Giving Thanks

Dear reader, you may have guessed that I'm not the most dedicated journaller. I jot things down as the mood or inclination strikes, and as of late, I will confess to being exceedinly lethargic. So, please accept my deepest apologies for my sporadic entries and I will try to write more in the future.

This past weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving. I know some people are rather perplexed why we have our thanksgiving so early, but if you think about it, it does make sense. At this time of year, our harvesting is fairly well complete, with the exception of sugar beets and catnip (yes, I do know of people who grow catnip as a crop....be still your neko hearts!). As the harvest is over, it is only natural to partake of some of the bounty and give thanks for the blessings of the previous year. That and the thought of cooking two large turkey dinners within a month of each other fills even my stout heart with fear.

In celebration of this Canadian holiday, I hosted two "el fresco" dinners, on the lawns of Davaar and Rosehaven. Passers by were welcome to help themselves to a full turkey dinner plus an assortment of desserts, including pumpkin pie. I think in the future I am going to include recipes with my bakery items and the pumpkin pie recipe is *so* good that you can taste every blessed calorie. Yum!

So, on behalf of Lord Primbroke and myself, I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and were able to stop in for turkey dinner, as even though you may not celebrate it where your motivating spirit lives, it's always nice to have dinner and not worry about the dishes! Happy Thanksgiving!

The Honeymoon, Part Two

Upon arriving in Scotland, it became apparent to me how much my beloved had missed his homeland. For every mile of track the train sped along (at an amazing 30 miles per hour! Such breakneck speed!)he became even more keen on the surroundings and telling me about the land we were going through. I found it all very interesting...my dearest is a most knowledgable man to begin with, but to hear his keen enthusiam as he told me about the land he holds so dear to his heart made the topic all that more interesting to me as well.

We finally made it to the village of Dornie, which is near the Isle of Skye. We disembarked and made our way to the nearest lodging house, which was very comfortable. While it was not as fancy as some of the grande hotels we had been staying it, it was still clean, cozy and comfortable. The food was tasty, homey fare which when combined with the clean, bracing air of the countryside tasted as good as the fine cuisine we had dined on the past few days.



We set off for the castle Eilean Donan the next morning to explore it. As we crossed the lake on the ferry, the early morning mists hovered over the water, giving the scene a surreal feel. As we travelled along, the castle began to loom out of the vapour, looking ever inch the ancient castle it is.



We spent many hours, traipsing all through the castle, admiring the stonework and the artifacts inside. Such a huge structure! I could not imagine the amount of staff requried to keep that place functional...but I could understand what an excellent stronghold it made. Of course, all the climbing up and down the stairs (some of which were made for people of exceedingly short stature), we were tired. Fortunatly, the kind people had saw fit to leave a divan to rest upon, to build one's strength again for the long climb to the uppermost tower.


After we felt refreshed (which seemed to take a fair amount of time for some reason *smiles*) we set off and climbed up to the tallest tower to see the panorama such a vantage point afforded.



After a few more days of travelling around bonnie Scotland, we headed back wouth again and crossed the ferry to Ireland. We then headed to Dublin to see the sights of that lovely city. Our first stop was Trinty College where we were fortunate to be able to view the Book of Kells. Such beautiful scripting! It is truly a work of art and well worth seeing.



Finally, it was time to return home. As enjoyable and wonderful our honeymoon was, I will confess the thought of being able to settle into our own bed again appealed to me greatly. I hope the gardens of Davaar and Rosehaven had been blessed with rain and that nothing untoward had happened to either place. Crossing the threshold of Davaar was such a relief....until I unpacked and found the laundry...



Ah well...it's all got to be done anyhow. At least I had the fond memories of our wedding trip to think about!