Stirling Castle

Yesterday Luke and I took the train to Stirling.  It's about an hour from Edinburgh and it definitely worth the trip.  Stirling Castle has been restored by Historic Scotland and provides an accurate representation of life at the castle during the 16th century.  And it is absolutely beautiful.  Because it has been restored, it is really busy as well.  We had to stand in the queue for about 15 minutes to get tickets which we had not yet experienced on any of our other trips to castles.

Included in the price of your ticket, you also get an audio tour guide (the blue things hanging around our necks in the picture above).  I'd recommend bringing headphones so that you don't have to hold it up to your ear the whole time.  But it gives you a lot of information about each of the sections of the castle.

On our way to the castle, we passed the Church of the Holy Rude (where James VI was crowned), Mars Walk (the home of the Earl of Mar - Guardian of infant James VI) and the Stirling Old Town Cemetery (a beautiful Scottish kirkyard).  We also passed Argyll's Lodgings (a 17th century townhouse) but did not get to tour it because the tours had been cancelled for the holiday period.  Hopefully we'll get to do that the next time we go to Stirling - as long as someone comes to visit us soon (hint, hint).

After we spent a couple hours exploring the castle, we headed into Old Town to Nicky Tams Bar for a great lunch and a couple of pints.  I'd definitely recommend it if you're heading to Stirling any time soon.

Here are some pictures from our outing.  Enjoy!

Church of the Holy Rude

Stirling Castle from the kirkyard 

Now that's the way to be remembered!

Poor little guy lost his head!

The mountains in the distance look mysterious in the clouds.

Chapel

Ceiling of the Great Hall

Royal seats in the Great Hall

They believe that James V had a lion.  This little guy was on the stairs in the lion's den.

Great Hall

Love you & miss you!
Aubs, Luke & Luther

North Berwick & Another Castle

Sorry it's been a while since I've written.  It's taken me a bit to get back in the swing of things since going back to the states.  But I think we're there now.  And I'm on my 3rd week of working but that's another post for another day.

Last weekend we actually saw the sun here in Scotland.  Since I've started working I rarely get to see the sun because I walk to work before the sun is up and it sets long before I leave to head home.  So we took advantage of the "beautiful" weather and decided to see a castle.  Our original plan was to go to the Edinburgh castle but our friends Kurt and Erin called us just as we were finishing getting ready to see if we wanted to go with them to Tantallon Castle in North Berwick.

Kurt & Erin

North Berwick is about a 30 minute train ride east of Edinburgh so it's easy to get to, inexpensive and makes for a great day trip.  Our original plan was to climb the North Berwick Law which is a random hill in the middle of flat ground that you can see from Edinburgh.  Unfortunately we didn't make it to N. Berwick until noonish and since it is an hour walk just to the castle (3 miles - or if you were paying attention a few blogs ago - a league) we decided to head to the castle so that we could see it before the sun went down.

To get to the castle we walked down the 2 lane highway that ran along the water.  We passed a golf course and Lucas decided that all he wanted for Christmas was a round of golf of an oceanside, links course.  Luckily golf is pretty cheap here in the winter so that's what Santa will be bringing him.

Also visible on our walk was Bass Rock.  It's a gigantic volcanic plug in the middle of the Firth standing on it's own.  You can see the lighthouse on it in the pictures below.  I really want to go out there but apparently the "island" is privately owned so I'm not sure that's going to happen until I make some friends in high places.

As if the view along our walk wasn't nice enough, then we got to the castle.  The castle was beautiful!  It sits right on the edge of the water on a cliff.  Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

Once you crossed this bridge and went through the entry way it opened up onto this beautiful lawn overlooking the firth.  It was breathtaking.

The tide was really high and the water was rough.  Every once in a while you would hear the waves crashing against the rocks and it sounded like thunder.  It was fascinating to watch.

Well I hope you enjoyed this post.  Hopefully I'll have another one up soon to make up for my lack of updates recently.

We love you & miss you,
Aubs, Luke & Luther

Celebrating the life of my Grandpa

My wedding - June 22, 2007

On Sunday, November 18th, my grandpa - Howard H. Scott - passed away at age 86.  He was a good man and a strong Christian.  It's funny how you know someone your entire life but you don't learn about them until they're gone and it's too late.

Monday I woke and up early in Edinburgh and headed to the airport.  After 18 hours of traveling I made it safely to Kansas City to be with my family during this time.  I am so thankful that I am able to be here - thanks for the ticket Grandpa!

I've lost grandparents before - I actually only have one left - but I've never been a part of planning a funeral.  There is a LOT that has to be done people!  And my Grandpa was Catholic so that adds to the list.  Yesterday I went with my dad and aunt to the church to plan the mass.  We had to pick out scripture readings and hymns.  I know that Grandpa loved the Lord, studied scripture intently and attended mass numerous times a week, but I have no clue what his favorite scriptures or hymns are.  Fortunately it's all the Word of God and no matter what we choose it will be powerful.

Today I'm putting together pictures to display at the church.  My dad didn't want to deal with this but I feel like we should.  So I started looking through some of Grandpa's photographs.  And I realized that there aren't a lot of good quality pictures of him.  For some reasons the Scott's don't keep the cameras out when we're together.  Sad.

Here's what I learned yesterday about Grandpa:

• Grandpa wasn't Catholic when my grandparents got married.  Therefore they weren't allowed to get married in the church (Grandma Betty was Catholic) and got married in the rectory.  She got married in a suit and didn't have a wedding dress.  I'm guessing that she must have really loved him to forego the wedding dress that every little girl dreams of.
• He was baptized into the church as an adult at the same church where his funeral will be.  Well he was actually baptized in the school gym at the time because today's church was built much more recently.  And I'm pretty sure that he married his 2nd wife, Juanita, there as well.  
• He attended two different churches near his home in south KC.  One on Sundays and one during the week.  
• He has multiple prayer books that are so worn that I'm afraid they might fall apart if you touch them.
• He was a member of St. Vincent DePaul and Third Order of St. Francis.
• He had pigs on the farm.  I grew up on the farm and we had cows but I never knew that they'd had pigs when my dad was little.  Apparently he forgot to mention that.

I'm sure there's more that I just can't remember right now.  Here's what I did know about my grandpa:

• When I was little he came to the farm every day to work with my dad.  (When he got remarried he moved into Grandma Nita's house in south KC and we moved to the farm.)
• When he was with Grandma Nita, he work khaki's and a button up shirt.  When he was at the farm, he was in overalls.
• When I was little he would steal my sugar.  Not really sure where that came from but essentially he would tickle underneath my chin.  I always had to be on guard.
• He was tough.  He once broke his arm falling off the tractor.  My dad was combining a few fields over and he drove his truck - a stick shift - out to the field with his left hand (the stick shift is on the right in the US) to get my dad to take him to the hospital.  
• When I was little he drove an El Dorado with an image of horses racing across the back window.  It was AWESOME!
• He loved Grandma Nita with his whole heart.  In the past 10 months, Grandpa has been living with my dad because he hasn't been able to take care of himself like he used to.  Whenever he would get to see Grandma Nita, it would break your heart to see him have to say goodbye to her.

While it's always hard to say goodbye to someone you love, I know that Grandpa is in heaven.  It's been hard to watch him get old and I'm so thankful that his passing was virtually pain free.  I love him and I miss him but I know that I'll see him again one day.  

April 2012

Love you & miss you Grandpa!

Aubs

The Other Half of Life Across the Pond.....Mundane Daily Tasks.....Cooking

Taco Soup is one of our favorite fall/winter meals.  It's easy to make, tastes amazing and there's always leftovers.  And it was definitely included in the recipe box I brought with us.

After my very first shopping trip in Edinburgh, I knew that my recipe was going to have to be adjusted because not quite everything I needed graced the shelves at the grocery store.  So we started hunting and improvising.

For this soup, you need a couple different types of beans, canned tomatoes, green chilies, Rotel, taco seasoning and Ranch dressing seasoning.  Sounds easy enough to find, right?  WRONG!

In order to gather all of the types of beans the recipe actually calls for, I have to go to 2-3 different stores.  Kidney beans I can find pretty much anywhere but black beans and pinto beans are a different story.  So far here's where I've been able to find them.

• Black beans: Sainsbury or Real Foods
• Pinto beans: ASDA

Luckily the Sainsbury and Real Foods are within walking distance, but ASDA is nowhere close.  So, in order to use pinto beans in the soup I have to make sure that they're added to my delivery order whenever I have one - which usually coincides with when Luther needs food (because no one wants to carry that much dog food home when someone will bring it to your front door).

Tomatoes are easy - Rotel not so much.  I did find Rotel at the hispanic grocer, but it costs about £1.50 per can which is a bit out of my price range.  Luckily I was able to find whole green chilies in a jar at Sainsbury so I throw in an extra can of tomatoes and cut up enough green chilies to make one of them Rotel and then more to equal a can of diced green chilies.

Taco seasoning - done.  Ranch dressing mix - no good.  Again, I found this at the hispanic grocer but it was more expensive than the Rotel so I asked my mom to include some in her first care package to me. So we double up on the taco seasoning for now.

The recipe for this amazing meal is below and I would definitely recommend trying it.  You can substitute and make changes to meet your needs.  If you recycle, which I hope you do, you're bin will be full after making it.  Just remember to rinse your cans.

Hope you enjoy this as much as we do.  And thanks Mom for passing it along to me.

Taco Soup

1½ pounds ground beef, browned and drained

1 can rotel tomatoes

1 large can diced tomatoes

1 can kidney beans, drained

1 can chili beans, drained

1 can black beans, drained

1 cans corn, drained

1 can chopped green chiles

1 onion chopped

1 pkg taco seasoning

1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing mix

2 cups water

salt and pepper to taste

In a large stock pot or crockpot, mix all ingredients together and simmer at least 2 hours. Serve with corn chips and grated cheese.

Love you & miss you!

Aubs, Luke and Luther

Urquart Castle

For our 2nd Scottish castle adventure, we stopped by Urquhart Castle on the shores of Loch Ness.  Although it is now a ruin, it was one of Scotland's largest castles in its day.  Unlike Craigmillar Castle, most of the structure has been lost and it is hard to determine what many of the rooms were actually used for because many of the loose stones were moved and consolidated in the early 20th century.  (I'm going off of memory here - so please don't quote me on this.)  The structure at the far left end of the castle in the picture below is a later addition built by the Grant family.

Here are some pictures of the castle grounds along with some views of Loch Ness.  We were not fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of Nessie this time.  Hope you enjoy!

Love you & miss you!
Aubs, Luke & Luther