Pilgrims Way.

 ​​Spring is Sprung , Stays the Sun

Hello again. I am finally sitting down to add more life highlights to my blog. Seriously though, things just kept me from planting myself in front of the computer screen to be creative enough to describe our outings. We have been having loads of fun intermixed with the normal end of winter dreariness  So here goes.

 In many ways living here in Scotland is comparable to living in New England. Of course there are many differences too. Most of them are obvious, the weather is much milder here, so snow is rare and does not last long on the ground. It does make up for that occasionally with serious winds and lots of rain. As a result there are copious rainbows and  the ground, fences and houses stay green most of the year. Things can also change rather quickly from one extreme to the other. Even now in springtime we are confused about what to expect, no matter what the weather wizards predict. Susi and I do many activities on foot. The longer we are here, the more we add to our clothing options to accumulate an arsenal against surprise changes in atmospheric conditions . Just last Monday we realized that our rain gear was lacking waterproof pants as we “swam” our way back from Sainsbury's to our house three miles away. On top of the rain, we were also treated to cool temperatures in the mid fifties highlighted with a stiff breeze. The next day, we took the bus to Perth to purchase waterproof pants.

Susi ready to ride to Kinross

I have lived in a cloud of ignorance, thinking that I have outgrown and am immune to the undercover agents of the Histamines. Living in Germany and western US had given me a false sense of security that I was beyond their effects. They are chuckling now, as not only Susi and I are rubbing our eyes, sneezing and stocking up on handkerchiefs, but poor Flynn is suffering too. I guess we could admit that it is one of the few rubs of living here, but there are so many positives that  one negative is not wiping the smiles off our faces as we experience life in this wonderful country populated by good people, awesome scenery and  so many places to explore.

One of the fun things we have done, intermingled with our normal, “let’s go out for a hike” pop up walks,  is to hike the Pilgrim’s trail that runs from Culross to Saint Andrews (no they were not carrying golf clubs). We’ve done half of the sections, Culross to Dumferline, Kelty to Dumferline and Kelty to Glenrothes. The walks are great exercise, educational and although they can be challengingly long, are great fun. We have learned so much and sometimes we even manage to find geocaches thereby combining ancient history with modern technology. I will include a few snapshots of some of the places we have enjoyed.  There is a great pub in Dumferline, so we made sure that we made it our destination in two of the walks and I wouldn’t be surprised if we start there on our next section.

Culross Abby - wonderful stained glass windows and the portion outside that is not restored

Another interesting phenomena and new to us has been the effects of living so far north. It’s not the expected cold climate as thanks to the Gulf Stream Current keeps things relatively mild albeit windy, but the reluctant visit of the sun. At the winter solstice we were supposed to have only four hours and 7 minutes of darkness. I am not sure how they categorize “darkness” but even though the sun was down over the horizon, it was not far enough down to eliminate all of its glow. We installed a blackout curtain in the bedroom to eliminate most of that, but getting up to walk to the bathroom at 3:00 AM was in full sunlight. It’s a bit better now, but it is still pretty light at 4:00AM.  I know that this winter we will be whining about the lack of daylight.  Take a look at the weather up top for last week's sunrise and sunset.

I had other things in my outline, but they will need to wait for the next installment. I don’t want to turn any more people away from reading my blog. Susi and I hope you are all enjoying where you live as much as we are enjoying our new home.