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Vaporetto #1 in Venice, Italy

December 12, 2013 - 3:00 am | europe

I am sharing photos of Venice for Instagram Travel Thursday this week! All of these images were taken from the front seat of Vaporetto #1, which is a water bus that runs along The Grand Canal.

I’m not sure any place gets the kind of reaction that Venice does on Instagram. Instantly recognizable, the floating city of color just begs to be photographed!

I’ve been to Venice twice, and both times I had to fight the urge to take a picture of every single bridge, gondola or doorway. The doorways and windows alone are like something carved out of a fairytale.

My first time to Venice was almost ten years ago. Taido and I arrived by train, and per the advice of our guide book we made sure to get a front seat on Vaporetto #1 from the train station. These “water buses” are much less expensive than a water taxi (or a gondola, of course) but if you ride in the front, you have the same views of the canals as you would in one of the other boats. The Vaporetto #1 goes all the way from the train station to St. Mark’s Square, and the #2 goes back the opposite direction. The #1 and #2 make all the stops, so you can enjoy the longest possible ride on The Grand Canal if you take one of these numbers.

Last year, I could not wait for Mary Polly to see Venice when we went on our Mother-Daughter trip to Europe. On our second morning, we got on the Vaporetto #1 as early as possible. It was almost empty, so we sat right in front and rode all the way to St. Mark’s Square, and though I had ridden in this same spot once before, I was again overwhelmed by what has to be one of the most magnificent experiences you can have in Europe.

Riding down The Grand Canal of Venice is one of those life dreams you can look forward to for many years and then in reality, it does not disappoint.

The colors of the buildings in Venice are crazy wonderful, and many of the boats are brightly painted too.

I am absolutely that silly girl who cannot stop smiling on a trip, and if I go to Venice twenty more times, I would not get tired of riding the water buses through the canals.

This photo of the Rialto Bridge was one of my most loved Instagrams of all time! (Fun Fact: it won me a new camera in the Capture the Color contest!)

Vaporetto #1 drops you off right by all the gondolas at the edge of St Mark’s Square. As soon as you step off the boat, you are right in the middle of everything! Pigeons, street vendors, gondoliers and tourists are flooding the square with the noises of Venice.

If you go, be sure and sit for a while in the square for the some of the best people-watching in Europe, but when you get weary of all that activity, you only have to wander for a minute before you are lost in the smaller streets and squares of the city.

When you find a little bridge or a brightly colored building with arched windows, be sure and send me a photo!

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Loch Ness Hunter

December 11, 2013 - 3:00 am | europe, scotland, travel

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Loch Ness Hunter Tour

Early on a Saturday morning, Mary Polly and I made our way up the still dark street in Edinburgh from our room at Smart City Hostels to Haggis Adventures, a ridiculously convenient distance of 417 feet.

We boarded a bus and headed for a part of Scotland that we had yet to see, Glencoe and Loch Ness.

The whole bus seemed sleepy as we drove out of Edinburgh, and as the sky went from dark gray to light gray, we listened to Nick, our driver and tour guide tell us stories about Scotland.

We stopped a couple of times on the way to Loch Ness, because it is about a 3.5 hour drive. My favorite stop was Glencoe. The word glen means “valley” in Scottish and the valleys we drove to get to Loch Ness were everything you would imagine Scotland to be, sweeping, green hills shrouded in mist.

I also loved the short visit to Inverlochy Castle, a ruin dating back to the 13th century.

Mary Polly and I almost wished we had the boys with us to see the old castle ruin. We definitely need to bring them back to play within these walls.

Driving through the Great Glen, Nick continued to entertain us with stories of William Wallace, Rob Roy, The Glencoe Massacre, the building of the Caledonian Canal and many other bits of history and folklore. Later Mary Polly told me that listening to our guide while driving through the Scottish countryside was the highlight of the tour. I totally concur! (She also appreciated being on a comfy bus with plenty of space, as opposed to being in squeezed into our little car with her brothers.) I have been meaning to learn more about the history of Scotland and I’ve even bought a book on the subject, but there is something different about hearing someone who is from here tell the stories of their country with conviction that brings history to life.

By the time we reached Loch Ness I was singing along to the tunes of some of the traditional Scottish songs Nick played for us in between stories.

We were each given a sack lunch upon our arrival at Fort Augustus, and then we had two hours to spend on our own. You could spend one hour on a boat ride that takes you out on the lake to look for the monster, which we opted to do (not included in the tour). The guide on the boat said that they say that the rock slide in the above photo is where the monster tried to climb out of the water.

Mary Polly and I both felt that the boat ride was actually the most “skippable” (is that a word?) part of the day. In thought, one comes to Loch Ness to “catch a glimpse of the monster,” and so you have to go out on a boat. But it seemed a bit silly to be sitting for an hour of our visit when we had such a long bus ride to and from Edinburgh already.

The views from the shoreline were just as beautiful, so we spent our other hour walking along the lakeshore. At the end of November, Fort Augustus was fairly empty, but in exchange for solitude you get a sharp chill in the air. We had our hats and mittens though so we walked all around Fort Augustus and peeked through the bushes to get a view of this old abbey, which is now a hotel.

Above are the locks of the Caledonian Canal that opened in 1822 in order to move boats through the Great Glen without having to go all the way around Scotland. There are five of these locks just in Fort Augustus. It would be fun to be there when boats were actually moving through these locks, as I imagine it would take a long time.

Back on the bus, we drove a different route to Edinburgh, so I suppose in the summer you can enjoy different views since it stays light for so much longer. The days are shorter in November of course, so the sun went down quickly and we rode home mostly in darkness.

But we were happy with our November tour, and thrilled that when we got back to Edinburgh, we still had time to visit the Christmas Market.

Many thanks to Smart City Hostels to Haggis Adventures and our wonderful guide, Nick for a great weekend out in Scotland! Mary Polly and I won our tour vouchers through a contest on Twitter. I’m always keeping my eyes and ears open for those kinds of fun opportunities to see something new!

A Homemade Year + Merry Christmas Giveaway

December 9, 2013 - 10:00 am | books, christmas

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**A dear friend of mine, Jerusalem Greer, wrote a book that was published last spring called A Homemade Year.**

It is a lovely book of of stories, photos, recipes and craft ideas for celebrating the Christian liturgical year.

The recipes and crafts are wonderfully practical for giving your family ideas for celebrating some of these traditional days, and the gorgeous images by her sister, Judea make the book beautiful, but the reason I love this book most is not the photos, the crafts or the recipes. I love it for the stories Jerusalem tells.

Like any good book, this is one you can curl up with in December. Jerusalem has invited you over for tea and coffee in her cozy kitchen, and I for one, was delighted to pull up a chair.

I assumed from the beginning that my favorite chapter would be the one about Michaelmas, a feast for Saint Michael the Archangel that falls at the beginning of autumn. I thought it would be my favorite because in it, Jerusalem tells the story of meeting a group of mothers one autumn of which I was a part. I still remember sitting by the creek that ran through a park a couple of afternoons a week while all our kids played after school. They were lazy autumn days filled with picnic blankets and bowls of fruit and pretzels. I miss those days a lot.

But my favorite story turned out to be the one Jerusalem tells about her mother the year her family moved to Alaska.

I can’t imagine why a story where a mother of four children endures the short days of a northern winter had any appeal for me.

The celebration in that chapter is Candlemas which is the end of Christmas, when all the wonder has come and gone. When Candlemas arrives, we are in the deep of winter, and we have to hold on to the light and hope of Christmas to press through the rest of the dark, cold mornings to Easter.

Lighting candles at the very end of the Christmas season when everything has gone dark is a tradition I am definitely going to begin this year.

And therein lies the beauty of A Homemade Year. You can take a tradition this year and leave it the next, or try a new recipe, or just open your heart to a new story. There are so many different ways you could use the pages of this book to enrich your family life and faith, but Jerusalem makes certain that you are free from feeling you have to do them all. No, she is a busy mama herself and she understands what it is like to already have too much to do. She is all grace as she invites you into her book of ideas, reminding you to take from it only what brings you joy.

Jerusalem and me at Moss Mountain Farm

I have saved this post for December because in the flurry of Holiday Gift Guides on the interwebs, I have to put in a word for books at Christmas. They are still my favorite gift to give or to receive, and this book would be a treasure for any family.

To celebrate Christmas on my blog, I have decided to give away one copy of A Homemade Year as a gift to you, my dear readers! I am so thankful for you, and because you come back again and again for my stories, I know you will love reading Jerusalem’s!

Happy Christmas, Friends!

This giveaway is open to anywhere Amazon delivers. So that’s pretty much everywhere, right? Just leave a comment to enter! Tell me a treasured Christmas tradition, or share a favorite holiday story!

(I will choose a winner on Friday and notify by email!)

A Boy and His Dragon or A Girl and Her Grandmother.

December 8, 2013 - 4:00 am | family

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Cold weather makes for lonelier walking paths and on our latest foray into the woods, on the first weekend of Advent, I let the boys get ahead of me on the trail. Autumn is now almost gone. The bare branches of the trees and the quiet trails work together to calm my soul.

Simple beauty opens my heart and I am glad to be alone to indulge my mournful thoughts.

I told my sister this week that if I were back at home, I would be complaining about having to unpack the Christmas boxes, but here far away in Scotland, I can nourish the longing to unwrap the familiar ornaments from tissue, resurrecting Christmas memories with every object. I can hold even the mundane traditions as holy and sacred when I am only imagining them.

And then I am remembering how a year ago I was holding my grandmother’s hand and singing softly into her ears on her last days, words to her favorite hymns as I watched Jesus call her home. I sing a verse or two of one of those hymns while I walk in the woods and I wring my hands a bit for how they still miss the feel of hers.

My children have become obsessed this fall with a television show about Merlin and King Arthur, and these woods remind me of the scenes where the knights head off into the hills surrounding Camelot. In fact, they were probably filmed somewhere in Scotland. A particular scene from this show comes back to me over and over, and I have not been sure why. Whenever Merlin’s mind is troubled, he seeks out his dragon, who gives him advice and helps him process events.

On one night in the woods, Merlin’s heart is heavy because he is on a quest where he intends to give his life for King Arthur as a ransom to some kind of evil sorcery. He sneaks off from the camp to find his dragon and tell him his plans. They both agree that saving the king is worth any sacrifice. Then, in parting, the dragon leans down to Merlin and says with solemnity,

It will be an empty world without you, young warlock.

In all honesty, I find the show to be rather silly, and somewhat repetitive. The plot line is the same in every episode. An evil sorcerer or sorceress creates some kind of trouble for the king and Merlin helps the king to defeat it. But for some reason, when the dragon said these words to Merlin, something caught in my heart and I think I audibly moaned. Since then I have remembered them again and again, these words that a dragon said to his friend when he knew he was headed to his death. Of course Merlin did not end up having to die, and of course we knew that he would not since the name of the show is Merlin. But, at that moment both Merlin and the dragon believed that death was near.

In the woods, the picture of the dragon bent low to the young magician came back to me and I realized why I connected so deeply with their conversation. I spoke many similar words to my grandmother last year when she was reaching the end of her life. In October, she knew her time was near and she was so very brave. Though she was never physically a strong woman, she was facing death with all the dignity and courage of a great warrior. And on the days when she would tell me that she was ready, I would say to her that I was not. “I cannot imagine the world without you, Grandmother. I do not want to live in a world where you are not.” She would smile and remind me that there was still so much for me to do in this world.

It is funny to me that a show my Grandmother would never have enjoyed, with its silly fantasy worlds and strange magic, has brought back to me some of the moments I shared with her last year. But then, I am not surprised, because though she feels much further away to me now than she did on this day of her death a year ago, her fully lived life still has so much bearing on my world. And these words, which C.S. Lewis wrote about his beloved, still ring true for me about Grandmother,

Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything.

Everything.

Even a sweet moment between a boy and his dragon.

I do not want you to think I say this without hope or joy in this life. I am still living and being and doing and trusting with all of the energy a forty year old woman who still wants to be like Jesus can muster. I long to live fully and honor the legacy of faith that my grandmother left for me.

But when I am quiet but for the crunch of the leaves under my feet or inside an old empty church. When it is Christmas and I will not hear her voice singing Silent Night, slightly off key. This is just true:

It is an empty world without you Grandmother.

In The Pipeline

December 6, 2013 - 10:00 am | links

Snapshots Of Edinburgh

December 5, 2013 - 4:00 am | europe, scotland, travel

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Snapshots of Edinburgh, Scotland

For Instagram Travel Thursday this week, I am sharing images of Edinburgh.

Mary Polly and I went to Scotland’s capital city a couple of weekends ago to go on a Haggis Tour to Loch Ness for a day. We stayed right off the Royal Mile with Smart City Hostels and spent most of our time on the tour. I’ll be sharing more next week about our fun mother-daughter time away together, but here are just a few images of our short time in what has to be one of the most beautiful cites in the world!

We loved staying right downtown. The last time I went to Edinburgh, our lodging was about a ten or fifteen minute bus ride from The Royal Mile, which was less expensive, but it was so much more convenient to be right in the middle of everything this time!

We arrived really late on the train Friday night, and were able to walk to the hostel in less than ten minutes from the train station.

The hostel bar was still serving food, so we had a felafel wrap, a beer and a milkshake to celebrate the start of our girl weekend!

And onion rings of course.

I’m pretty sure that the felafel wrap, at just over four pounds is the best deal there is to be had in Edinburgh. It was divine.

We had to be up early for our tour of the Highlands, and we were gone all day, but when we got back we headed straight to the Christmas Market.

The Christmas Market in Edinburgh is everything I had hoped!

Classic Christmas stands + Mulled Cider and Hot Rum Toddies + Ice Skating Rink, Ferris Wheel and Merry-Go-Round!

So much fun!

We were super hungry from our busy day of touring, so we ate our way through the market. We gobbled up waffles, crepes, bratwursts and fried cheese!

You might not think fried Camembert is one of the most amazing tasting foods ever, but you would be wrong!

The next day we went back through the market before catching our train, just to see it during the daytime.

And to have one last crepe of course!

Nutella + Bananas = YUM!

Before Mary Polly got up on Sunday morning, I went for a walk by myself, which is my very favorite way to see a city.

Another advantage to staying right in the middle of the city was being able to go on an early morning walk on The Royal Mile while my teenager was sleeping!

It was raining a little bit and it was barely light when I first went outside since the days are getting shorter here in Scotland.

But the rain made the cobblestones shine.

I love being in the streets before anyone else.

The castle was not open yet so the courtyard was empty. A rare sight.

I really cannot believe how gorgeous Edinburgh is, and I hope to visit many, many more times since it is only two and half hours from Aberdeen.

I’ll share more about our fun getaway next week, which was made possible by the fact that I am on Twitter like a troll looking for travel giveaways. We won our two night stay at Smart City Hostels and our Loch Ness Hunter Haggis Tour by answering a question on Twitter. Who says social media is a waste of time?

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Expat Story: Amsterdam

December 4, 2013 - 5:00 am | expat stories

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Today’s Expat Story is coming to us from a city I cannot wait to visit. Cassey is sharing about what life is like as an expat in Amsterdam. Enjoy!

Expat Story: Amsterdam

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m Cassey, an Australian small business owner and Masters (graduate) student at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. I’ve lived here in Amsterdam since August this year when my program started. Before that I was living in London setting up and running my online shop, Mora Approved, and working in various advertising agencies. I’ve been away from my home, Sydney, for over two years now. I have a personal blog that I sometimes keep my ramblings in and the shop blog too. Basically I’m really busy and really attached to my laptop!

I read a quote somewhere that life starts when you step out of your comfort zone, which was pretty much the impetus for my decision to leave Sydney. It was a really sudden, impulsive decision, but really necessary. I moved to London with limited funds, no job and a home that would only be available several months after I arrived. I was really scared, but also really excited. It was thrilling. I stayed with my soon-to-be best friend Claudia for those few months before I moved into my shoebox room in London’s Notting Hill. A few months after that Claudia and I conceived our idea for Mora Approved and we moved to Amsterdam together to make it happen! I moved back to London a few months after that to get the logistics started. Basically my life has been all about juggling since I moved overseas! It’s been a real adventure.

What has surprised you about living abroad? Or what is something that has been difficult that you did not anticipate?

When I first moved to London Claudia would always laugh at me because I was shocked at so many things. Like the short flight distance between London and Amsterdam for instance (45 minutes). Or that you could buy alcohol in the supermarkets. And that you don’t need helmets to ride a bike. It made me realise just how sheltered I was and how many regulations there are living in Sydney. I was so scared to doing things that I hadn’t really done before, like riding a bike (I hadn’t ridden a bike since I was 12 years old before I bought my bike in Amsterdam and gave it a go!). Claudia was really instrumental in getting me to do things outside my comfort zone.

The most difficult aspect by far is adapting to the weather. It is really freaking cold in Europe! Snow isn’t so charming when it’s slushy and grey and covering ice that you slip over. I had always thought that Seasonal Affective Disorder was pop psychology but it’s very real when you’re used to tropical seasons and you move to somewhere that only sees warm weather for two months of the year! But you adapt by wearing loads of wool and drinking loads of glühwein, and then celebrating like mad when it’s Summer again!

What traditions or habits have you tried to keep from your home country?

I brought vegemite with me when I moved and luckily there’s an Australian/New Zealand shop around the corner from where I live, so I can just pop over and buy Tim Tams and pies when the homesickness gets really bad. Food is such a strong aspect of your identity that I think it’s really important to try and enjoy your favourite foods from home once in a while.

When I lived in London I also went to The Walkabout Australian bar with my friends to celebrate Australia Day. It was really fun, and really rowdy.

What new tradition or habit do you want to take away with you if you leave Amsterdam?

There are so many aspects of the Dutch lifestyle that I would love to take with me wherever I go! I would take the ease of riding your bike everywhere. After dealing with the tube for so long, riding around in the fresh air is wonderful. I would make stroopwaffles mandatory at every meal. I also really, really love Dutch electronic dance music (Dutch DJ’s are the best in the world after all!), so being able to see my favourite DJ’s live all the time is a huge bonus. And the summer music festivals are the best!

If a friend came to visit you in Amsterdam for one day, what would you take them to see?

1. I would rent them bikes and take them all over the city for a personalised tour. That’s the best way to see Amsterdam, by far.

2. I’ll take them to a coffee shop and the Redlight district (because expectations).

3. I’ll also take them to Jordaan, Amsterdam’s most scenic and historic area, with great galleries, cafes and shopping.

You can also see my guide to the Netherlands on Yes and Yes for more tips!

What advice would you give to someone who is hoping to live abroad one day?

Try and move to a place where you have at least one friend/someone who can show you the ropes. It will make your experience so much more pleasant and give you the confidence to explore the city on your own. This isn’t concrete though, and I know a few people that moved to a place where they knew no one, but loneliness in a new city can be crippling and can become the catalyst for moving back home sooner than you intended. A friend can really make all the difference.

Also, Skype is everything. I don’t think I’d survive living overseas without the magic of Skype.

Here’s a list of everything I’ve learnt since I moved overseas on my blog!

Thank you so much Cassey for sharing your experiences as an expat in Amsterdam with us! Now I’m ready to hop on a bike in Amsterdam. Do you have any questions for Cassey? Leave them in the comments. Or connect with her on Twitter.

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Chapel of St. Lesmo

December 2, 2013 - 10:00 am | europe, scotland

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Whenever I come across an old chapel on one of our walks in the country, I want to stop for a while. Sometimes I lag behind my family while I circle a church, and if I really want to get behind, I walk all the way inside.

The Chapel of St. Lesmo is usually closed up, but there is an information sign welcoming hillwalkers to wander the graveyard. Some of the materials used to build the chapel in 1872 were 400 years old. Granite blocks from the ruins of another building were stacked together with small pebbles in the mortar in between, which I later learned is called “cherry-cocking.”

I wandered through the courtyard, and found the dedictation to St. Lesmo, a hermit who lived in the area 1000 years ago for whom this chapel was named.

The groundskeeper was clearing leaves out of the churchyard when we happened by, and he told me that he likes to unlock the chapel when he is there working so that people who are passing by can visit.

They no longer have services in the chapel, but is still used for weddings. Small ones. The space only holds seventy people, but more can come to up to the ballroom for the reception at “The Big House.”

On wedding days, the party walks from the chapel to the reception across the valley and over “a wee bridge,” with the piper at lead.

I learned all this from the groundskeeper, who says there are about 20 weddings a year. Also, he told me that the animal skins covering the benches are from local red deer. They were meant to keep the churchgoers warm as the old building has no heat source, “You know back then,” he says, “services would go for nearly three hours.”

All the wooden beams came from pine trees on the surrounding estate. (Glen Tanar) And the altar stone was brought up from the River Dee.

I thanked the groundskeeper for letting me in, and for telling me a little about the beautiful old chapel.

While I walked I imagined what a merry party it would be to follow a bride and groom from the church to the ballroom. I wondered if we returned to walk at Glen Tanar again in the summer if we might catch a glimpse of a wedding or hear the bagpipes in the field.

I also found myself wondering about the hermit for whom the church was named, St. Lesmo. I looked him up and could only find that he was a Holy Hermit. We walked for five miles in the surrounding woods, up and down the Dee Riverside, over ancient bridges and through fields of sheep.

What would it be like to live out here all alone, to know this landscape like the back of your hand, for every bend in the river to be familiar? To live with no sounds but the water running and the leaves blowing? To have no one to talk to but God? And maybe the sheep?

Though I still know very little about him, I very much admire his choice of home. If you’re going to be a hermit in the outdoors, I cannot imagine a much better dwelling than the Highlands.

In The Pipeline

November 30, 2013 - 4:00 pm | links

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Writing is wretched, discouraging, physically unhealthy, infinitely frustrating work. And when it all comes together it’s utterly glorious.

Ralph Peters

Yep. That’s pretty much how I feel. I did not make my goal of 50000 words for NaNoWriMo, but I have over 36000 words, and more importantly, I am really beginning to see the project take shape! I really believe it may be a book yet. I am going to continue to work on it in December and hopefully by Christmas I will have hit that word goal!

I hope you had an EXCELLENT Thanksgiving + Holiday Weekend! We have not been off for the holiday here in Scotland, but we have still been giving thanks. Also, we had some fun FaceTime with friends and family.

I only have a few links this week, since I’ve been hiding from the internet in order to write, but I’ll be back with more next week! I also have a new expat story coming up and fun pictures from Edinburgh! For now, here’s a little self promotion + some food I’ve enjoyed in the last week or so.

Things I’ve written around the World Wide Web lately:

London For One at the Huffington Post

Colorado Rocky Mountain High at Kiss From The World

A new recipe for Arkansas Women Bloggers

It’s been all about the comfort food around here lately, because I need a lot of extra calories for writing. Or maybe it’s just the cold weather.

We’ve made Cauliflower Pie (pictured above) and Shepherd’s Pie.

Plus my Cheddar Potato Soup, which always makes me feel happy in the winter time.

Um, as I soon as I saw these homemade twix bars I had to have them. Take my word for it and do not make them. They are deadly.

This looks yummy to me. Maybe I’ll make it next week!

Happy Weekend Friends!

Lakewood Lake

November 28, 2013 - 4:00 am | stories

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In honor of wishing I was smack dab in the middle of a giant family gathering today, I am sharing one of my favorite spots in my hometown, Lakewood Lake.

This lake has been my stomping grounds since I was a wee thing.

My sister and I used to jump in the water after sweating through church picnics in the neighboring pavilion.

In high school, I started running the loop around the lake with friends, trying to work off all those curly fries and milkshakes from our waistlines.

I wandered around it in the dark after school dances. I may or may not have kissed a boy or two under the trees that surround its shores.

My mom and I both have measured our improving or declining health by how many times we can do the mile loop that circles the lake.

And I have measured each of my children’s growths by what they can reach on the playground or how high they can climb on the structures that are so old that my parents climbed them as children.

The kids all played in Saturday soccer games on the fields next to the lake, and Taido has played tennis with them all on the courts.

We have come here straight from school on many afternoons to burn off energy, play at the park and eat snacks at the picnic tables.

I cannot begin to number the times I have come here to read, to write or just be alone with my thoughts. To take a deep breath.

There are few bad days that an hour at Lakewood Lake could not improve for me.

Every time I see a picture from home of this lake, I die a little inside. I miss it so much. I live near the sea here in Aberdeen, Scotland, so you would think that would be a fine substitute for a small neighborhood lake. But the North Sea is not holding all my life memories like Lakewood Lake. It is almost as if the lake itself is keeping vigil over my stories of growing up and living in Arkansas. And when I return, it hands them back to me one at a time, or lets me add a new one.

I love it in every season and in all sorts of weather, and you can bet that it will be one of the first places I go when I make my way back to Arkansas.

If you live near the lake, walk a loop for me today after you eat your Thanksgiving feast and send me a photo.

Is there a place in your hometown that is like this for you? I would love to hear about it!

Chino House

Vaporetto #1 in Venice, Italy

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Loch Ness Hunter

Loch Ness Hunter Tour

Many thanks to Smart City Hostels to Haggis Adventures and our wonderful guide, Nick for a great weekend out in Scotland! Mary Polly and I won our tour vouchers through a contest on Twitter. I’m always keeping my eyes and ears open for those kinds of fun opportunities to see something new!

A Homemade Year + Merry Christmas Giveaway

**A dear friend of mine, Jerusalem Greer, wrote a book that was published last spring called A Homemade Year.**

A Boy and His Dragon or A Girl and Her Grandmother.

In The Pipeline

Snapshots Of Edinburgh

Snapshots of Edinburgh, Scotland

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Expat Story: Amsterdam

Expat Story: Amsterdam

Did you enjoy this post? Check out more Expat Stories, or consider subscribing to the Chino House!

Chapel of St. Lesmo

In The Pipeline

Writing is wretched, discouraging, physically unhealthy, infinitely frustrating work. And when it all comes together it’s utterly glorious.

Lakewood Lake

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