the early 1850's she was wonderful.  Now, instead on one woman telling Robb where to turn, he has two!

Word for today - Tyre  or Tire

Love to all,

Dawn