Friends and family

Other families living here in Dalkeith House have had friends and family visit for five days or a week. We have been lucky--Joe College Grad visited, with his girlfriend, for two days before jetting off to Paris and Barcelona. My great school friend, who lives in the UK, visited for a day and a half, and some of that time she was conducting business--meeting clients, etc. Since Dalkeith House has a little restaurant on site in a converted stables, she had an ideal location.

The point being--it's great to have visitors who leave you wishing they had stayed just a little longer, rather than the other way around. Now we're on our own again with happy memories.

St. Giles

Easter at St. Giles Cathedral. Actually it's not a cathedral, and the Church of Scotland officially does not admit that such a thing properly exists. But, before the 16th century, it was a cathedral, and old habits die hard. A lovely, very simple service, with an excellent performance of Britten's Te Deum, and some big pipes on the organ vibrating the primarily 14th century structure. The semon decried religion that was only "morality with organ music", but that sounds pretty good to me.