Remembering

Oslo 22/7

Solar eclipse!

Another delayed post showing some excellent photos from the solar eclipse. We viewed the eclipse by projecting an image of the sun through Iain's binocular onto a sheet of white paper. Fascinating!

Last weeks' events

The most exciting thing that's happened the past few weeks are:

1) visit to Norway-Scotland

2) looking after Ky the cat
3) 17th May celebration (in Davis)

4) solar eclipse
5) bonchitis
6) HMQ's jubilee (also in Davis)

... Here follows a super quick summary of our Northern European adventure:

A walk up Dalsnuten to fight the jetlag

Kilt and bunad

Magnus at his confirmation

Demonstrating how to use an air gun...

Sunny day in Stavanger

Lysefjorden

Iain feeling a little scared!

Weather coming in...

Ten minutes later... 

Scottish dog on Scottish beach! We're in Aberdeenshire!

Iain and Misty

A Scottish BBQ (and PIL get together) at Jenny's cottage in Tilly 

Celebrating my 11 111th day of life!

A quick walk up the local hills

We're in Chicago (again) !!

I have a thing for Chicago. It is a city with a fantastic feel to it and I was glad to be back for the... third (?) time. We went to blues bars, jazz bars, book shops, Lincoln Park zoo, the field museum and of course (although not for long) to CNS at the Palmer Hotel. 

Next time I want to see Chicago in summer!

Yes I did... Again.

The great thing about forgetting our anniversary was that I got a wonderful surprise upon arrival at home: flowers in a vase and Iain all dressed up in shirt and trousers ready to take me out to Osteria Fasulo. On top of all this I had only just submitted a paper and been out for ice cream with Bobell AND a whole box of books had arrived from betterworldbooks.com. When we got back from dinner the sky was clear and we went for a late night bath in the jacuzzi. Thank you, Iain (and California!) for an awesome day.

We're gardening!

This sunny Sunday we have spent making our patio pretty for the summer. Iain has brushed every square inch of the floor and stamped (or burnt) over a hundred black widows! We have planted dozens of tomato seedlings (for the interest of the knowledgeable: gardener's delight, roma, supersweet 100, grape and early girl). Most of these will be transported to our newly acquired garden allotment on campus once they're ready and the rest we will try to grow on our patio or give away to friends. We have also planted marigold seeds, hot peppers, chives, sage, chocolate mint, oregano, parsley, spring onions, cilantro (aka coriander) and lavender. Basil is to come and we already have a grape vine, rosemary and a few flowers. This evening we harvested our sugarsnap peas and magetout which we had in a salad for dinner. Yum.

We have grand plans for our allotment that we're sharing with friends Alyssa and Mariam. So far we have planted peas and potatoes (although it may already be too late for them!), aspargus, lettuce, rocket salad and some other salady bits. Later we will grow peppers, strawberries, melons (if Iain can be convinced) and whatever else we can think of! The garden that our allotment is located in has a number of communal fruit trees, grape wines and lots of blackberries. We've done well and pictures will follow! For now, enjoy Iain's predictions regarding the future looks of mr garden plot!

PS Caroline: it's true - Iain now says tomaytoes! It is really strange...

Some old news... Part I

I was looking through our photos from the past couple of months and suddenly came to reliase how we haven't shared our December bike trip around San Francisco and to the Marin headlands! We were in San Francisco for the weekend to see the National by the civic centre. It was a wonderful show - although we were shattered from all our adventures during the day. Our plan was to take the ferry over to Angel Island, cycle around the island and the hike to the top to enjoy the view of the city. The ferries are not very regular though and we missed our only chance to go across in the morning. So instead we cycled along the piers, past the Golden Gate Bridge,  through Presideo Park, through Golden Gate park and then up through the city centre and to the civic centre. The weather was glorious and it was already December!!

San Francisco

Iain at the Golden Gate

The Marin Headlands on the other side

Wearing a helmet, dad!!

The hilly city

Sun setting just outside the Golde Gate Park

The next day we packed some lunch, checked out of our Days Inn motel room and cycled back down to the piers and this time over the bridge. There we took a brief stop at the vista point before we cycled through a tunnel and down to the Marin Headlands to the left of the bridge. Weather was still sunny and beautiful and we cycled all the way to the beach where we had lunch before we took off past the missile base and all the way to the little light house. There we saw peregrine falcons and seals and lots of pelicans. Wildlife success! We took a tractor road back up it was terribly steep so we had to walk our bikes most of the way (also turns out hybrids don't like tractor roads!). We got to the vista point at the left of the bridge just as the sun was setting and it was the best of views (although getting a bit chilly!). Then we cycled back across the bridge and to the embarcadero where we caught the bus back to Emeryville from which we took the train to Davis.

Pelican!

Lunch looking over the beaches, Marin Headlands

San Francisco in the background 

Tiny light house on the edge of a cliff

Seals!

Look at the state of his jeans, Caroline!