Farewell to Scotland

We rolled into Scotland fresh off the boat (really -- we drove off of a ferry and onto the left hand side of the road) back in October. The autumn light was amazing. It made our snapshots look like photographs.

We decided that the hearty Highland Cows are maybe the coolest looking cows on the planet and that we like the sheep with the white fleece and black faces best. We yelled, "SHEEP!" and, "HORSES WITH COATS!" whenever we drove by, well, sheep or horses in their winter blankets. Later we just said it, not yelling. We started counting pheasant roadkill, but decided it wasn't really very challenging. We learned to carve turnips, and the differences between red squirrels and grey ones (aside from the obvious color!). We learned to ride the buses, and the rails. We drank hot tea at lunch. We made new friends and visited with old ones. We saw more of Scotland than many Scots will see in their entire lives. We made homemade tablet and mince pies, and sampled other local delicacies -- some I can recommend, others... not so much. We found words like 'bit' and 'wee' and 'brilliant' entering our vocabulary. We figured out how to

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We Love Paris in the Winter

We visited the Palace of Versailles while we were in Paris this past week. There's no doubt that the hall of mirrors is magnificent, and Marie Antoinette's estate is beautiful, but the real action was outside the palace. Sure, in the spring the grounds would be stunning -- immaculate gardens with flowers in bloom, fountains flowing and and statues not covered in tarps. But then, we wouldn't have been able to do this. The real action at Versailles was outside on the icy slope.

  

Places We're North Of...

As we've mentioned, we're spending the winter in Perth. Scotland not Australia. We're loving it, but we're winter newbies. Okay, I lived a year in Boulder, Colorado, but that was many Southern California moons ago. Brenna and the kids and I have been talking a lot about shorter dark days and colder weather. We hear that in Perth it snows occasionally. The kids are thrilled! When we tell locals we're here from LA for the winter

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