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With the best intentions on the world we stopped posting on our blog several weeks before the end of our mission.  Since this is a sort-of journal of our mission here is a final blog post to wrap up the story of our adventures. The Mallaig Train trip AKA the Jacobite Express AKA the Harry Potter train Our last weekend travel expedition was to ride the train from Fort William to Mallaig on the Western coast. Trossach mountains, or hunchback trolls and goblins--you choose This is one of the notable Scottish tourist things to do because the scenery is beautiful, the train is a steam train (kept in immaculate working order). The Harry Potter movies made it famous, both for the train itself and also for the breathtaking shot of the train crossing the Glenfinnan viaduct. So we launched off one weekend with the weather predictions for constant rain, and rain is what we drove through pretty much all the way. It was a Sunday so we stopped for church in Perth and briefly visited with th
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Scottish flashes

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Holyrood Dawn The Edinburgh we love: This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks your heart again and again .        -- Alexander McCall Smith The view above is Holyrood Park in the early morning, but we have seen a thousand vistas just as beautiful. We have commented before on travelling through the countryside and sweeping around a bend to be astonished and delighted by profusions of green and blue and yellow. The last was a surprise to us, we didn't realize how much bright yellow there was, especially in the Spring. The yellows come from huge fields of rapeseed, braes covered in gorse, fields of daffodils, and verges bright with an honour guard of dandelions. Daffodils Dandelions Gorse Rapeseed These expanses of yellow are offset by a profusion of tiny flowers in the grass in a multitude of colours. But there is lots of green, and of course, trees in abundance. Dalkeith Chapel&
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A wee family history miracle

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I (Richard)  was taking an early morning stroll up past Canongate Kirk and passed the poet, Robbie Ferguson's statue.  I decided to step into the kirkyard to revisit the inscription Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about his fellow-author. The usual way through to the grave was blocked by construction and I was forced to go all the way around the church. As I rounded the back corner the name "Peddie" on a gravestone caught my eye.  William Peddie is the name of my ancestor, the Stirling Castle fort major from the 21st Foot, and also a current dead-end in our family history research in the 1800's, so  I needed to at least read this gravestone. William's death record tells us his father was Robert but we knew nothing about him. Imagine my excitement when I read the following: SACRED To the Memory of James Peddie Captn in the 21st Reg of Foot (Royal N. B. Fusiliers) Who died here on the 17th Novr. 1818 Aged Eighty This Stone is erected by his
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After dinner--The speech we almost gave?

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We had an All-Scotland Zone Conference on Thursday, with a visiting GA. There was a dinner for senior missionaries afterwards and we were asked to give a 20 minute presentation on our impressions of Scotland. The following is what we prepared, with a few additions as we are no longer limited to 20 minutes. We cut the presentation down a little/lot on the fly, as time was short. Preparing it was fun, so it would have been worthwhile even had we not presented it at all.. L: Climate. When we first arrived in Scotland, in the middle of January, it was dark when we drove to the office in the morning, and dark when we left the office in the evening. Most of the time it was both dark and damp, and on occasion the sidewalks were icy. After a few weeks of this we turned to each other and said, "why would anyone live in a place like this?" Last weekend we took a much anticipated trip northward, to visit the villages and towns where my ancestors lived according to 18th cen
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Castles and Beaches

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As our remaining weeks in Scotland start to thin out, we find ourselves more interested in castles again. We joke about having renewed our Historic Scotland membership, and visiting more ancient sites so we can get the most out of it, but at the time we renewed we already viewed our payment as a donation to a cause that we support. We think preserving and sharing this country's historical heritage is a worthwhile occupation. However, since we renewed our membership just a few weeks ago we have visited abbeys in the borders, a palace in Lothian, and a couple of castles in the Kingdom of Fife, and enjoyed it all. We even managed to find and admire another beach or two while we were exploring. Linlithgow Palace is famous for being a place that James V liked to show off - and he did like to show off. He was one of those super-wealthy people who is only happy when people realize and are amazed at how wealthy and powerful he is. He was responsible for the building of the ornate fountai
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A long week and its end

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The pace of life and our mission appears to have increased. One would think that with our vast (ahem) experience in the office, we would be on top of everything by now, well organized and generally imperturbable. It hasn't been like that. We seem to be pushing ourselves harder and harder, and are truly grateful for the remarkably good health with which we have been blessed. We are working our heads off, but are still managing to enjoy ourselves, mostly. With the last transfer, we found ourselves working a twelve- day week. Our Saturday P-Day evaporated into a working day, and we came into the office straight from our Ward responsibilities on the Sunday. Richard worked in the office while I yoyoed between the office and helping to prepare a farewell dinner for the departing missionaries. It was all the Lord's work we were doing, but it still felt a little weird doing office work on a Sunday. The biggest trigger for all this extra work was  (wait for it) Introducing Smartphon
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Flowers, temple and glorious lanes

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So, this past week we bounced in and out of the office.  We left the office early on Monday afternoon (shortly after 3 p.m. in the hope of avoiding the worst of the traffic) to drive up to Aberdeen for Tuesday's North Scotland Zone Conference. On Tuesday we attended the zone conference, which we left a little early (in the hope of avoiding the worst of the traffic) to drive back to Edinburgh. 'Tis the season of daffodils, which grow in wild abundance along the verges. While near Aberdeen we dawdled through Stonehaven. Truly a seaside village worthy of being added to our memories Of note are the whimsical steel statues along the board walk. And yes, if you look closely all these vessels are crewed by fishy denizens The dolphin is more conventional but beautifully proportioned. And the sea was so boisterous we saw actual breakers, rather rare in these parts. Stonehaven also boasts the "Carron Fish Bar", which claims to
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