Rescue operation ~ Sophia

There was a bit of excitement before I left for ARML yesterday, when our neighbor across the street knocked on the door to let me know there was an injured bird in the yard, and ask if I knew what to do with it. It turned out to be one of our local green parrots, and another neighbor helped us capture it and is passing it along to a friend of hers who works at a bird sanctuary and will be able to fix it up.

Catching the bird

Checking its wings

Sticks are better to bite than fingers

Safe at last

Trail to the Rock and Spindle

 We walked down the coastal trail and saw nine different kinds of wildflowers. The yellow gorse flowers were the most common, though there were lots of bluebells, too. The gorse made the air smell sweet and syrupy, much like it smells outside the snowcone stand.
  We turned around at the rock and spindle, though the trail goes on about forty miles and ends at Edinburgh. The rock and spindle is the result of a volcanic vent about three million years ago. The twisted, circular spindle formed when the rock cooled.
  Bibi only kept going on the way back because she knew there would be ice cream at the end. 

                                                            Down the coastal trail

 

                                                         Bibi's favorite part of the trail

                                                              The goal of the journey

                                                           Us to show how big it is

                                                               End of the journey

Edinburgh Museum

 

                                    James Watt, Bibi, and Maeve in the Edinburgh Museum

                                                          Napier discovered logarithms

                                Mommy's favorite exhibit - a collection of glass sea creatures

                    Bibi's favorite exhibit, a giraffe that looks up at you on the second floor

Three Things (by Sharon)

M and B reenact the murder of Cardinal Beaton in front of the castle gate. His Eminence's remains were apparently then stored in a chest full of salt, in the castle's Bottle Dungeon. Maeve likes history.

The ruined cathedral in the mist, from the ruined castle. Chilly today.

The 'Sun' Room. Windows on two walls and skylight. Surprisingly warm, and only made cozier by the cold shrieking wind and bursts of drizzle that blow off the bay onto the windows.

travelling and our new house (by Maeve)

We spent all day traveling on two planes, a bus, a train, and a taxi. The airports especially took awhile, because we had to stand in a long line to check our bags, and two long Security lines, in Austin and then Edinburgh. Nobody slept much on the plane. Then we arrived at our rental house, with uncooperative heater and internet. Poor Mommy.
  On the other hand, our house looks out on the beach. You can see the playground from its windows. the beds have very warm covers, and the house has three stories. And Daddy has discovered how to run the heater, and what the internet password is.
  Bibi and I have plans for tomorrow. We plan to go to the beach, the castle, and the cathedral, as well as walking down the coastal trail with Mommy. We should also sleep in in the morning. Bibi is already nearly asleep.

Last-minute packing ~Sophia

It's Sunday afternoon, and we're packing up to head off to Scotland -- "we," of course, not including me. Maeve and Bibi feel that a key part of the preparation is getting in a last time with their favorite non-Scotland-compatible toys (a card game for Bibi, the trampoline for Maeve). Those with more conventional views on travel preparation are finishing the packing, cleaning, and last-minute planning. In just a couple of hours, everyone else will be off to the airport, and I'll have the house to myself.

Bibi contemplates the nature of existence.

Bibi has had a lot of questions about what the trip will entail; she likes to go over every detail of what she can expect to happen in preparation for any new experience. Security featured prominently in the discussion, since she's had problems in security before when she wasn't able to give them her name. She'll be wearing her ID bracelet this time, so she can either answer their questions or point to the bracelet. Of course, this led to lots of questions about why they have to ask her ("to make sure that we're not stealing someone else's children") and then of course why someone might steal someone else's children. She had a theory on the latter point (having heard much discussion of luggage logistics) that they might want children so they could have an extra carry-on.

Maeve had a lot of planning to do, apparently.

Bibi's been expressing a lot of theories about How The World Works lately. Her definition of a computer was memorable: "an electronic device that can do lots of things, and shuts." (The last point seemed to be important in order to distinguish it from an ipad).

So endeth the first post. Maeve should begin posting in the next couple of days with news on Scotland and the trip thereto, while I'll have another couple of weeks before I head of to Iowa and subsequently Potsdam. (Budapest will follow in the fall.) Maeve's excited for a new medium in which to express her opinions on every subject under the sun, from the inhabitants of Maeveland to her favorite part of an airplane ride. ("Taking off.")