What Is And What Should Never Be

In May I posted about "Scottish Summer" as if I knew what I was talking about. Actually, I still stand by the idea that there are two seasons here--a long, dark winter and a summer filled with late, perfect evenings. But I've since learned two more summer terms: This is the haar . (You know it's serious fog when it blurs out giant metal bridges.) And even though I witnessed several crystal-clear, Goldilocks-temperature days in Queensferry this May, I brought my brother and sister-in-law out on the water in the weather pictured above. There have been days when I've needed jeans, socks, and a jacket, and days when I'm positively roasting in shorts and a t-shirt. Those days probably came right after another or were the same day. Today it's been roasting. We're in the middle of a seriously long heat wave . Temperatures are only in the 70s but it feels hella hot. Are we somehow closer to the sun? Is it the lack of air conditioning? Is it because al...

There are two seasons here--summer and winter. I get that now. The season we are currently experiencing is referred to as summer. That dark moody spell that began around 30 October and lasted 'til Easter--they call that winter. As a person whose favourite seasons have always been fall and spring (me along with everyone, right?), I kept looking for signs of these seasons, confused to find no clear markers for either. Fortunately, the best part of those seasons--mild weather--is a year-round feature in Scotland. (The average low for the year is 33 F and the average high is 66 F.) The big difference in the seasons it not so much temperature or weather as it is daylight. Light is the absolute key. In December the sun didn't rise 'til nearly 9:00 and was a memory by 4:00. Today, the sun woke me up at 5:00 and won't let me think about sleep 'til half nine. (And it keeps getting lighter through June!) In winter I wore a sweater every day and socks all the time. In...

I've mentioned that this fall I was disoriented without college football on Saturdays. (I've since decided I'm over it completely and didn't even watch a bowl game.) And yeah, it's been a struggle to find markers of fall, and now winter, in Scotland. The weather got cooler faster (and summer was never really hot) and the leaves changed colors. Fall is a really beautiful season to visit anywhere I think. Now that winter is here, the rain is too. And there are the short days. But nothing has felt like anything. Not Halloween or Thanksgiving or Christmas. Mostly because those aren't holidays here. Still, it has been fun to holidays and seasons in new ways. Halloween  The American version of Halloween is just beginning to catch on here. When kids start saying things like "candy" and "jack-o-lantern" parents know they've been watching American Youtubers. Jack-o-lanterns aren't really a thing, and candy is called "sweets." (Sid...

My parents came to visit the week before Christmas--our first real visitors since moving. I love putting together travel itineraries when I travel somewhere or when someone travels to see me. Even though my dad was unknowingly suffering from strep throat during this trip, (he was taking allergy pills for a "runny nose") we managed to pack in a bunch of fun stuff. The highlight was probably just laughing a lot together mostly as we tried our "best" Scottish accents, and watching my dad run around like a kid, enjoying his first non-US vacation. We did a walking tour of Old Town where we live, a full day in Queensferry and Dalmeny where I work, and a day trip to St. Andrews. We went inside the Castle, hiked up Arthur's Seat, poked around museums and Christmas markets, and saw about every square inch of St. Giles, and some of New College. We ate haggis, fish & chips, sticky toffee pudding, & so much more. We drank whiskey that was apparently strong enoug...

If you ever get a chance to visit Scotland, go in October. Sometimes I get on an instagram kick, so if photo updates are your jam, follow me: @_meekjs

In the summer as we purged all our belongings I had high hopes of starting over in Scotland 100% zero waste. We would show up to a furnished but basically empty apartment and we could start from scratch making good choices about the food, toiletries, and cleaning supplies we brought in. Everything would be wooden or glass and both beautiful and useful. We would patiently wait until the right item was available, instead of buying the first cheaply made option we ran across. None of this happened. (I did thrift and reuse jars for grocery items purchased in bulk; I also ate Snickers and bought crap on Amazon.) For the past two or so years we have been slowly but surely reducing the amount of landfill waste we produce and plastic we use. But starting fresh actually set us back a little in our efforts. First of all, our apartment is more than furnished and came stocked with a large supply of plastic packaged cleaning products and some food items (that I'm thankful for!) pl...

Before Craig's school and work officially began, we took a quick trip to Iona. Columba is the dude (saint) most associated with Iona--coming from Ireland, he established a monastery on Iona, and is basically credited with bringing Christianity to Scotland. Iona is known as a spiritual place, even a "thin place" where, essentially, heaven meets earth. What I like most about the Abbey at Iona is that it is not merely a shrine to the past, but an active congregation very much engaged in living faithfully in the present. We visited on a very wet and windy day. After a very British-seeming lunch of cheese and onion pasties, the rain sort of let up for our stroll around the island, which was picturesquely gray and dreamy. To get to Iona, we took two trains, two ferries, and a bus! Our trains took us from Edinburgh --> Glasgow --> Oban, a small and charming seaside town. If you ever find yourself there, their distillery tour is a good one. ...