Winter in July (here)

Greetings -

It has been cold, wet and windy but we have had a few nice sunny days and sunsets in between. Still enjoying the new windows and keeping warm with the kitties.

Time continues to fly. We have been back now for over 7 weeks, and it has been a whirlwind of activity and catching up with everyone.

I celebrated my 60th birthday with a fun fiesta among dear friends at Viva Mexico-my favorite Mexican restaurant.

We were also able to get away for a quick overnight in the Wairarapa visiting friends. It is a beautiful and relaxing place.

The Roxy cinema, our local movie theater has been running a lot of fun retro films and we have been enjoying many of them.

    Ferris Bueller's Day Off

    Legally Blond

    Independence Day

    Mad Max -Eric watched all of them in a marathon showing while I just saw Beyond Thunderdome

    Close Encounters of the Third Kind

We have also seen some new releases:

    Death of Robinhood - dark and rough to watch at times but very well done film -spoiler not a happy ending.

    Disclosure Day - this film has received mixed reviews, but Eric and I enjoyed it.
    Odyssey - We liked this film too, quite the undertaking by Nolan, great on many levels.

And watching several shows at home:
Local Hero -a recommended older film that takes place in Scotland

Good Omens 3 -the conclusion to a fun story

Daredevil Reborn -season 2

Sheep Detectives  - really cute and fun

And the first few episodes of House of Dragons -season 2 - dark, as expected LoL

Eric has started painting again. We did a test swatch of the cranberry accent wall for the kitchen. Not a great photo but you get the idea. 

With all of that going on, I am only now starting to edit all the photos from Scotland. I am enjoying reliving the trip, and looking forward to putting together an album.
 
It has been sad to see the recent news and postings of the various fires that have been burning in Scotland since we left. Places we enjoyed, engulfed in flames.😢
    Arthur’s Seat

    Cairngorms National Park

    Prince St. in Edinburgh

But here are some highlights from our first few days in Edinburgh. More to follow soon.

      Edinburgh Castle

      Arthur's Seat

      At the top of Arthur's Seat

      Dean's Village Bridge

      Dean's Village

                          Textures on the Royal Mile

   

      Piper on the Royal Mile

                           Sir Walter Scott - Scott Monument

      Inside Edinburgh Castle

    Local flavor on the Royal Mile

Cheers,
Stacy & Eric

We are back!

 

Scotland was amazing! Can’t believe how fast the month went by.

 

We packed so much in, and are looking forward to sharing stories and photos. It is going to take us a wee bit to go through all the photos and choose the heroes. 

We also need a few days to get over the jet-lag, unpack, do laundry, market, and spend some time with the kitties, who we have missed and who have missed us (I think). 

But here is our Scotland trip by the numbers and a few fun photos for now. 

32 days 

8 flights

2 trains

3 ferries

3 boats

3 tour buses

13 Uber rides

And a rental car- We drove a total of 1,685 miles 

Saw over 40 bodies of water/ Lochs

17 castles

6 monuments

11 museums/other sites

3 kirks (churches)/abbeys

2 movies -Highlander and The Mandalorian & Grogu

5 stops at local pubs with live music (@ 3 locations) 

14 different accommodations -hotels, lodges, bnbs, rooms, and castle!

21 cities/locations

4 isles/ inner Hebrides 

422,000 The total number of steps (per Eric’s watch)

18,830 Most steps in a single day 

Averaged 13,220 steps per day

Temperatures:

Low of -6 to high of 25C (21 to 77F)

Photos taken: 12,661 total

1,794 Stacy iPhone photos
2,626 on camera

2,488 Eric iPhone photos
5,753 on camera

Too many to count:

Sheep

Cows

Crows/Ravens

Fries/Chips

Travel Times:
40 hours to get to Scotland
42 hours to get back home

Favorite Scottish proverb…

“Be happy while yer livin; for yer a long time deid.”

(Be happy while you’re living; for you’re a long time dead.”)

Dalhousie Castle and our amazing room

Fingal’s Cave on the Isle of Staffa

Standing Stones -  Kilmartin Glen

Sunset in Oban

And we are off!

 Meant to post this before we left- but got too busy🤣

It’s hard to believe it’s finally happening. We have been planning this Scotland trip for about a year. And it’s been quite a rollercoaster ride these last 2 months. We weren’t certain that it would come to fruition. We cancelled our original flights (via Dubai) and held our breath in hopes of getting a full refund. And we booked new flights routing through the US. This added an additional flight taking us from 3 flights to 4, and cost a bit more. But it was a way to keep the trip alive.🤞🏻

In addition to finalizing all the reservations and logistics. It was a very busy month. We got the sliding glass door screens installed, the exterior painting completed and scaffolding removed. We even got to put everything to the test with some incredibly high winds and crazy southerly storm that had Wellington making international news with its state of emergency declaration. We were very fortunate in that the major flooding and issues were not close to our house.  It was however quite cold. 🥶

We then also got about 75% of our window coverings installed. The last few windows will have to wait until we get back from our trip.  

The box was mistakenly sent to the wrong customer. 😆

We also saw Project Hail Mary and loved it. 

We will share the highlight of our trip in June. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

We Survived March!

 

Another beautiful sunset!

We survived March! No more single paned windows!

It was indeed several weeks of stress and chaos. But honestly, we feared it would be worse. 

Luna was not as bothered by all the noise and chaos as Embyr who really did not like it at all. They spent several hours each day locked up in only one room. 

We now have all new windows and glass doors. All double glazed. As well as some screens. 

Screens are not a thing here. You just open a window-they tilt out, or sliding door and insects can fly right in. Our other challenge was that the cats could get out. And we do not want them outside. Which meant we could only open a window a crack if needed. 

Now we can open windows and doors and have fresh air flow and no bugs or risk of cats escaping. 

They also love the new screened windows and enjoy sitting on the sill and watching the birds. Screens for the sliding doors will be here in a few weeks.

The scaffolding is still up and will be for a few more weeks while we have a painter painting the new window frames on the outside. 

Meanwhile, Eric has been busy painting the interior. 

We have also ordered new window blinds and curtains. They should be ready and installed in about 3-4 weeks. We have temporarily placed cardboard in the bedroom windows so we can sleep. As well as some other windows for privacy. 

We already notice the sound difference. And will enjoy the warmer winters going forward. 

Just before all this started, we did get away for a weekend to the Martinborough Art Fair.  The weather was great, hot and sunny! At least I enjoyed it. Highlights were definitely the wine, kettle corn and fudge. Eric also ran a fun D&D game for us on Saturday night.

We went out on the equinox for a chance to see another aurora and managed to get a few nice photos. Still could not see much with the naked eye. But the camera certainly could see it. I can’t say that I enjoy trying to photograph what I can’t see, but it is fun to be out with friends under the stars. And the stars can be seen. We have a beautiful night sky here in NZ, when it is not hidden behind clouds. 

At this point we continue to put the house back together and focus on the preparations for our upcoming trip to Scotland 🤞🏻

Send good thoughts that all goes as planned.