Scotland: Scone Palace

Scone Palace (pronounced to rhyme with spoon) has been of interest to me for at least twenty years but this was my first visit. Before I was married I worked as a secretary and part of that job meant helping to prepare for graduate-level history courses. Oh what fun!!! I suppose that's where my love for church history really took root. Late in the week I would receive the lectures for Friday evening and begin to decipher them into an outline that would then form the basis for student notes and overhead projector flip displays (this was just before Powerpoint came into its own). Then I would take all the materials to the class and sit and flip the displays over as Dr. B lectured. In this way we went through four semesters of church history: Ancient, Early, Medieval, and Reformation (with special emphasis on Scotland). 

Dr. B certainly communicated a lasting love for studying these subjects and sometimes the way he would communicate things left you with an almost magical imagination of certain places. Somehow the Stone of Scone or Stone of Destiny made its way into those lectures and has fascinated me since. In early and medieval days this was the place (the little mound outside the castle, not yet pictured) where the kings of Scotland were crowned and they were crowned while sitting on this sacred stone (which now resides inside Edinburgh Castle and is taken down to Westminster Abbey for present day coronations and fitted into the special coronation throne on display there). 

So the castle has been on my list for awhile......

The present-day castle is interesting enough but only dates to the beginning of the 19th century. There is nothing left of Scone Abbey which made this a sacred place and ideal situation for crowning kings.

The property has been owned by different families over the years as they fell in and out of grace with the current reigning king. The rooms were lovely to walk around (no pictures allowed) and they had an especially nice gift store with food products from the Scone estate.

And there were lots of peacocks roaming about!!!

And a beautiful maze which was quite hard for some to navigate! (Good thing there was a lookout tower!)

Acres and acres of lovely places to walk.

And even some blackberries to enjoy! (I am always on the lookout!)

An historic fir tree!

The bowling green (I think).

The best time to visit this palace would be during rhododendron season -- the place was covered with them and I can just imagine the beauty of when they are all in bloom!

An old graveyard:

And an old mercat cross:

Standing by the gates which were created to look ancient and run down!

They provide a beautiful entrance to the palace area:

At the side of the grounds was a playground for children -- always helpful for children that are not as enthusiastic about history as the adults might be!

I am always interested in outbuildings. I think some of these were the stables and have been converted into homes:

And this is the modern day chapel on Moot Hill outside the palace. This hill is THE place for crowning the kings.

And here I am! I made it! After all those years of having this stone swirling around in my mind. (We also got to see the original stone when we were at Edinburgh Castle.)

Beautiful coat of arms in the side of the chapel:

Quite an ornate interior of the chapel:

A longer view of the palace:

Now I hope these images will stay in the children's minds and perhaps one day they will be just as enthusiastic about church history!

Words and Wool

It's our latest winter storm!!! The kids are really enjoying the snow because the temperatures are not too cold! And, they got up early to get their schoolwork done before I was up so that they could spend the day outside!

Which was very providential because I am behind on getting ready for my craft class that begins tomorrow. Homeschool Group starts up again and I am teaching a class to Jr. High and Highschool girls -- six weeks, six crafts. I do love this age group so much and hope that we will have six very fun weeks together!

Working on the next order of flowers. Lots of deadlines this week.......

And when I can, I weave the ends into another square or two. Believe me, my mind is going absolutely crazy with things I could be knitting or sewing. The possibilities are endless and it is frustrating to only work on one thing at a time. :) But, must not let myself go crazy so I will stick with this for now.

I have the same problem with reading that I have with needle arts: far too many options float through my mind and onto my bookshelf and bed stand. And, it's one of those weeks where I haven't had much time to read (hmmmm....maybe those deadlines are to blame).

One evening a week is currently devoted to Downton Abbey and Sherlock.

Sherlock: Season Three was good! Certainly impressed that they managed to keep the story going and by the end of the final episode I was quite pleased with how the writers had made everything work out. I also find it very fun that they got "Watson's" wife in real life to play his wife in the series!!! (And, apparently, "Sherlock's" parents in real life play his parents in the show too!)

Behind the Scenes at Downton Abbey by Emma Rowley -- making little tiny steps of progress in this if I can get a minute to sit down during various stages of dinner prep. Not really happening...... but really looking forward to spending more time with this!

The Pioneer Woman Cooks: A Year of Holidays: 140 Step-by-Step Recipes for Simple, Scrumptious Celebrations by Ree Drummond. The Pioneer Woman is always a fun read. She's a bit like an American version of Nigella Lawson -- if you don't push the comparison too far. I love books centered around holidays although I feel like Ree decided on her outline and went and found a bunch of recipes to fit rather than sharing her own traditions (although she does that too!). Hoping to find a few recipes to try out this month.....


Longbourn by Jo Baker. Still working on this. I think it would be more enjoyable if I had bigger chunks of reading time (this seems to be a theme...). Still, I think it is well written though Jane Austen was more delicate in the way she describes some things.


A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L'Engle -- I finally opened this up again. I was stuck in the middle after our trip last fall. I enjoy L'Engle, even though she is "out-of-the-box". She makes me think and I like that. And she often has very good observations on life and helpful quotes.

Well, time for me to go back to working on my craft class. For more ideas on knitting and reading, visit Ginny's yarn a long.

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Mondays are for Grace

"Faith is relying on God in the context of risk."

-- Liam Goligher  

The Tea Trolley: On to February

So it is the first of February! Michael must have changed the calendar because I saw a new picture on the fridge this evening and then thought about why it was there. There was rain pattering on the roof today. A welcome change from snow. It sounded refreshing and smelt of spring. But of course the predictions are for significant snowfall next week! What a winter!

Life continues in a pattern of days, well-marked by the lessons and classes that the children are enrolled in and of course the doctor appointments that fill the calendar (I'm a doctor-mom not a soccer-mom). Tonight we are all moping about like zombies, wondering why we are so dead tired and how soon we can go to bed. Except for Michael, he's tired too, but he says its because our day was full and the church bowling outing must have been physically challenging too! As soon as I can get the children through the bath I'm headed to bed myself!

I have to post this picture because that hyacinth has been making me happy all week long! It's perfume fills my bedroom and all through the day I smile because of its scent. When I wake up in the morning it is there and when I walk by it adds a bit of a spring to my step. Cheap therapy at $2.50!

Tea is pretty cheap therapy too.... Here's a picture of "his and her" teas. Michael's tray with the green mug and mine with the pink. We seldom manage to drink tea together so it was nice when this happened (maybe Sunday afternoon?).

When all else fails, toast with jam is such a delicious treat for tea -- this toast had homemade Quince jam from a friend!

I had tea with my neighbor and we tried Lemon Grey which I had brought back from Scotland. It was nice. I pretty much like any tea in the Grey family, even though it seems more China-based than Indian (Indian tea being by far my favorite). The lemon added a nice zip.

Since the fall my energy has been less than in recent years. Life just keeps coming and sometimes it is even hard to stop and take time to rest and revive. One day I spent a few minutes looking through my blogroll and found the inspiration from numerous blogs to take time out for a pot of tea. I found flowers, a candle, and some treats. Yes, the work was worth it and it did make a difference.

Last week I met a friend for tea/coffee over a book discussion. There is a place in Carmel that serves good tea and this time I ordered a White Peach (they save the leaves so you can have a free refill too!).

Last Saturday I made my favorite gluten free scones for a visit from an old friend who came to visit. We shared a pot of tea and caught up on years of life, including how God recently brought The One into her life after many years of waiting. Answered prayers like that are always cause for rejoicing!

Last Saturday was Burn's Night in Scotland. I thought it would be fun to make a sort of Burn's Supper with sausages instead of Haggis. Even though I was SO tired I went down and made the dinner.

Also because I'd promised James that he could make the dessert of his choice -- the Queen of Puddings. Oh my. Well, just as dinner was nearly ready to be served up Laura fell off a kitchen stool and gave herself a small concussion. Since she started vomiting that meant Michael needed to take her straight off to the ER, their second Saturday evening in three to spend at the ER. So much for our Burn's Supper. But, the kids and I ate and waited nervously to hear the results from Laura -- praise God there was no damage and she was sent home on anti-nausea meds and told to rest.

 James' pudding came out very nicely and it was a perfect bed-time snack.

Midweek found us sharing lunch with Auntie C and the cousins. The color of food never ceases to amaze me! And check out the matching flowers!

 Somewhat unrelated to tea, but important in our week, Rachel spent a day shadowing at a local high school. Yikes! Highschool is just around the corner! She loved her day and we shall see how things unfold for the fall.

Andrew kindly baked us a cake for company on Thursday night. Gluten free yellow cake with a cooked blueberry filling (which I added) and whipped cream on top. Delicious! Enjoyed with African Summer tea.

And yesterday I had the rare treat of visiting my mom at her snuggery (snuggery: a snug, cozy place; especially a small room). She had tea treats all ready for us.

There was a tray of real tea for her and a tray of decaf tea with rose for me.

And I was treated to a Bananas & Cream yogurt from Trader Joe's. Yum!!!!

And then we proceeded to have a painting lesson. Winter scenes are my favorite!!!!

I think it has been a full two weeks and now I better clean those babies and get us all to bed ASAP!