Alentejo Animals

Prosciutto was so happy to have a doggy friend. 

 I can't keep all of the horses straight, but these are young males.

multiple generations of mares, all lined up for some human attention

Prosciutto still thinks that lying on the floor is beneath his status in life. He quickly took over this cushioned bench as his outside station.

This was a crazy coincidence. We were trying to convince Sebby to keep walking along with us as he stopped to investigate every single thing along our walk.  Moojie said "Oh look! I think I see wild boar!" I looked at him like "are you serious?" and he gave me the look exchanged in our house a thousand times a day that says "work with me as I try to pull the wool over Sebby's eyes."

 So we all played along looking for Moojie's imaginary wold boar, and what should we spot at the foot of the hill but eight wild boar.

Are they not the cutest little babies? I did a some googling and discovered that up to 10 months old, they are called "squeakers." I'm dying. Over 7 years old, and they gain the title of Grand Old Boar.

They took off almost immediately, but I finally had my lens cap off and was ready to get the picture. I don't know if I was more excited about seeing the squeakers or being able to use my telephoto lense.

This is Pepita the puppy, all grown up and hiding in the grass.

A herd of older mares...

Again, my lense was put to work as I captured this stork picking at slugs in a far away field.

A new foal

A new breed of cows has been introduced.There are pure Alentejo cows that are all brown, and these mixed breed larger cows (although these are tiny babies) that are "steak cows" as Pai calls them. Such a happy life they lead until the end.

This guy gets A LOT of treats when Sebby is in residence.

I've covered scenery and animals, now I have to narrow down the hundreds of people pictures I took.

Quinta Circuit For Easter Break

We're just back from the Alentejo with enough time to settle in, turn over the laundry, and then head north to Foja. I'm dying to share my Alentejo pictures from my new camera. We saw a double rainbow, a family of wild boar, storks, lots of cutie calves, new foals, and flowers blooming everywhere. It was a weekend of pure visual delight. I'll start with the scenery shots.

 Wild lavender is in bloom all over the place. I always managed to kill our garden lavender, and here at the farm, it grows out of rocks with zero care.

 I was kind of freaking out about the way the sun was hitting the meadow. It just didn't look real.

Okay, one more rainbow shot and that's it for now.

Scotland: Part II

First thing after breakfast, we made the long and familiar drive from Edinburgh to St. Andrews. We were quickly reminded of how remote St. Andrews is.

Freddy was in a contrary mood and refused to wear a coat.

Not too grumpy for a jumping shot, however.

We used to take Moojie down to that tiny beach below the castle.

Most of the cafes and pubs have changed or closed since we lived here, but Janetta's was still going strong. We loved going there multiple times as week, so a stop at Janetta's for ice cream had to be done.

It really is the cutest little town.

I had corporate finance right there on the second floor of this building despite this being the faculty of divinity.

 A row of houses along North Street

 Below is Younger Hall, where we took all of our exams and where I had piano and music classes.

 We walked into the quad right as students were going into lectures. It was so hard to believe how young all the students look. Could we really have been such babies? No way!

 A student was playing the pipe organ as we walked into the chapel on the quad. It made me wish we had gotten married here. It is such a magical, special place.

Below is where we lived in first year, and most importantly where I first met Pai! It was brand new at the time, and now looks like an out of date hospital. 

This was our house in second year on Drumcarrow Road. It had horrible 70s swirly carpet and even worse brown and orange patterned curtains. The children became familiar with the term"pebble dashed house." The upstairs window was Pai's. My room overlooked the back garden.

For third year with Moojie on the scene, we moved back into town to this little two story stone house on Market Street. There is now a Starbuck's right across the street. Oh, how easy kids these days have it. 

Moojie 15 years ago on the same steps coming down from our front door.

For our last year, we split our time between the top floor flat (below) on Queens Gardens, and the other flat in Edinburgh. I thought Moojie might remember this flat, or this street, but he didn't.

We still visited his old nursery school, and lots of other little things around town, but I have to feed the kids lunch and wrap this up.