Here’s another postie to get you into the holiday spirit via Edinburgh! The public lights are especially beautiful — my photos don’t do them justice:

(Below) Isn’t this so cheery? You can grab a piece of pizza, hop on a stationary, vintage, double-decker and gaze at the castle in the distance (can you see it under the lights — it’s silhouetted against the dusky sky):

And I love looking into the shop windows. Most of the stores would make mincemeat of the contents of my wallet (ewww), so I make do with pressing my nose to the glass and taking covert pictures:

I love this combo of minty green, white and gold. I’m soooo stealing that for my decor next year — I even have the white owl already from this year’s loot. Christmas score!

And now this is most impressive. We still have occupiers in Edinburgh! It has been incredibly windy (up to 90 mph wind gusts) and snowy and rainy, and our occupiers are still here! They have an informative and frequently-updated website if you want to read more about the them.

—-

Dear Kitcath,

FOUR more days. Matt and I just figured out the perfect distribution of blankets between our two sleeping areas to keep us all warm and snug in our flat. Your room does have the drafty chimney, but it has lots of twinkly fairy lights to compensate for that.

FOUR!!!!

xoxoxo,

Larbar

I am sooo excited. I get to see Cath (and my parents and Troy!) in just nine (NINE!) days! Woohoo!

I’m not sure if we’ve told you, but we’re all meeting in Paris for about a week, and then they are all coming here to Edinburgh for Christmas!

I’m poorer than poor at the moment because of all the costs for the upcoming Paris hootenanny, but I wanted the flat to look and feel Christmasy for everyone. So I had to use a bit of ingenuity and creative muscle, but I pulled off some Christmas decor for £22 ($35) including a tree (it’s teeny, ’tis true). Some of the items I got free courtesy of my oh-so-generous mother who sent a box full of goodies. She bought me twin versions of what she used in her house (you can see them in this post).

As you can see, I went for a rather masculine look this year: pink, sparkles, white glitter blubs (can’t get anything less practical than glitter baubles!). Really I “blame” it on our fireplace covering. How are you supposed to decorate with a light gray, light pink, and gold tiled fireplace?

This tree stated “2 ft.” on the packaging, but I think after years of following the metric system they confused 2 feet for something else: 20 centimeters perhaps?

Oh and look! I decorated outside for you guys too:

Edinburgh looks even more gorgeous with a dusting of snow. I’m all for it, Edi, but you have to promise to not make it impossible for my family to get here. I’ll stop complaining about your windy, wintry ways if you promise not to ice too much. Deal?

I hope your holiday season isn’t too busy, everyone! I know Cath is uber busy and stressed leading up to her departure to Paris. We’ll have to make sure to de-stress with copious amounts of butter and chocolate.

—–

Dear Kitcath,

Here is Peckham’s storefront, so you and Troy can take a gander at what sorts of beer they carry:

Matt tried the one on the top left: beet red it was!

I can’t wait until we can go beer hunting together (well, beer hunting and charity shopping — good combo, I think). Now as for American football, that might be trickier to find. How does Troy feeling about curling?

9 DAYS!!!!!!

LOVE,

Larbar

Want to come on a touristy adventure with me? How about a trip to Edinburgh’s centerpiece, the Castle! Isn’t it loverly? It looks exactly how you imagine castles to look in fairy tales. There isn’t a moat (at one time there was a loch), but it sits up on a tall mound. Squint hard enough and you can almost see legions of shiny knights (or maybe that’s just more tourists?) cantering on horseback up to the gates.

The castle walls enclose a number of large and small stone buildings: a chapel, a war memorial, regimental museums, old prison cells, the old great hall, etc. It’s more like a little village, some of it dating back to 600 AD.

Here’s the view looking down from the Castle rock to Leith and the Firth of Forth to the north of the city:

Here’s a nice little cozy nook in the great hall:

My favorite bit is the reconstructed prison cells. They didn’t look as horrible and dungeon-like as you would think, and war prisoners were fed pretty well (the table shows weekly rations of bread, cheese, ale, and beef):

The prisoners dressed quite well, quite dapper in fact:

Here’s the view from the front of the castle look down the Royal Mile (Old Town’s main street). Follow it down to the bottom of the hill and you’ll run right into Parliament and the Royal Palace. I LOVE the Palace even more than this lovely castle. The Palace has Mary Queen of Scots intrigue and a gorgeous canopy bed, so that’s more my speed. But I still enjoy taking a stroll around the more masculine castle whenever I can (especially when the tickets are free as they are for St. Andrew’s Day).

As you can see in the photo above, Edinburgh is incredibly tourist-friendly even during the Scottish winter! Get on a plane, already! I’ll take you to the Palace when you get here!

—–

Dear Kitcath,

Did we even go to the castle when we were students? It might have been less pricey for us because of the Historic Scotland passes. I definitely remember the palace more vividly but again that’s probably due to the whole gorgeous interiors thing it has going on.

I can’t wait! Do you realize we have 2 weeks today until we’ll be in Paris together?!! Yippppeeee!!!

Good luck on your paper this weekend! Hope we can skype tomorrow!

LOVE you,

Larbar

In the states we have Salvation Army and Good Will. The UK has Oxfam, Cancer Research, British Heart Foundation, Red Cross, Save the Children, Cancer Lung Research, Barnardos. . .

Our neighborhood (and many others in Edinburgh) are swarming with charity shops — it’s wonderful! When I first moved here, I imagined that charity shops were full of beautiful old tea sets, silk scarves, and gorgeous vintage clothes for a couple of pounds. It’s not quite that charming. Most of the clothes are just a few years old from Marks and Sparks or H&M, and the tea sets are from the 1980s, not the 1880s, but they are still such wonderful places to shop.

For instance, that sweater I’m wearing in the top photo is lovely and soft angora that I got for £3 ($4.75-ish). Nice, eh? The novel is also from a charity shop for just £1 ($1.65-ish). Cheaper than most used book stores I’ve been to.

We’ve also bought quite a few baskets for about 10p (15 cents) each — much cheaper than the mecca-of-cheap Ikea! One basket houses our keys and is protected by Matt’s tweed hats:

The other holds our onions, watched over by Jamie Oliver (recipe book also found in a charity shop):

Once in a while you find the odd little gem, like this illustrated book from the 1950s about the British countryside:

The illustrations are a little strange (adds to the charm, right?) but I hope Graham W. Reid enjoyed them in 1949-50. Well done, Graham:

Shopping at these charity shops kind of makes up for our shame at going to Asda/Walmart on a weekly basis, right?

—-

Dearest Kitcath,

I was trying to remember and I don’t think we went to the charity shops that often when we lived here 8 years ago. I know you lived right by all those ones on S. Clerk street, but I think we would only pop in once and a while. I can’t think of a single thing I have from them, in fact! I feel kind of shame-faced that I always trotted down to Armstrongs or just the high street shops. We’ll definitely go to the ones by my flat when you are here in a few weeks!

I’m so glad you can buy alcohol on Sundays now. I always thought it strange we couldn’t. I still need to make sure we have our fridge stocked for you and Troy when you guys get here!

LOVES,

Larbar