Terrific Sunday!

Just had to create another post after the beautiful day we just had. It was super sunny, clear blue skies, and in the high 60s! Instead of doing "chores" I spent the afternoon driving around the area with Tux taking some photos and going on a walk. Wanted to make sure I got some photos of the lambs before they grow up or disappear. I've always been a sucker for sheep/lambs. There is a terrific lookout point just up the road from our house on Morven View - it is called the Queen's View. I gather Queen Victoria really liked the location. The first photo is a shot from that viewpoint.

Afterwards I took Tux to the Drummy Trail just outside Tarland. He loves going off leash there and we had the place to ourselves. What a way to end the day! Then I came home, hooked up my computer to Lynn's iPod speaker system and enjoyed listing to 104.3 My FM radio. I have to admit I'm not a big fan of the British radio stations. They have way too much DJ chatter for my taste. I just want to listen to MUSIC. I'm thankful for the internet and being able to listen as if I was sitting in Orange County. I've been entertained all evening. Just wish KLOS wasn't blocked ... oh, well, I'll live.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day weekend in the States!

Another week gone

I thought I would be creating more posts on this blog ... where does the time go? So another week has come and gone. I continue to get more and more settled here in Scotland. This week's accomplishments include getting my iPhone up and running which really helps me be in touch with folks. I can even do international texts without too much cost, which I'm sure will be handy in the future. I dropped Lynn off early (6:45 am) on Saturday morning for her "Across Scotland" activities week with a group of her kids. She will be biking, hiking, and kayaking across the country for a week - camping along the way. Thankfully the weather forecast for the week is looking reasonable - only a couple days of potential rain.

While she is away, several of her friends have reached out to organize activities so I won't get too lonely. Lesley came over on Saturday and we biked from a little village (Dinnet) to Ballater along Queen Victoria's old railway line. It was just my kind of ride - pretty flat! All told, it was about a 15 mile ride and we had nice weather. The photo is along the River Dee. Saturday evening I joined Lesley and her husband for a terrific Indian curry meal in Echt (a village along the road to Aberdeen). I'll definitely be going back there - my curry selection was super!

Yesterday another friend, Frieda, met me in Aboyne and drove me into Aberdeen for lunch in a park where there was a huge green house. She said she thought I would like it because there were a lot of plants from "home" ... and she was right. Lovely California poppies, and even some epiphilium plants like the ones I had from my mom. Brought back memories, that's for sure. We did a little shopping in the city then on the way back to Aboyne we stopped off at a vintage car show being held in Crathes. There were some real classic cars on display (2nd photo).

Today is a beautifully sunny day - perfect for mowing the grass and hanging out some laundry to dry. I'm sure Tux and I will manage a nice walk/hike in the late afternoon, too. Oh, and I learned that my Tustin house has been leased! Hurray! Means I'll have some income coming in to help cover some costs.

More later ....

Busy weekend

It is now Monday morning ... almost Monday afternoon. Catching up on things like emails, etc. and unfortunately fighting the beginnings of a cold. I blame the "warm" weather we've had here lately - it has been warm most of the time but then every once in a while a breeze picks up and I feel chilled. But I'm not going to complain (much) because all in all, it was a nice weekend and we were able to enjoy it. Played tennis Friday afternoon with Frieda - it felt really good hitting the ball. We are going to try to play again this Friday, too. I would like to get back into my tennis. There is one community tennis court here in Tarland and it sounds like a group of people play on Mondays and Thursdays, so I might check that out soon. (Since I've got this blasted running nose today, I'm going to pass on checking it out this evening.)

Saturday Lynn and I headed into Aberdeen and had a fair amount of success with our shopping. Picked up a few toiletrey items - some of the prices were a bit surprising. My contact lense solution costs close to 12 pounds - that's about double what I used to pay back home. I also signed up for an iPhone - but I still haven't set it up. I'm nervous about following the directions and downloading the UK version of iTunes on to my laptop - I don't want to wipe out all the music I have in the current USA version of iTunes. It was such a pain "reinstalling" all my iPod music when I got my new laptop 6 mos ago - I don't want to have to go through that all over again. This is the kind of challenge one faces when making a overseas move, I guess.

We also bought a barbeque! Still need to buy the gas cylinder for it before I can actually grill anything, but I'm looking forward to it. This Wednesday I'll be visiting Costco for the first time and supposedly they sell the same marinated salmon steaks that I used to buy in Tustin. Yummy. Saturday evening we enjoyed a BBQ at Caroline and Debz's house (which was on our way out of Aberdeen). It was a fairly nice evening to be eating outdoors (in Scottish terms, at least!) and the grilled chicken and corn on the cob tasted superb.

Yesterday Lynn and I played another round of golf - and this was the first time I turned in an official card with my score (107 ... not great but I've played worse). I need to turn in 3 cards before I am given a handicap. Once I have a handicap, I can start signing up for organized rounds/tournaments. That will be a good way to meet new people - not to mention hopefully improve my golf game.

The photo is actually from the weekend before but I wanted to prove to you that the sun does come out here and we can enjoy the backyard!

Welcome to my blog

Several friends and family members have been interested in hearing about my experiences as Tux and I adjust to our new life in Scotland, so I decided to create this blog. This way those who want to catch up with me can log into this site at their leisure, and I won't be flooding people's email Inboxes with updates and photos. Please give me feedback on what you read either by posting a comment here or sending me an individual email. I'd love to hear from you.

I'm new to blogging, of course, so I'm sure my initial posts will be pretty elementary. But hopefully as I play around with it more, I'll get better at creating interesting posts.

Tux and I have been here almost 2 weeks now. We flew out of LAX 2 weeks ago today. Hard to believe. Many/most of you received my group email letting you know I had made it here to Tarland without any issues. The home Lynn has rented for us is great! It is a relatively new home and is warm and cozy. We live on a street named Morven View because it looks out on to a mountain called Morven. (Seen in the photo above.)

Lynn has done a terrific job making Tux and I feel at home. She has lined up visits with various friends - everyone has made me feel very welcome. Today I'm off to play tennis with Lynn's friend, Frieda, who is a member of a tennis club in Aberdeen. I'm looking forward to picking up a racket again - though it will be Lynn's racket since mine is still in transit. Then we'll be meeting up with Lynn and Frieda's roommate Marie for an Indian curry dinner.

Lynn, me and the dogs have been on several great hikes already. Tux absolutely loves his new surroundings! Can you blame him? Especially since he is allowed off leash on most hikes ... that is, if Lynn and I feel he won't go running off chasing something. The photo is from a hike we did near a small fishing village just north of Aberdeen last Saturday. We have several hikes just outside our doorstep here in Tarland - I've only been on a couple so far but will discover the others in no time, I hope. This is one of the benefits of living out in the countryside. The surroundings are absolutely beautiful - quite a change from the streets of Tustin.

I promise to write more later ... with some of my observations of the differences between life here and back home. I hope you will enjoy reading my posts periodically.

Here I Am

Just a quick post for now to start off my blog ... I hope to use this to share some of my adventures here in bonnie Scotland!