Mairi Bheag! 14 weeks!

This past weekend, my dear friend Sarah, her husband Erik and their children Tommy and Mairi came to visit us. They came on Friday night and left Sunday evening. It was a delightful weekend, and so wonderful to see them all, and especially to meet "Little Mairi" (Tommy calls me "Big Mairi"). We didn't do much - just relaxed, took some walks, talked, etc. it was really perfect.

On Saturday night we watched a "Jeeves & Wooster" episode. Tommy got all excited and exclaimed "Jeeves and Wooster!" enthusiastically. In fact, I think he called our dog Wooster (his name is Rooster, which is a silly name for a Dalmatian). I think it was an improvement.

I hadn't realized how red Little Mairi's hair is. It's a beautiful, light, vibrant red. And she has dark blue eyes, and it's a lovely combination. She's such a good girl, too.

I'm so glad that Sarah, Erik and their family were willing and able to make the drive here. It was delightful having them.

Music, Memories and 15 weeks

A year or so back we were reading the Book of Mormon as a family - and one of us read from a facsimile edition. Occasionally words and whole phrases would be quite different between the old edition and the current one. The phrase that struck us the most was in describing the Gentiles. In the current edition it describes them as being "in that awful state of blindness..." In the original BOM, it is described thus: "that state of awful woundedness..." which has a raw quality to it which I like.

What has this to do with Scotland, you might ask? Well...Heather and I have been listening to the Corries lately (surprising, I know!) and I rather think that, if one is willing, or feeling sensitive at the time, those old songs can have quite the effect on one. Of course, I've discussed this already a thousand times in my blog (well, nearly a thousand times!) yet it still gets to me, and that's why I still write about it I guess. Not only the history it evokes and stirs, but my own personal history, being raised with this music. This may sound silly, but some of the songs, if I let them, would make me cry. Right there in the middle of the living room, or listening from the kitchen as I make lunch. And that's where the Book of Mormon phrase comes in. Without sounding sacrilegious or anything, I might say that sad music can produce a "state of awful woundedness".

I don't want to sound maudlin, so I'll stop now. But consider the words of the song "The Blackbird" and imagine the lonely pipe that accompanies it:

But what if the Fowler my blackbird has taken?
Then sadness and sorrow will be all my tune
Ah, but if he is safe then I'll no be forsaken
and hope yet to see him in May or in June.

For him through the fire through mud and through mire
I'll go for I love him to such a degree
Who is constant and kind and noble of mind
Good luck to my blackbird wherever he be.

Rain has showered far her drip * 16 weeks

I believe I have counted right, and there are sixteen weeks left until September 1st.

I thought, also, that spring was the perfect time to bring up another famous Scot: Donovan Leitch (born in Glasgow, no less!). His album A GIFT FROM A FLOWER TO A GARDEN, especially the second half of it, often has the flavor of old Scottish ballads. These are, in my opinion, his greatest songs. In his song, "Lullaby of Spring" (which we listen to and sing every May Day) one of the lines is:
"from the stony village kirk
Easter bells of old ring.
So begins another spring..."

Latha Buidhe Bealtainn! 19 Weeks

Yesterday was May 1st. May Day. Heather, Katie and I celebrated it at our friends the Mason's beautiful house. On their property they have a May Pole, which every May 1st friends and family gather around to dance in the summer. The day before (for an ancestry activity at the church) I had made some oat cakes (from a recipe from Grandma Jean, which she got from the Glen Ghorm Lodge in Nova Scotia. Gorm means blue in Gaelic). We brought them along to be part of the festivities.

It was a beautiful day, over 50 degrees when we began at 7:30 in the morning. We wove the ribbons around the pole, and ate a delicious breakfast brought by the various guests.

Today I made soup from a recipe I found in a Scottish cookbook. Nettle Soup. Stinging Nettles! We have quite a lot of stinging nettles in our property, so I made use of them. Cooking up an onion and three potatoes in a stick of butter, I then added two cans of chicken stock and after that had cooked for about fifteen minutes or so, I added the nettles(about a cups worth, though I think I could have added more). I then blended the soup and we ate it with bread. It was delicious, if I do say so myself! And I'm thrilled to discover that nettles are edible, and that we have a good use for all our stinging nettles!

Note: I am including picture of what used to be a main road, that went right past the Mason's house. I just learned from Heather that when Joseph Smith was in this area, this is the road he would have used, therefore, he went right past the Mason's house, as the original portion of it was built in the 1790's. Also the road used by the members of the Colesville Branch when they went to Ohio. (I don't know if these pictures will load up first or last). There is also a picture of a miniature May Pole, which Johannes Mason made.

I'm getting there! 20 Weeks

I now have my ticket to Scotland, it goes from Syracuse to Scotland (one of the layovers is in Iceland. I hope in September the volcanoes won't be up to anything). I also paid a deposit for student housing at the university!

Scotland, here I come!

Two shakes of a lambs tail * 21 weeks

This afternoon after church, Heather, Katie and I went and visited our friend Amy who has a large, beautiful sheep farm. She has mostly Finn sheep, many of which had had lambs recently. Two of her ewes had quintuples. These were beautiful, dainty little lambs, many of which had patches of white, brown and black wool. They frolicked as only lambs can, running sideways and their tails, indeed, shaking swiftly in two (or was it three or four?) little shakes.

Amy's friend was there with daughter and grandchildren, and Amy gave the children a spinning demonstration. The house was quiet and tidy, the afternoon sun shining through the windows, and there seemed something timeless about the spinning wheel turning, and the wool twisting into yarn. Though sheep are a controversial animal in Scottish history, the dying and spinning of wool seemed something my ancestors would have done. Certainly they knew how to spin and weave their own cloth, their clothes, plaids, blankets, etc. And while ruminating over these things, I was reminded of a story my Gaelic teacher Donald told me, how when he was a lad they had a bottle baby named Bella who had a fondness for oat cakes. She lived twenty years and had, I think he said, thirty-eight lambs. An admirable ewe, to be sure!

Here's a picture of our own two Finn sheep (one black, one white. The third large white one is half Finn half baby-doll)

Lost and Found: 22 weeks

Back in February I wrote that I was reading Dorothy Wordsworth's RECOLLECTIONS OF A TOUR MADE IN SCOTLAND (a beautiful copy with photographs that my mother loaned me). Well, right after writing that post, I lost the book! It wasn't in any of the regular and familiar piles of books we have about the place, and I was quite flummoxed. Just the other day, however, I discovered it, residing peacefully among Heather's library of spinning and weaving books. It is not certain how it got there.

So, in any case, I am just now launching into the charming RECOLLECTIONS of Dorothy. She certainly has an excellent way of describing things. Here are some examples:

"It might have seemed a valley which nature had kept to herself for pensive thoughts and tender feelings."
or
"...it was indeed a wild and singular spot - to use a woman's illustration, like a collection of patchwork, made of pieces as they might have chanced to have been cut by the mantua-maker..."

She also mentions dress, both of the Scottish people they see, and herself (she wears a Spencer Jacket and a grey cloak on a particularly cold morning.)Wonderful.