England and Scotland: Part I

 We've been trying to get back to Scotland since we left almost 15 years ago. Something always got in the way, but this year we vowed to make it work before Moojie is an adult. My mom arrived just in time to house/dog/cat/Sebby sit for us.

Pai and the kids left a day early to visit the ancestral home his grandmother grew up in, and where his mother visited during the Summer as a child.  Here they are walking the grounds of the house- somewhere in Lancaster County. The kids met their grandmother's cousin who they were amused to discover has a dog called "Meg."  They were also able to visit the cemetery where many of their ancestors are buried.

That night they drove to Glasgow in wretched rainy conditions and were met with bagpipers at the door of the hotel. A ball of some sort was happening in the hotel so their immediate introduction to Scotland was men in kilts walking all around the lobby plus bagpipers.  No photos, of course.

Pai met me at Edinburgh airport the next day around lunch and it immediately felt as if we never left. We just kept walking to the wrong side of the car. There are three places in the world where I feel completely at home and Scotland is one of them. 

 It was freeeeeezzzing up at the castle.

  That afternoon, Pai and I took a walk together through his old law school quad, the book store where we spent so much time warming up, killing time, and getting school books, and then later we met up with the kids and showed them our old flat.

We used to walk through this dark tunnel to get to Arthur's Seat. Tomás was terrified at the time and called it the "túnel do lobo," or the "wolf's tunnel." He didn't remember much of anything from our years in Scotland, but he did remember this tunnel.

 Our flat was right there on the ground floor, with our living room window behind Moojie's head. Freddy had had enough of the cold and walking by this point and opted to stay at the hotel.

We did a little more driving around and couldn't stop sharing old stories with Moojie and Zita. They were good sports and listened to it all!

Next up: St. Andrews

Rugby in Photos

It turns out that a good camera doesn't always make good photos, but I try...

 I caught Moojie's assist, but the rest of the play seemed to happen everywhere I wasn't.

 I can't help but think of National Geographic scenes of wolves taking down a Bison.

 Number 13 went on to score a try right after this shot!

I had to leave at half time to catch Zita's tennis tournament and then Moojie was injured in the following game so there's no rugby until April. That doesn't leave many games left on this rugby team. I can't dwell on too many of these "lasts," or I would be a in a puddle of tears every day.

Tennis Lately

I kind of forgot I even had a blog in these past two months. I'm just going to pick up with all of the sports we've had in the last weeks.

Freddy and Zita did a tennis tournament in mid Febraury. Freddy was happy to do it, Zita not so much.

 He played on a far court on the other side of a chain-link fence for his first match, so I got no pictures of that, but for the second match I stood at the gate where coaches normally stand.
Freddy is never too bothered about winning or losing and looks bewildered at the many tears shed by other boys when they lose.

I took a million pictures of Zita, not because of favoritism, but because she had good center courts, good light (except for the first game), and played a lot more matches. She took second in the 14 and older category! 

When Sebby saw her trophy, he said "oh look Zita! You won some cheese!" In fact it does look exactly like a wedge of cheese. 

Random Bits of January

Winter finally arrived in the the form of rain and temps in the 50s. Everyone has their ski coats and arctic snow gear out, and the streets are emptier as people stay in from the "cold." 

We went straight from the Alentejo to my neice's 5th birthday party on the 2nd. Zita I and relish chosing little girl clothes and settled on a sparkly dress, a skirt, and a subtly glittered cardigan. 

 Prosciutto and Seb are inseparable. He is the most gentle-giant sweetheart to ever roam the earth. If only he would stop digging full on graves in our lawn we would love him all the more.

 No room for senioritis with Mooj. He has to keep up the pace until the very end of June when he takes his final exams that determine college admissions. Still, it's a pretty sweet deal to be Mooj right now with everything else he has going on.

Morning cuddles

Mooj, Freddy and I have been playing a lot of Mexican Train Dominoes with Hearts thrown in for variety every once in a while.

 Sorry, I know everyone is over the dog, but I can't help it. And, for every picture I post of Prosciutto cuddling with Sebby, there are 100 more on my phone that I'm not posting.

 Rainy mornings have meant a lot of time playing in the sink. I've started buying the cheapest dish soap at Aldi just for Seb who goes through an entire bottle in one session.

 The second the rain stopped on Sunday, we hopped out of the car and did the Guincho loop.

 This is, without a doubt, one of Sebby's top happy spots. Visiting Guincho in rainy weather is good training for our upcoming trip to the UK.

One week of Winter was quite enough. This week brought sun and Spring to the garden. The loquat rippened. The Jasmine all have purple buds on the brink of flowering, and the orange blossoms overwhelm with their sweet smell. It also looks like we'll have a blanket of freesia on the entire lower-half of the lawn. 

Now we're back to lazing on the trampoline and dallying away the morning outside. Next up, Zita's birthday and a million more pictures on my phone.

Another New Year In The Alentejo

Sent from my Samsung device

Someone Missed Us While We Were Away....

Hint: It wasn't Moojie 

Sent from my Samsung device