Spring has sprung!

I wandered lonely as a cloud:
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

For some reason, when I was a child, my father had me learn these first 6 lines of William Wordsmith's poem 'I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud'. Yet, although I am not sure why he did that from his perspective, it makes sense to me. I love daffodils. Perhaps it's the poem that introduced me to the beauty of daffodils or maybe it just articulates the way I felt about the bright yellow flower. Either way, the poem remains the same for me today as it did 25 years ago - brilliant.

The daffodils are coming out in Scotland now. Spring has definitely sprung! There's something about the freshness of spring that makes my heart happy. It relaxes me - winter is on its way out... hats, scarves, and gloves are no longer a given. The sun is bright, and the skies are blue. Of course there are still days of rain and wind, but at least it's changeable and in between the dark clouds, the sun shines through briliantly.

I don't have much more to say on this - other than that I am thoroughly enjoying a Scottish Spring. ahhhh...

Almost a year

The flashbacks are back. It's been almost a year since we moved to Scotland. Today, I left the house later for work as I am going to be out for work this evening. As I was on the bus going up Leith walk about 11 a.m., the weather and light was such that I suddenly felt like I was a year ago. We'd just moved to Leith and my days were spent unpacking, cleaning, being a housewife - and going on jaunts into town. The weather was much as it is now - cold and windy, but bright. We were at the beginning of a new adventure!

For those of you who don't know yet, we are at the beginning of another new adventure: Brian and I are expecting a baby! We are due on August 9th. That makes me just over four months pregnant. It's so exciting, but there's lots to do. Not least the fact that Brian has to figure out where he'll work. His office is currently in what will be the baby's room!

I am back!

Yes... it has been ages since I last wrote an entry. Oh dear. Well, if ANYBODY is still ready this - well done for persevering, and I am sorry I have been so lazy!! I promise I am going to write more...

Well, where to begin. Life has been moving on of course, as it generally does! Let's begin with Christmas.

Christmas was just lovely. Fi hasn't had a proper Christmas at home for a while, so it was a real treat. We spent Christmas eve with Fi's Dad in Anstruther and had a very relaxing day enjoy each other's company, Christmas eve telly, and good food! After the midnight service we went back to mum's for mulled wine and mince pies. Ahhh... can't beat that for a proper Christmas eve!

Christmas day saw us at church in the morning, then back to mum's for a day of presents, fabulous food, conversation, and of course, the obligatory Doctor Who Christmas Day Episode. Again, ahhh... can't beat that for a proper Christmas!

It truly was lovely and we felt thoroughly relaxed. The next day - Boxing Day, we spent a small amount of time at the home of one of my childhood friend's parents.

Christmas felt like a rush of warm, comforting air. the only thing we missed was Fi's brothers. One is in Kent, England and the other promised to spend Christmas in the south of England with his girlfriend at her dad's house. I have fantastic brothers and I did miss them, but it's good to see them living their lives out.

On the evening of Boxing Day my dad drove us back through to Edinburgh and we started to pack for our trip to Barcelona! Now, here's the weird bit: I was really upset at having to get on a plane so soon after Christmas. 'Why'? You might ask... 'you were off on a lovely holiday with your hubby'... The thing is, that for 8 years, every Christmas season in Scotland has been marked by the fact that I had to leave to head back across the ocean. Every Christmas for 8 years has been marked by another set of 'farewells'. Packing and getting ready for a plane ride brought all of that flooding back! It was so strange - yet healing. It was healing to know that this time I get to come home to my family and friends.

Now, of course, it's all reversed. We'll be saying goodbye to our American friends and family over and over again - and that will be hard.

For now, though, I must rejoice in the fact that I am near my family and old friends. And that is good too.

Christmas. Here already.

You can feel the onslaught of darkness beginning to descend around 3pm in Edinburgh these days. Yes, we are well and truly into the winter months in Scotland now. However, there's no snow. No ice storms or freezing rain (are these one in the same?!). No winter storm warnings, no storm team 8 extreme weather watch (keeping YOU informed of all the most important weather changes!). Nope. Mostly it's windy, dull, and damp.

And the pre-Christmas madness has also descended on Scotland. Princes Street, the main shopping street in Edinburgh is busy enough at the best of times, but now it is positively nuts. People everywhere. Shoving. Pushing. Buying. I have to say I have been rather taken aback by the Christmas madness here. You see, we don't have a Thanksgiving holiday in Scotland (for obvious reasons...) so we go from Halloween, straight into Christmas. It's weird.

The other odd thing is the lack of availability of religious Christmas cards in regular stores. The UK has become so secularised that you have to go to special shops (usually charity stores such as Oxfam) to get cards with Christian references to Christmas. Not that this is a bad thing - sending charity christmas cards is what one does here. Usually at least 10% of the purchase goes to a designated charity. No bad thing.

I will be blogging more about Christmas in Scotland as time goes on, but I hope this serves as a taster for now!

Thanksgiving

A few minutes ago, I spooned some cranberry relish into my mouth. The taste of thanksgiving came flooding into sight and all of a sudden I was craving turkey like nothing else!

We have opted to have our thanksgiving meal tomorrow, Friday. Since Turkey Day is a uniquely American holiday (for very very obvious reasons!) there is no day off for us this year. Therefore, the thought of hosting hte meal on a 'school night' was a bit much to bear. We have 10 people coming round to our flat for the occasion! Half are American, half are Scottish. The turkey is defrosting (and I am freaking out about nasty poultry bugs), the cranberry relish is 'maturing' in the fridge, the pumpkin pie is almost done. Our dining room table and Brian's drawing table are tableclothed and pushed together to make room for our guests. The plates and cutlery are set. And it feels good!

There's a feeling of familiarity about all of this that I am loving. We have our iTunes on shuffle and much of the music we grew to love while in the States (often through Paste Magazine) is piping into our kitchen. We love to host people in our home. Sometimes I think that Brian and I are at our best when we are doing this together. We enjoy, and gain energy from thinking through our menu, and preparing the food. Our creativity flows as we set the table and make it look inviting. Our desire to make people feel at home is put into practice as we welcome folks into our home. We've long felt like hospitality is one of our gifts and tonight I feel that more than ever.

Now, there are two other things about Thanksgiving I would like to note. First, the fact that many Scots are well aware of this day, and actually talk about it. Admittedly, some of that I encounter through my friends who know that Brian is American. However, it seems that the general public has a general awareness of the holiday. It's not surprising given that most things American make it onto the radar of the Scots. The other odd thing about today is that this is the first time for 8 years that I haven't had this day off. Very strange feeling.

Well, I leave this post with a note of the things for which I am indeed truly thankful... Brian, this flat and our landlords, a sense of settling into our life here... my job... Brian's job - which allows him some time to work on his photography...friends - here and abroad... and, inevitably, God. For being God and all that entails for us humans who are the recipients of his Amazing Grace.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Fi & Brian xx

Yoga

I am sitting in the kitchen munching on organic almond and raisin muesli and seeds. It's all can think to eat. Anything else just seems wrong. You see, I have just spent an hour and half in a rather intense yoga classs... and it feels GOOD! December saw me take my last yoga class in the Grand Rapids YMCA with floor to ceiling windows looking out over the city. Since then I haven't done any yoga. I have to admit, I was nervous at first - would I remember the moves? Would I just get cramp? Would I seize up, fall over, or trip? Reality was much more kind than that! I actually managed the whole class! It wasn't perfect, and there are a few things I need to practice, but I am apparently less out shape than I thought. Hooray!

Tonight was a milestone in the move for me. I started doing yoga while I was in the States and it is there I developed a love for it. This evening, I felt as though I had come home. I was back in a familiar routine. Filling the Nalgene bottle and inevitably spilling the water. Pulling on my old grey yoga bottoms. Pulling my hair back. Shuffling along the road in my slip-on 'earthy' shoes with my mat bundled under my arm. Standing on the edge of the mat with the scent of essential oils shimmering through my sinuses. Bending my body into shapes, poses, an twists. It all felt delightful. I feel more like 'me' tonight. Of course, there is every chance I will be in intense pain tomorrow when I wake up, but I am armed with a hot water botle and Ibuprofen!

I was shaped during my time in the USA and sometimes I forget that. There are things that I grew into that made me more who God created me to be. Tonight I was reminded of this as I re-entered the world of Yoga - which found me in the States. It's easy to wander into life here and segregate the Fiona from the USA from the UK, but that would short-change my time and experience there. I believe I am to solder both lives together and continute to grow, and be shaped.

Isn't this what we followers of Jesus often do? We hold our faith in one hand - our spiritual lives, our love for God - and in the other, we hold on to the bits of our lives that we're not willing to integrate with our faith. Grafting our lives into our faith is what we are called to do and it's only when we do it that we are fully alive in faith and life.

At home this weekend!

In complete contrast to my activities of the last few months, I spent all of today at home doing housework. Here's what I did today:
6 loads of washing (all dried on the clothes line)
Ironed a few loads of clean laundry
Cleaned our bedroom (dusted, polished, tidied, hoovered, washed the sheets etc...)
Cleaned the bathroom
Talked to two friends on the phone
Talked to my dad on the phone
Cooked dinner (roast chicken, mashed sweet potato, green beans and fruit cobbler)
Washed dishes
Dried dishes

It felt like a lot, but looking at hte list it doesn't seem like all that much after all! I blog about this to make the point that for the past few weeks and months we've been so busy we've hardly had a chance to properly clean. It would have been fair to say that our flat was approaching squalor! It felt good to get my hands dirty and to now have a lovely clean abode. the past few months have been full of cultural activies (Greenbelt, Edinburgh Fringe/Festival), travel (Belgium, London, Kent), work related events (youth conferences, leading seminars etc...). I am enjoying the chance to just be at home! Ahhh...