dorothy hope mitchell 1917-2009

sadly, greg's grandma died on 21st februrary, 3 days after her 92nd birthday.
we were able to celebrate with her and spend some time with her before she died but even 92 years is too short a time to be here.

we are immensely blessed that she was a woman of strong christian faith and character, a good and faithful servant of our Lord Jesus Christ and a precious member of our family. she will be long remembered for her hospitality, patience, kindness and love, for her generosity in time and especially in cakes! we miss her terribly but she is today in paradise with Jesus.

"I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty...For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day." (John 6:35, 37-38)

goodbye edinburgh...hello sydney

we bid jess and byron farewell - with large cups of coffee and hot chocolate at the airport to celebrate a great time away.

sadly, we came home earlier than planned as greg's grandma was unwell.
we will continue to use this blog to show some pictures of the rest of our holiday in sydney and stay tuned for our adventures in vietnam from the 31st march!

castles, gardens and learning about medieval times

some more photos from the weekend away...

caerlaverock castle - the only triangular castle in scotland! built in the 1200s and overthrown by Edward II while england was trying to conquer scotland - still quite intact, and you can climb up a few floors.greg standing on the mote of mark, a dark ages trading post outside the lovely small town of rockcliffe. although you can't see them in this photo, the town is also very modern, building a wind farm just out to sea - very controversial for the locals.
sweetheart abbey - the grass forms a luscious green carpet inside the ruins of this church
the gardens on threave estate were quite beautiful despite being the depths of winter - these stone pots are made of shale pieces stacked on top of each other - no glue! we fortunately resisted the urge to try and push them over!

dumfries and galloway - sw scotland for the weekend

we drove across to sw scotland with jess and byron for a long weekend, staying in the granary cottage of a lovely estate. beautiful scenery near the south coast of scotland on the firth, many old castles and abbeys, good food and board games!
here are some pictures from our first few days - threave castle (above - on the estate where we stayed); Cairn holy - 4-6000 year old standing stones (in the middle of a field); and Whithorn priory - a church and graveyard in the town which celebrates St Ninian (he was a bishop who brought Christianity to Scotland in circa 500AD)


see Jess's blog again for more photos and details.

edinburgh - home of the haggis

Edinburgh - beautiful once day...
...snowing the next!
we flew up to the UK to Edinburgh - the beautiful city with the castle on the hill. We are staying here with Jess and Byron Smith, dear friends from Australia who moved here last year. Check out more photos on Jess's blog too.

our first day was fantastic blue sky and sunshine, though still cold. we met up with Kim Mackay and her daughter Isla for lunch (Kim is an old uni and Barneys friend of mine from way back). we all had dinner together that night which was great.









of course it is obligatory to try the local produce - here is Byron carving the Haggis, along with a ceremonial reading of Robert Burns' ode to the haggis in full scottish! (thanks to youtube for adding the atmospheric bagpipes)

switzerland #3

because how can you resist posting more pictures of our nephew and niece!
here is Elia with the snowman (built with Greg's assistance)


after a beautiful dusting of snow, the countryside is transformed, everything is a shade of white.


one more food photo too...her is the dinner table, with Ruth and Claude (who live in the other side of the house to Jen and Patrick). Check out our large linzertorte on the table.

switzerland #2

more adventures with jen, patrick, elia and luana...
we walked up to an old ruined castle, played in the snow, and of course ate excellent home cooked meals, including pizzas made in the woodfire oven.
bathtime is also fun!

switzerland #1

We have arrived in Basel - actually a little village outside Basel called Ormalingen. Greg's sister Jen, her husband Patrick, ad their 2 children (Elia age 5 and Luana age 14 months) live here. We are staying wtih them for a week so more photos to come...

Salzburg - the city of Mozart Kugeln

We traveled by train into Salzburg - a lovely snow-capped city, in full flight as they celebrated Mozart week. The illustrious composer was born here in Salzburg and they are now making every possible commercial outcome of this deightful historical accident. Hence, Mozartkugeln, which are chocolate and marzipan balls, sold in every shops and quite tasty! We enjoyed a chambermusic concert in one of the small museums and went up to the fortress on the hill. It has never been defeated in a military battle since it was first built in the 11th century and only surrendered once to Napolean!

We tried the local delicacy - wiener schnitzel (actually from vienna) and kaiserschmarrn - which are a kind of fluffy pancake torn up with roasted plum sauce.

more adventures in the austrian alps

The Austrian Alps in winter are spectacular. A good day features bright blue skies, invigorating skiing and warm Gluwein in the afternoon. A bad day lacks the blue skies, but features Gluwein earlier in the day. We enjoyed a week in Lech with the Green family - which featured no hospital visits, several Apfelstrudels mit vanillasauce and lots of lunchtime Goulash soup. Ben Holt joined the family from Geneva for several days - and we explored the wider territory of the nearby ski slopes of Zuhrs. Mid week, the ski school put on a night time ski show, monster snow cat display and fireworks!