Thistle Hill

More Real Happiness Friends

2011-11-19T13:30:00.000-05:00

The woman next to me is Donna Yerman, one of our teachers.

Me and some other participants

2011-11-15T14:21:00.000-05:00

Our teacher Chuck is standing behind me in the yellow shirt. Next to me is John, a good brother.

seashore

2011-11-15T14:10:00.000-05:00

2011-11-10T16:17:00.000-05:00

Great blue heron

2011-11-10T16:15:00.000-05:00

Road toward restaurant and dock

2011-11-07T17:46:00.001-05:00

Sea Urchin

2011-11-07T17:43:00.000-05:00

Found on beach

Creature identified

2011-11-06T14:12:00.001-05:00

This is a Florida horse conch. Not a true conch -- a species of sea snail.

Bizarre, repulsive, fascinating creature seen in tide pool

2011-11-02T16:11:00.002-04:00

The orange part is the "foot" or body of the creature; the shell is the home. I am not sure what the long extended part is. This creature was working its way along the edge of the tide pool. Eating, I assume. Every once in a while there would be a sort of burping noise and a kind of jolt of the shell and some bubbles would come to the surface. The creature, with shell from end to end was about a foot long.

Crab hole and patterns created by the crab

2011-11-02T16:09:00.002-04:00

Turtle video

2011-11-02T16:01:00.000-04:00

Palm Island, Oct. 30, 2011

Osprey seen at Palm Island today

2011-11-02T15:52:00.000-04:00

2011-04-24T15:22:00.003-04:00

Brick House Film: Here is the correct version with synchronization corrected.

25Things:Thing 9 Video 1

2011-03-07T13:28:00.002-05:00

Here is my Video on how to use Destiny Quest. #1

Here is #2.

Is it just hot...

2010-07-05T10:40:00.000-04:00

Or are they preparing to swarm?

2010-07-05T10:39:00.000-04:00

Morphing the Blog

2010-07-05T09:53:00.002-04:00

This blog will start being a journal from the Champlain Valley of Vermont, my favorite place in the world and my home.

Summer in Vermont

2010-07-05T09:49:00.001-04:00

Very hot. Spent the 4th of July afternoon at Kingsland Bay State Park, an all-time favorite. Swimming, picnic lunch, reading, chocolate, black raspberries, lemonade.

Well, that didn't happen...

2009-11-19T21:14:00.002-05:00

Starting tomorrow I will be attempting to start posting again on this blog.

I'm Home!

2007-08-16T10:42:00.000-04:00

Hi All,

I am home and it feels great. I am going to continue the blog and it will shift focus to life here at Thistle Hill. For now though, here is a picture of a Cairn in Scotland.

A Very Common Flower in Scotland: Foxglove

2007-07-29T12:38:00.001-04:00

Home Again

2007-07-28T15:08:00.000-04:00

I'm back in the best place in the world, the Champlain Valley of Vermont.

Over the next few days and weeks I will post here some of the pictures I took while in Scotland and England.

Heading Home

2007-07-23T11:59:00.001-04:00

I will be heading home 5 days early. The Midlands in England flooded, I was flying blind with only the TV news to guide me, and decided not to try to drive down through there on the way to Somerset and Cornwall. My apologies to Dad for not completing the Frome part of the pilgrimage. I must leave it for someone else to do.

I'll be flying back to Boston on July 25. I will post some photos on the blog after I get home.

Standing Stones

2007-07-23T11:51:00.001-04:00

I spent the morning at the Castlerigg Stone Circle here in Keswick (pronounced with a silent W). Really awesome.

English Writers

2007-07-23T11:32:00.000-04:00

Three days ago I visited the town of Haworth in Yorkshire, just where the moors begin. This is the town where the Bronte family lived and where Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre and Emily wrote Wuthering Heights. I spent a morning walking up to the moors -- they actually call them Wuthering Heights now -- where the ruined farm that may have inspired Emily's story lies. Top Withins, it's called. 6 1/2 mile walk round trip. How anyone could possibly even imagine farming up there is mind-boggling. Totally desolate, 3 1/2 miles from the nearest village, no road to speak of. And yet there were 3 or 4 farms up there at one time or another. Bleak moors. I took photos. Back in the village I visited the parsonage museum where the Bronte father was curate and where the women wrote their novels. The whole family was very talented.

Yesterday I visited Hill Top, home of Beatrix Potter for a number of years. It was very dark in the house (they have to protect all the art -- not hers which isn't there, but other paintings on walls) and furnishings but as a result you can hardly see things. However, it was fascinating to see that she used her own home as a model for the pictures in many of the stories. It was really cool to actually sit on the stair and figure out exactly where she was sitting when she did the drawing of Mrs. Tabitha Twitchet on the landing, worrying about Tom Kitten (The Roly-Poly Pudding)! I also enjoyed the garden, which was quite small. She left the farm to the National Trust in her will, and they have actually used the book illustrations to help re-create everything the way it was in her lifetime -- down to the perennials planted in the garden.

Cricket

2007-07-19T05:36:00.000-04:00

We pause today for a moment and send our prayers and thoughts to the spirit of Cricket, Alan Dingman's former cat, who passed into the spirit world on Tuesday. She was helped and cared for in the last days by Betty and Irwin Brent, my wonderful house sitters, dear friend Todd Hardie who made sure she was taken care of in the last days, Mo and Emily who dug her grave and gave her body back to the earth, and the vets at Bristol Animal Hospital. I'm grateful to them all.

Cricket came to me after Alan passed on 1 1/2 years ago. She was thin and had had undiagnosed thyroid disease for some time. Once she got medicine, she gained weight, settled in to life at Thistle Hill, and became a really great companion. She loved to eat, play, scratch a cardboard "scratching post", and especially loved sitting on the couch with whoever was there (though her favorite was Todd!).

I am happy that I took Cricket and her friend Jack (formerly known as "Prancer" -- still there and doing well) and really glad I could give her a good life in her final year. I was blessed with a great cat.

Leadhills and Ellisland Farm: The Ancestors

2007-07-18T13:49:00.000-04:00

Leadhills:
Last Saturday I went to the library to wind up my research. What we found was the 1841 census. Mind you, Helen Hastie went to America in 1837 (or '38), so they had left. However, I gained some interesting info from the census.

There were other Hasties still in Leadhills in 1841. They were most likely relatives; there were many of the same first names.
Most of them were miners.
There was one who was a Hand Loom Weaver. This lends much credence to Nancy and John Hastie's (John is a descendant of Helen's brother) impression that at least the father, John, was a weaver rather than a miner. It tells us that yes, there were hand loom weavers in Leadhills in that era.

I also found several other family names: Alston and Bramwell ( women who married Hasties in prior generations).

Ellisland Farm:

I visited this farm that was the home of Robert Burns from 1788-1791. Here he wrote much of his most famous work including "Auld Lang Syne" and "Tam O'Shanter". What does this have to do with us? Well, john Fenn (a first cousin of Dingy Watson) told me that the story in the family went that one of the women in the family was named Jean Armour after Robert Burns' paramour and wife, that the 2 families were great friends, and that in fact Robert Burns was her godfather and held her at her christening. This would most likely have been Jean Armour Sloan, the mother of Helen Hastie. I don't have total birth records for this yet, but it all seems to hang together with dates etc. So, visiting there, I was able to imagine that some ancestors had been there too.

The farm sits in a beautiful spot on the banks of the River Nith. Burns had been offered the lease of his choice of 3 different farms, and he chose what appealed to his poetic imagination. (Boy does this sound familiar!) Unfortunately it was the least productive, or "worst" as the caretaker told me, of the 3 farms. So after 3 short years during which he was forced to get a day job as exciseman for the county, Burns said (to paraphrase) "to hell with farming, it's a Godforsaken occupation" and gave up on it.

It was fun to see what a Scottish farm of that time looked like, with the walled-in barnyard floored in cobblestone with central drain, the walled-in small fruit orchard, the old implements, and so on. I have photos which I know Peter, Forrest, Dad, and others will be interested in.

400 Years of Gravestones

2007-07-16T04:44:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I drove up to Glenmavis, just outside of Airdrie (east of Glasgow), to the New Monkland Parish church. This is the church where great-great-grandparents Helen Hastie and Thomas Beveridge were married. A very kind church elder showed me a book of the church history, made copies of a few pages, and helped me to ascertain that in fact this is where the marriage took place.

The building sits high on a hill right at an intersection, made of stone and very plain on the outside, and surrounded right up to the church walls and door (as churches are here) with gravestones. This is a huge cemetery. Inside the church it is all dark wood and warm. I took a couple of photos. Click here for a photo of the interior. (You have to click on Today up top once you get to the home page. Then scroll down to below the photo of the elders.)

It was powerful to stand where our ancestors joined together to start a life together, just before they set sail for America to start another sort of new life.

I have spent 3 nights staying at a local farmhouse bed and breakfast with a lovely couple. Alec has beef cattle, and his wife Ann's uncles are dairy farmers. They are having the same kinds of problems that Vermont dairy farmers are having, not being paid enough for the milk. This month has been very wet and Alec is really worried because he cannot get a dry spell to make hay. The beef industry was really hurt by the mad cow disease scare 10 years ago. This even though that happened down in England on dairy farms, where they feed the cows meat etc. He feeds his cattle barley and other grains that he grows, but this does not make it into the news, and so people would not buy UK beef at all.

Yesterday afternoon I walked up into the fields and hills to the north of the farm, where a huge windmill collection stands. These things are enormous and though almost silent, there is a slight drone of the wind passing the blades. I counted over 35. I also climbed in the ruins of an old farm (all stone, of course).

There is much white clover here. The 3 most obviously common plants are white clover, thistles (3-4 varieties at least), and nettles. Nettles are everywhere. I see no honey bees on the clover, but plenty of bumblebees....

Today I am headed down to the southwest, back to the county of Dumfries and Galloway, to spend 3 nights in Castle Douglas (that's a town name, not a castle). I hope to explore Kirkudbright (pron. keer-koo-bree), an artist town, Threave gardens (extensive gardens), Ellisland Farm where Robert Burns lived for a few years, and Wigtown, which has many bookstores.

Cream

2007-07-14T06:12:00.001-04:00

They are MAD about cream in this country. The restaurant desserts are very rich, often with whipped cream. Then they are apt to bring out a pitcher of cream, and pour more on top! It's wild. Why isn't everyone here overweight? I see very few who are, far fewer than at home.

There are practically NO green vegetables served in restaurants. Salad, at most, and the occasional piece of broccoli. Carrots and potatoes are the stock veg. served with the usual meat and potatoes. Even in Italian restaurants there is very little green. They do eat a lot of fruit. My carb intake has been over the top...

The bakeries here are really fantastic. Every town has tea rooms and bakeries. Wendy, you would love it. You can get all manner of yummy treats with your tea, or if you prefer, coffee, since even in the most rural areas they tend to have Italian coffee beans. (Fair trade? What's that?) There are next to no health food stores. Actually I have seen exactly two in my entire travels. Of course I am mostly in rural areas, but still, there is nothing like our wonderful food co-ops. Oh, they have co-ops but they are run of the mill supermarkets.

Love to all. -- A.

Traveling down from the north coast through the highlands

2007-07-14T05:48:00.000-04:00

Let me backtrack a bit and tell you some things we saw as we drove from Scrabster, the ferry landing from Orkney, down to Glasgow. We first drove for a while down the east coast of Scotland. It was very different from the west. Flatter, dairy country, more open.

We stopped at Cawdor Castle and walked through beautiful gardens. The castle is still lived in, in the winter, by the Countess of Cawdor. The honey bees were busy at work; I suspect the estate has hives somewhere. They were the first bees I have seen in Scotland. Up north, my guess is there is not enough food for them. I did buy heather honey, but the heather hasn't even started to bloom down in the south, so that is a rather limited nectar source.

We also stopped at Culloden Moor and I walked on the moor where the famous battle took place. Unfortunately it was raining and we didn't have a long time there so I could not spend as much time as I'd have liked. Still, it was important to go to the scene of a turning point in Scotland's history. It was after this battle that the English government virtually destroyed clan life by outlawing wearing tartan, playing the pipes, and any clan activity. The clan chiefs became lords and in order to maintain the wealthy lifestyle that was their only option after the clans were destroyed, they became sheep farmers, which resulted in the Highland Clearances where so many small farmers were evicted and moved to the U.S., Canada, and south.

Another place we stopped in was Glencoe, scene of a famous massacre. It is a beautiful glen. We were only there long enough to take a quick photo. Then we drove down through the glen to points south.

The final stopping place was Urquhart Castle, on the shores of Loch Ness. It was cool. I enjoyed climbing up and down the stone spiral staircases and imagining what it must have been like to live there. No, I did not see Nessie...

When you see my map of Scotland and all the places I've been you will be amazed. I have traveled through most parts of the country. The eastern parts are the areas I have NOT been to, but I have a good sense of the various parts of the rest of the country.

I still think the Champlain Valley is the most beautiful place on earth.

Candy stores

2007-07-14T05:44:00.000-04:00

Moffat had the "biggest candy store in the UK" and frankly I believe their claim. Shelves and shelves of large, gallon-size jars of all manner of sweets, mostly hard candy, with names like:

Mixed boilings
Soor plums
Berwick cockles
Poly pastilles
Clove rock
Chocolate satins
Black striped balls
Mixed oddfellows
Clyde tofymints (yes Clydie, I got some for you)
Granny sookers
Rosey apples
Troach drops

...to name only a few. I took a picture.

Goodbye to Moffat

2007-07-13T05:51:00.000-04:00

Have had 3 lovely days here in Moffat, recharging batteries and collecting myself. Yesterday I walked up the hills above town through an old and beautiful beech grove, around Gallows Hill where presumably there was a hanging tree in ancient times. I stopped to watch a farmer across the valley as he and his dogs herded a flock of sheep out of the barnyard, up through one grazing and into the next. He was on a 4-wheeler ("quad" as they call it here) and his 2 border collies were amazing to watch, as they rounded up stray sheep and kept the flock moving at a good pace. The whole thing took about 15 minutes. When they got the gate shut into the top field, the dogs jumped up on the 4 wheeler and they all headed back down the hill. Incredible dogs.

I have also visited a Tibetan Buddhist monastery nearby. Very unpresuming but peaceful and healing. On the way there I stopped at a wildlife sanctuary and saw, way high up on the mountain, a small (about 7) herd of wild goats. They had beards and were white and blotched with black or brown.

My Internet time comes to a close once again. I'll be in Carluke for the next 3 nights finishing family history research.

xxoo A.

Iona

2007-07-13T05:46:00.000-04:00

Here I am walking the labyrinth on Iona, next to the beach where St. Columba landed.

Buddhism in Scotland

2007-07-11T11:56:00.000-04:00

The Buddhist monastery I am visiting today has an Internet/computer center. Saw wild goats today on the way over here. Time's up. xxooA.

2007-07-10T07:25:00.000-04:00

Moffat, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

Left the B&B in Leadhills. The breakfast was ok and the bed clean and comfortable, but there was no private bathroom -- I had to share with the family. Upon arrival I had to choose between a teeny bedroom (no room even for the suitcases on the floor) upstairs that locked but with a painted-shut window in a stifling house, or the slightly larger one downstairs with no lock on the door but a window that opened. It looked out on the back driveway and work shed, so blinds had to be kept closed. The bath nearest my room had a teeny child sized sink -- not cleaned every day -- and a toilet. The shower was upstairs next to one of the family's bedrooms. Essentially it was like renting a room in someone's home, with no living room use. Kind of like prison.

I arrived in Leadhills on Sunday and felt immediately a suffocating oppression which on th econscious level was a combination of the very high, steep hills and the narrow valley (wait'll you see the photos), the tiny miner's cottages crammed along the narrow streets, the general sense of a community a bit down on its luck, and the smell of burning coal.... and was there something else? Was I picking up on something left over from the pain and sadness that the Hastie family went through before they finally got out of there?

Yesterday, a mile away from Leadhills in Wanlockhead (which means, Head -- source -- of the Wanlock stream) I visited their lead mining museum. It included a tour into a former mine. Although lead mining was much less dangerous than coal mining, because the rocks are very stable and cave-ins and flammable gases are not an issue, the miners still had a hard life. Boys started at age 10-12, first washing the ore that came out of the mine. This meant standing in the little stream that ran past the mine opening in all seasons including winter. At age 12 they would start in the mine pulling the sledges with the mined ore out through the tunnel to the entrance and washing. The sledge, though small in size, could weigh 2-3 times what the boy weighed. The sledge had no wheels and the rocks were not smooth on the bottom but very sharp. The boys did not have shoes, the family being too poor to afford shoes.

The miners were only paid once a year, AFTER the ore that they had mined had been smelted and sold by the mining company. So, you bought your supplies on credit at the company store, and what you owed was deducted at the end of the year. Familiar story. I visited a miner's cottage that has been made into a museum. Central fire on the floor, smoke would have gone out the thatched roof via a chimney most likely. Very simple furnishings akin to those of Colonial America. Now the roofs have slate on them.

I do not know whether the Hasties were overseers of the mines, or miners. But the librarian in Wanlockhead told me that if they lived in the town for 4 generations, it is very likely that they were connected with the mines in some way. Were they the oppressed, or the overseers of the oppressed? Either way they would have participated in the pain and hardship of the capitalist system at its worst. It is no wonder that those who left, left. These villages were created entirely to mine and sell the lead for use out in the world; they had no other purpose.

There is NOTHING in Leadhills except cottages; a wee store selling newspapers, candy, and the odd banana; and a down-on-its-luck hotel and pub. I don't think the hotel is operating any more. It also has the miner's library, the first subscription library in the U.K. started in 1741. A wonderful older lady there is going to help me with family research on Saturday afternoon (I'll drive back there to do this). I walked up to the graveyard and spotted a few Hastie and Dunlop stones, but they do not have any names of ancestors that I know about.

I am in Moffat for the next 2 nights.

Love, A.

2007-07-09T11:51:00.000-04:00

Once there was a man named John Hastie and he had a son named John and hehad a son named John and HE married Margaret Strang or Strong, and theyhad 10 children, one of whom was named Helen, born in Leadhills in 1813.Helen moved to Airdrie (I frankly can see why; more on this below) andmarried one Thomas Beveridge whose roots were in Dunfermline, Fife County. Helen's parents and whole immediate family went over to America in the early 1830's. After marrying, Helen and Thomas followed. One of their children was Jeannette Clyde Beveridge; she married a Canadian doctor ofDutch extraction named James Dingman. They had 11 children one of whom wasNorman McLeod Dingman. The rest you know.

The sole reason Leadhills and its neighbor (1 mile away) Wanlockhead cameinto being was for the lead that was in the hills and mined. They are both mining towns and it is likely that anyone living there for 4 generations was involved in one way or another with the mines.Today I went on a tour inside a mine (no longer used). Very amazing.My B and B is basically a teency room in a familiy's home with no privatebathroom...The village of Leadhills has nothing except a wee store withcandy bars and newspapers, and a local pub with local -- well, yokels....Iam right now in Moffatt, a town nearby, and will locate a better place tostay in the next day or 2.That's all for now. I miss home a lot. I really appreciate our wonderfulChamplain Valley even more. It is very harsh (landscape and architecture)in Scotland. Love Annie

Strathpeffer

2007-07-05T15:30:00.000-04:00

...Sitting in an Internet cafe in an old Victorian spa town (sulphur springs -- like Saratoga or Ballston Spa). We have left Orkney and are headed back toward Glasgow, to arrive there Saturday evening.

I loved Orkney. Much more flat, farming country (they make the best commercial ice cream in the world there, Orkey ice cream), the landscape more like myown home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. We saw the Stones of Stenness -- huge standing stones more than twice the height of a person -- Maeshowe, the finest chambered tomb in northwest Europe; and the Ring of Brodgar which originally had 60 stones with exactly 6 degrees between each two. Also saw Skara Brae, the Flintstone-esque village all made of stone. All wonderful and amazing to see what these early people (we're talking 5,000 years ago) could build. Visited an Italian chapel built out of a quonset hut by Italian POW's during WW II. Beautiful trompe l'oeil painting on the wall to make it look like there was 3-D sculpture; plus beautiful 6x6" wood bas-relief carvings of Jesus' demise. Awesome.

We are all gaining weight as we constantly are stopping at places for scones with cream, or having desserts such as meringue hazlenut strawberry/whipped cream cake, Orkney ice cream, Sticky Toffee Pudding, and the list goes on. We're all a bit weary of the vegetables served wtih dinners: boiled potatoes, peas or broccoli, and carrots. I haven't seen a salad in 10 days. We've eaten salmon, haddock, cod, sea scallops with the foot attached....monkfish, smoked fish of various kinds, lamb, and Highland beef steak (yum). Breakfast is getting tiresome too, eggs and bacon, eggs and bacon, porridge, or eggs and bacon...

Well, that's all for the moment.

I hope everyone is well and that it's hot there! Swim for me. It's pleasantly warm but not hot.

The top of the world

2007-07-03T06:46:00.000-04:00

I am sitting in the library at Thurso, way up on the tippy top of the Scottish mainland. We've come many a mile since I last posted. We went to Iona where the highlight was a long walk down to the southern tip of the island, to the beach where St. Columba (Colum Cille in Gaelic) landed when he came from Ireland around 560 A.D. He got in trouble in Ireland and was kicked out; he vowed he would stop at the first place he reached from which he could not see Ireland. Hence his arrival on Iona.

We walked there through sheep fields and past the Atlantic ocean where I looked out toward Cape Cod and thought of all the times I've stood on Ballston beach looking toward Scotland. It was raining the whole walk; we passed bog Asphodel and Bell Heather, plus wild mountain thyme. The song's been with me ever since.

On the beach was a labyrinth -- 7-circuit classical-- built by a women's group some time ago. Afer walking the labyrinth we picked up pebbles. I've never seen so many pebbles in one place in my life. Caldeonian granite (salmon red), Iona greenstone, and marble shot through with the greenstone. The greenstone is wonderful. I have a bag of rocks that must weigh 10 pounds; not sure how I will get them home.

The other highlight on Iona was the Abbey that Columba built. Beautiful church which I had to myself briefly the morning we left. The font is made of the marble and greenstone -- it is gorgeous. I felt great peace sitting in the Abbey. There was also a "quiet corner" where you could put an intercessory prayer in a box which they look at on Tuesdays and pray for the people; also you could pin a prayer to a rough cross made of 2 sticks lashed together.

After Iona we took many ferries and drove many miles up hill and down dale for the next few days -- through Mull, crossing to Skye, through Skye, then Harris and finally Lewis where we landed at Callanish (Gaelic Callanais) to stay 2 nights and see the miraculous standing stones. Actually there was a smaller stone circle nearby, which I feel was a women's circle used for women's ceremonies. But no one really knows about these stone circles. Most of them have a burial chamber or chambers in the middle or outside the circles. The smaller circle is circa 5,-000 B.C.E.

Before Iona we spent 3 days in the Kilmartin Valley (on the mainland southest of Oban) which is a very sacred valley. Many burial cairns in a row, a stone circle called Temple Wood, standing stones, and cup-and-ring carvings, the meaning of which may never come to light...There is much more to tell but not enough time here.

We are about to get on the ferry for the Orkneys.

Other bits:

Sheep are part of the landscape here, always.
The food is good; I can see why Mom's family ate meat, potatoes, and vegetables, and why Norman had eggs each morning. Breakfast here is porridge and/or eggs, lean back bacon which is sort of like Canadian bacon, kippered herring or finnan haddie (smoked haddock)...

I have to stop. Time to go.

I love you all,

Annie

Who needs technology?

2007-06-27T06:21:00.000-04:00

Well guys, I don't know how much I'll be posting here. Some public computers won't give acccess when I try to sign on. I'll see. Love Annie

Ready

2007-06-20T19:45:00.000-04:00

It's 7:45 pm on Wednesday.... Tonight we're heading down to the Cape to Tom's, then Friday I'm flying out of Boston to Glasgow. Much love to you all, and see you in Scotland!

Annie

What the bees are doing today

2007-06-18T16:40:00.001-04:00

It's a beautiful June afternoon.

Thistle Hill Update

2007-06-17T21:46:00.000-04:00

The Christmas white pine is finally planted, with an Arborvitae hedge coming soon... (Thank you Todd H.) The rhubarb is in and strawberries are weeded. The bees have a nice wide board in front of their home so the grass and blackberries can't block their entrance. We hung up 6 bunches of mint to dry in the woodshed this morning. Two big pots with petunias and geraniums grace the back deck. In short, I've done as much as I can on the grounds of Thistle Hill, prior to my departure.

I'll be leaving behind peonies in full bloom, ripe strawberries, and a bumper crop of blackcaps. But never mind....I look forward to discovering the flora (or is it fauna?) of Scotland.

Meanwhile, indoors, Liz said it looked like a hurricane had hit the kitchen -- she left it in good shape a mere 24 hours ago and sadly, it reverted... The suitcase is too full, the credit cards can't decide whether to make their home in the money belt or the little wallet that goes in my backpack, and the lists just keep on coming, seemingly spontaneously generating out of thin air. I accidentally gave the cat a whole pill instead of a half tonight...this after almost taking one myself this morning!

Ah well, by hook or by crook I'll be out of here Wednesday evening...

Thanks to all for your support and encouragement.

Down to the Wire

2007-06-13T21:24:00.000-04:00

Back row (L to R): Alice, Helen, John Clarence, Ann, Thomas Alva, Mary, Nettie. Front row (L to R): Jeannette Clyde Beveridge Dingman (mother of the family), Malcolm (d. at age 8), Norman McLeod, Donald Dunlop (d. at age 12), James Alva Dingman (father of the family).
Hi All,

I will probably not get much posted for the next few days...I am leaving Thistle Hill Wednesday June 20 for the Cape for a day at Tom's, then flying out next Friday June 22 to Scotland. I'll try to post something about the trip before I leave.

Much love to all of you as I travel across the ocean and go back to the home land.

The photo above is of the James Dingman and Jeannette Beveridge Dingman family. Norman is front center on the left, standing next to his mother Jeannette. Jeannette was the daughter of Helen Hastie and Thomas Beveridge, who came over from Scotland. The village I am traveling to, Leadhills, is where Helen and at least 4 generations of Hasties before her were born.

Click on the photo to see a big version.

Yeah Jesse!

2007-06-10T08:30:00.000-04:00

Jesse's Day

2007-06-09T22:16:00.000-04:00

June 9, 2007: Today Jesse graduated from Mt. Abe! Congratulations, Jesse, on a job well done. Linda, Grandpa, Georgia, Demetrios, Annie, Jessie's Dad Brian and wife Jean, Emily, and Mo were all there to witness the event. Em's dad Sam and step mother Jane were also in attendance, along with Emily's sister Katey. So much cross-pollination!

Thoughts today for the family of Tom Hardie, who passed over to the spirit world on Tuesday, and whose life was celebrated today in Maryland.

We're going to have a lot of blackcaps

2007-06-09T22:12:00.000-04:00

The bees have been busy as, well, bees over the past 2 weeks, on the black raspberry flowers. Unfortunately I won't be around to enjoy the berries this year. They always ripen the week after school gets out.

Summer UK Trip Itinerary

2007-06-02T13:44:00.001-04:00

Hi folks, this is the brief version. More detail later.

June 22: Fly to Glasgow.
June 24-July 7: Northwest Coast of Scotland tour.
July 8-22: Leadhills, Lanarkshire, Scotland, to be where great-great-grandmother Helen Hastie and at least 4 previous Hastie generations lived.
July 23-25: Glastonbury, Somerset, England.
July 26-28: Cornwall coast.
July 28-30: Wells and Frome, birthplace of great-great-grandfather William Watson.
July 31: Fly from Glasgow to Boston.

The incredible drama in your own back yard

2007-06-02T11:38:00.001-04:00

Greywold Revisited

2007-06-01T23:30:00.000-04:00

Today, on the way home from Charlotte's graduation from Hotchkiss School in Connecticut, we visited Greywold in Monterey where Dad spent summers when he was a little boy. It looked wonderful. I had never been there. As soon as I stepped out of the car I began to see all the places Dad has talked about -- walking down through the meadow to the stream, the gardens which were Eva's specialty, and more. Unfortunately the owners weren't there so we couldn't go in. Still, it was a treat.

We also visited the studio of townscape artist Leonard Weber who gave me a print of his painting of Lee, Massachusetts.

New Haven Junction

2007-05-30T07:03:00.001-04:00

This is a common scene at this time of year at the Junction where the railroad tracks cross Route 7 and the old brick station still stands (now the offices of a local construction company).

Canada Geese mate for life, and I think this pair returns here every year to raise their young.

Bees have predators, too

2007-05-25T18:05:00.000-04:00

I instinctively felt it good to keep the grass short in front of the beehives that I just got last fall....It has been getting kind of long lately, and when I got home today I found this compelling reason that my instincts were good...

Field Report

2007-05-18T08:17:00.000-04:00

So many flowers and birds, it's hard to keep up with them. In Starksboro, a flock of bobolinks bubbled along the hedgerow as I walked down to Lewis Creek. Northern Orioles, red-winged blackbirds, meadow larks, and of course robins are all serenading us. Outside my bedroom window, the starlings continue to rear their young in the holes of the giant Eastern Cottonwood tree. The chokecherry trees are blooming. Choke berry is about to bloom (it's a native shrub), as is honeysuckle.

Pear and apple trees are blossoming in New Haven. I'm keeping an eye out for pollinating honey bees on them. Speaking of which, the bees are still working the ground ivy. Mustard is coming out now too, a big source of nectar for bees.

Wild strawberries (and cultivated!) are flowering, alerting us to those special spots where we will go to gather tiny bursts of sweetness in June.

Be sure to get out in the woods and enjoy the multitudes of flowers and birds. And watch out for porcupines and opossums on the road at night -- too many are being hit by cars.

In bloom at Thistle Hill

2007-05-14T20:50:00.000-04:00

Isn't spring great??! The apple blossoms are just beginning to come out. Dandelions are going strong. The little purple flowers are Ground Ivy, a member of the mint family.

Latest blooms

2007-05-14T20:13:00.000-04:00

The 2 old apple trees out back are just beginning to bloom. I don't know if the bees will find them but I certainly hope so. Can you spot the insects on the blossom? Hopefully they are not harmful. They look like aphids.

May flowers

2007-05-10T22:59:00.000-04:00

Spring is moving along. The trout lilies bloomed a few days ago. Today the violets came out, to mark Dad's 90th birthday and Jesse's 18th. We've had some hot weather yesterday and today. As usual we seem to have quickly jumped from early spring to mid summer!

Working hard at Thistle Hill

2007-05-01T22:22:00.000-04:00

Look at the huge quantities of pollen these workers are bringing back to the hive.

The Beauty of Spring

2007-05-01T22:09:00.000-04:00

The Red Trillium is out too... Such a part of spring in the Vermont woods.

May Day in Starksboro

2007-05-01T22:05:00.000-04:00

The Marsh Marigolds blossomed today in Starksboro.

Spring is Here

2007-04-29T19:00:00.000-04:00

These Dutchman's Breeches are blooming in amongst the shrubs outside my west window. Taken with my new digital camera which I bought for the trip!

Trip taking shape

2007-04-21T13:04:00.000-04:00

I've spent the morning today firming up a few plans for the trip, so it's beginning to take shape. The most exciting part is that I'll spend a fortnight (I'm starting to learn to speak like a Scot) in Leadhills where Helen Hastie, our great-great-grandmother, was born, along with at least 3 previous generations of the Hastie family. It is a tiny village in Lanarkshire, southeast of Glasgow and near the Clyde valley. I spoke this morning with Lynn, owner, along with her husband, of the B&B where I'll stay. She is so sweet. She's already made inquiries about the Hastie family and said something about "Nellie Hastie's barn" that some of the older residents know about.

I'll spend the last week of my trip down in Somerset and Cornwall, England, visiting Frome where great-great-grandfather and grandmother William Watson and Maria Silcox Watson came from, as well as Glastonbury and, on the coast, Tintagel where legend has it King Arthur was born. Out on the coast I'll stay at a youth hostel in Boscastle Harbor.

Pictures and links to follow.

Anticipation

2007-04-16T15:24:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting here with Dad talking about the trip, poring over maps, and trying to imagine that the snow is going to melt and summer will come and I will actually be in Scotland in 2 months!

2007-03-30T12:56:00.000-04:00

Summer UK Trip

This is where I'll be posting reports of my trip to the UK this summer. My trip to Scotland and England is beginning to take shape. I'm flying to Glasgow via Dublin on June 22, and returning home on July 31.

From June 24-July 8 I'll be touring sacred and ancient sites on the northwest coast of Scotland with labyrinthos.net, led by Kimberly and Jeff Saward. Jeff is one of the foremost labyrinth experts in the world. Click here to find out about the tour.

Map is from http://www.itraveluk.co.uk/maps/scotland.html