Sunday, June 24, 2012

Almost July!!!


Time flies when you are having fun, so they say.  If that's the case, then we are having a lot of fun!  It's two months today since we arrived and it hardly seems possible.  The gorse has moved on for the broom to bloom, the foxgloves are in their full glory, and we've had at least one hatching of blackbirds, who for a time the parents were feeding raisins right in front of the sliding glass door after taking them from our hand.  We've had a few teasers of warm weather followed by Scotland doing its thing.  All in all back home in our home away from home.

We had the most amazing walk about town around 10 p.m. a day or two before the Summer Solstice.  The light and the clouds and the angle of the summer sun combined for a show that was almost magic.  The picture above was taken facing east and the one below facing west towards the setting sun just moments apart.  The third is taken facing south just a few minutes after the other two.    
 

There has been much hoopla about the Royals.  The Queen's Jubilee celebration was quite something.  We've nothing like it in the states, so there's really nothing to make a comparison to.  I overhear conversations quite often kind of criticizing the monarchy and its ongoing existence, but there was not much complaining about an extra day off for the Queen's Jubilee.  And poor thing, I felt so bad for her out on a barge on the Thames in the rain waving at folks for hours on end - I was hoping that wasn't going to be the beginning of the end of her reign.  But on she goes, looking lovely and laughing at Ascot yesterday.  I find it all a bit fascinating and keep asking seemingly silly questions about them of our friends.  

All that said, I do miss the new life we had started to carve out in Hawaii.  We'd hardly been there long enough to get settled in before it was time to switch gears and get ready to come over here.  I miss the warmth and the water, but it will be there when I get back.  To have the opportunities we've worked so hard to create for ourselves playing out in real time, I'm not complaining.  I'm just ever so grateful to still be here living them.