Dear Cath,

You’re back from Denver! Woohoo! That means we can have skype chats again and you can rest your tired high-altituded body. While you were wedding-ing and hiking, Matt and I did our usual weekend ambling. Oh and, non sequitur, this is that thrifted dress I told you about:

It wasn’t quite warm enough to wear it on Saturday. I’d much prefer to pair it sans leggings with my gray booties, but instead wore it like this:

Vintage scarf from Stefan’s Vintage in Atlanta • Madewell jacket • thrifted dress • Target leggings • Hunter Boots • Dune wedge ballerinas (above photo)

Wearing a spring dress in 40 degree weather can be a little bit of a challenge, but guess what?! Today (Tuesday) it is actually like for real, for realzzz warm here! It’s gorgeous and sunny and I can smell the grass! I forgot how you can smell earthy smells so well when it’s warm. Edinburgh usual has very little scent except for the occasional yeasty whiff of brewery.

But back to Saturday. after our usual green smoothie breakfast (we add more fruit on the weekends — living life on the edge!), I was pretty grumpy from all the rain and the cold and the cold and the rain. So I begged persuaded Matt that we should go explore the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. I’ve been reading this book on the Bloomsbury group and really wanted to go ogle some daubs of paint.

Did you ever go when you were a student? I went once, but I remember being by myself (no Cath!), walking all the way from Bruntsfield to Dean Village. The two gallery buildings are these stately stone megaliths sitting on rolling green lawn. Not at all “modern” but I like that you can pretend you are going to your friend’s manor home for a spot of tea (with a side of Picasso prints) when you see them.

I couldn’t take any photos inside, but I took a few on the grounds (pessimistic though they are):

And the bathroom:

This piece below makes me think of what would happen if Donald Judd designed a carnival mirrored fun house:

I really liked this guy because he appears to be stoically guarding the gallery entrance — not that he has much say in the matter, what with the cement and all. I wonder if the Lego nipples allow him to do his job unflinchingly. Tough gig.

On the way back from our arty adventure, we stopped at Vietnam House for pho to go. Seriously, their vegetarian pho is amazing and incredible — even if it’s “hot” when you get here in August, we’ll have to get some.

Okay, now tell us all about your outdoorsy Colorado adventures!

See you on skype soooon!

xoxoxoxox,

Lar

So obviously, this being apart thing is not getting easier, even though it’s been 9 (NINE!) months. Skype kind of works — so much better than the days of telephone cards and spotty emails. I know I should be grateful, but it’s just not quite enough is it? So I’m writing you a blog post instead because this way I can show you photos of all the things I mention, and forget to mention, when we are skyping (somehow I always get narcissistically distracted by my face on the skype videos — “sheesh! I look washed out and tired. maybe if I suck in my cheeks this way, I look better.”).

Like I told you, I think the best way to celebrate Matteo’s birthday is with some good food — especially food he doesn’t usually get to eat. So Friday night we went to Vietnam House for pho. I made him wear his birthday badge all day. Nobody noticed except for the masseuse who said “do you work for Salvation Army?”

Look at this feast, Kitcath! I haven’t had pho since leaving Atlanta and this was soooo wonderful! I actually preferred my vegetarian version to Matt’s beef broth. I could eat this every day.

I’m sure you are sick of my complaining about the cold and the rain, and it seems phoney too seeing as I only show photos like this on the blog:

When it is sunny, it is so beautiful, but still so cold and so windy. My brain gets confused because in Maryland and Georgia when you see cherry blossoms it means the cold days are banished until next winter. Not so here. These are tenacious cherries. They’ve been blossoming for about three weeks and weathered the hail, snow and intense wind gusts.

I am far less tenacious. I thought I would sneak a pair of sandals on my feet (the toes haven’t been out of woolie socks since September 21 when we left Atlanta), but I switched into my Frye boots before we ventured down to Thistle Street. I’m not sure if I can do cold feet and slip around in stilettos on cobblestone.

Primark blouse (bought in December before ethical guilt awakening) • thrifted Zara skinnies • Luxury Rebel shoes

Don’t you like this coral and cargo green together?

And zips on the side of these skinnies! I haven’t been to Zara in a while because they aren’t particularly ethical (not even making an attempt like H&M), so I’m glad I found these at a charity shop.

The more research I do on ethical shopping, the easier it seems to find clothes, but the harder it is to find reasonably priced, ethical foot wear. So the two shoes I’ve bought since being in Scotland are not in any way ethical. Cri de Coeur is the best option I’ve found so far, but it doesn’t work if you are looking for a specific kind of shoe. Like I told you, after watching Audrey Tautou in Delicacy I really wanted a pair of ballerinas with a short heel. And I found them, but they aren’t ethical (they came with me to a picnic on Saturday):

Saturday evening we went here for dinner (so fancy pancy). I don’t know whose bike that is. Maybe it’s always there to give Saint Honoré some street cred:

We were very un-vegetarian. Matt had paté and a meat pie. I had sardines and then salmon:

And then this for dessert!

Dark chocolate tart with lemon sorbet on top (aka Matt’s birthday cake, of which I ate half most).

And at the end of our three courses, we got coffee (which I haven’t had since December!) and they served it with their house Scottish tablet. I love that even though everything was so Frenchie, at the end they leave you with a bit of local sweetness.

Okay, so this still isn’t as satisfying as sitting next to you and telling you these things and showing you photos on my camera. But I guess it will have to do? Can you imagine if we had studied abroad apart? I would have been home faster than you can say twin power.

Miss you so, so, so much.

Love,

Lar

p.s. I am still trying to figure out how to cook with this and like it. Hopefully this week’s veg box won’t have one. I haven’t used last week’s and it’s making our pantry smell like celery — why can’t it smell like chocolate cake instead:

cialis go to this web-site

Isn’t this a fantastic castle? It’s so castley! It’s exactly the sort of thing I would draw when I was young and went through a castle-drawing phase: turret, crenelation, crenelation, crenelation, turret.

And castles of this sort are just one of the many many many reasons I love Scotland. When Cath and I were students here we bought Historic Scotland passes and would spend every weekend hopping on trains to as many castles as we could manage within a days’ journey of Edinburgh.

This particular castle, Craigmillar, is just a hop, skip and a jump from the city center of Edinburgh. From Craigmillar’s battlements you can actually see Edinburgh Castle’s battlements. This was the castle that royals (such as Mary Queen of Scots) would go to for some down-time; away from the hullabaloo that was medieval Edinburgh. It was the Hamptons to their Manhattan penthouses — except, you know, draftier and . stoney-er.

From the top of the castle you get these gorgeous views of the Firth of Forth (a rather large bay-like body of water that flows into the North Sea).

Below, I’m keeping a look-out for parties of marauding English — the most intimidating door-keeper this castle has ever seen:

Mettle necklace • H&M jacket and tank (organic cotton range) • AE belt • thrifted Coach bag and Reiss coat • Madewell skinnies • Frye boots

The great thing about these castles is that it’s not like in the States where most of the ruin would be cordoned off (do we have ruins in the States?). You can climb all over them: sneaking down spiral stairways and squeezing through secret passage ways.

Lead-paned windows! I live for this stuff!

Here’s a photograph to show you how close we are to Edinburgh — spitting distance really:

I took about a million and a half photographs because it was so sunny and so wonderfully castley, but I don’t want to bore you guys with too much stone. I hope this is just a glimpse to get you thinking “Scotland. I need to go to there” (ignore the fact that this has been one of their rainiest Springs for an already rainy country. It becomes sunny whenever you visit a castle.).

So what do you say? You wanna come castling with us?

—–

Dear Cath,

As much as we love Edinburgh, I really think one reason we fell in love with this country is the train trips we took to all those castles. The only downside to Craigmillar is that it’s not one of those castles with a giftshop and tea room. Remember those? A bit of Scottish tablet, some tea, and then searching through their tea towel collection. Crazy, wild college kids that we were 😉

I sooooo wish you were here to go castling with us! I think Matt likes them, but he grew up going to crusader castles all over the middle east and thinks Scotland’s castles are newbies. Who knew I married such a hoity-toity castler?

I hope you guys have some fun plans for the weekend! Our only big plan is going to eat at this fancy pants place.

LOVE,

Lar

Snowing in the morning, sunny and beautiful in early afternoon (and all of us scurry out and sit outside — in 50 degree weather), and then it hails again a few hours later. Whoever said Scotland is just rainy is a big fat liar. It does rain, but just as often you’ll have sun (and wind and hail and rainbows). They are all timorous beasties.

So what do you do? You throw on your favorite scarf, cross your fingers, and head out into the belly of the city:

Sly Pete Scarf from Etsy (check out Laura’s fantastic style blog here) • Primark coat • Vintage Coach bag • Madewell skinnies • Hunter boots (on sale!)

I still haven’t gotten over the thrill of sitting on the second level of a double-decker bus (even though it makes me slightly queasy on longer rides). You can see so much of the beautiful city from up there. I always want the bus rides to last forever — I don’t think I’ll ever live in another city where I’ll wish that to be the case:

Book shops and newstands in abundance — two of my favorite things:

We have some friends here who are members of a club (can you guess which club from the subtle clues I left in the photo below?). They invited us to said club for lunch. I felt very Wooster-at-the-Drones-club, except when I was taking covert photos. Real club members don’t do that. Thanks for the invite, S&J!

Post “clubbing” we had to refortify with a slice of cake (and tea):

Then we hopped on another bus and went to a castle! I love castling. I have a whole post dedicated to going to this castle, so I hope you guys like castling too (yes, it’s a verb! — according to me):

Then back home for another delicious bowl of kedgeree (aka British fried rice):

Which we ate while watching the sun set in our apartment around 8:30 pm (the sun now rises at about 5 am — oi, my eyes)!

So the weather here isn’t easy, but who doesn’t like a good challenge? Especially when you have very long spring days, castles, tea, kedgeree, books and leather-arm-chaired clubs to assuage any malcontent at a snowy May.

—–

Dear Cath,

Click on that Drones club link above — it’s Hugh Laurie singing “47 Ginger-Haired Sailors.” I wish he sang in “House” — it would almost cancel out the hypochondria response I have to every episode.

I can’t wait to post the photos of Craigmillar Castle too! I think the day we went (8 years ago!) it was rainy and we didn’t stay long. I remember our trip to Linlithgow’s castle better. But Craigmillar has plenty of twisty staircases and hidden hallways to remind me why we did so much castling as students.

I hope you are having a good week so far! I misssss you!!!

Love,

Lar

Sometimes Edinburgh looks like this:

It is a beautiful city no matter the weather (good thing too), but when the sun comes out I swear it is sunnier and brighter than any place I’ve ever been. It’s kind of like when Dorothy steps out of her black and white Kansas farmhouse into the technicolored land of Oz. Birds gustily burst into song, rainbows spring out of emerald green hills, and all of Edinburgh breathes a happy sigh.

Here’s the thing though. Just because it’s sunny and the birds and rainbows are doing their thing, it doesn’t mean it is warm. Warm-ish, maybe, but not warm (unless you are one of those people that says a windy 47°F is warm). But as any Scottish person worth their salt will tell you, it’s no reason not do a little sun worshiping. So I grabbed the mustached husbando and headed out doors.

First stop, Princes Street Gardens for quick outfit shooting:

The good: necklace from Kenya (thank you, Pam!) • vintage Coach purse
The could-be-better-ethically-speaking-but-none-of-it’s-new: Primark coat and tank • Uniqlo sweater • Madewell jeans • Frye boots

Ice cream is popular here. . . all year round. 47 degrees and windy, and Scots stand outside with ice cream running down their cones. Scots are made of stronger stuff than I (I opted for a chocolate brownie instead, life being full of hard choices):

Next up, wedding watching! We (being wanna-be Scots people) were sitting at an outdoor cafe (with our coats on) when this wedding parade strolled by to some very merry bag piping. Any given Saturday you will come across a wedding party waltzing after their bag piper — lovely!

P.S. I in no way enhanced any of these sunny photos in photoshop. Those vivid greens really exist here when the sun bothers to show up. Nutso, isn’t it?

And if you get nippy from trying to be a true Scots, just duck into your local café for tea and cake (tea and cake or death, tea and cake or death!).

There are some lovely views from cafe below the National Gallery, and such good cake. nom!

Now you’ve got the feeling back in your hands whilst holding your mug of tea and gobbling your cake, head back outside for some more lolling about in the grass — preferably in the shade of a large castle:

End your day outside as the sun sets (which is around 8 pm now — thank you nearly-Artic-circle latitude!), sniffing cherry blossoms and looking at church murals with wonderful morals:

Once home, inspect possible (I say, very slightly possible) evidence of a rosy glow (wouldn’t go so far to say “tan”) from the sun.

So who’s ready for a little sunbathing in Scotland?

—–

Dear Cath,

Do you remember when we were studying here how everyone would crowd the Meadows once it hit 60 degrees? We only had one spell like that so far, but I’m crossing my fingers that May will be at least a touch warmer than April — jacket weather instead of coat weather.

I would give anything to meet you here on the next sunny day. How does tomorrow sound?

Love,

Lar

All things bought pre-ethical-guilt-awakening: Primark peacoat • Madewell jeggings • Mango booties

I realized my past couple of posts have been sooo wordy and thinky and angsty (ethical shopping! eating healthy! buying local!), that you guys might appreciate a little break from all that – heck! I would!

So this is just a little bit of fun and fluff, and things that happen when I’m not tormented about where to buy vegan make-up, shoes sewn by people earning a liveable wage, and where my sweet potatoes are grown.

Spring in Edinburgh! (So what it’s still only highs of 48 degrees when there’s blue sky and tenacious flowers):

It’s a gorgeous city, Edinburgh (view looking north over the Firth of Forth — a firth is like a bay and disappointingly not named after Colin):

Tea, and I don’t mean the drink. I mean mounds of clotted cream and scones, and salmon and cucumber sandwiches:

Here’s a close up for you:

Obviously scones and butter are the opposite of my vegan, gluten-free diet, but I have a hard time saying no to clotted cream. I mean, I can’t refuse a cultural experience, which is definitely what clotted cream is. Have you guys had it before? As far as dairy products go in the game of Britain vs. the States, Britain wins by a landslide.

Hope you guys had a wonderful weekend with bits of fluff!

—-

Dear Cath,

I hope you have a great week! For some reason it makes me sad that you are going to Orlando because that’s even further away than Atlanta! Next time you should have a conference in Edinburgh, okay? I’ll even take Toronto because the flight is much shorter (they go over the pole).

How did the rest of your paper writing go?

We need to start our August count down 😉

Love you!

Lar