England
3 Weeks in Scotland – Lowlands
As I relate my great-grandmother’s colourful history to a local guide, I add in the detail that the younger lad she married on the train to BC was in fact a Lowlander. “Not a Sassanach?!” he gasps. Thanks to my extensive Outlander education, I know what that means and quickly reassure him that it’s not…
Read More3 Weeks in Scotland – Northern Highlands
When young Anne McGilvery refused a marriage being forced on her, she was kicked out of the family home on the fair Isle of Mull and sailed for Canada to work as a nanny. After a decade, the itch returned and she was once again high-tailing it – this time aboard a west-bound train, where…
Read MoreWalking with Jane Austen
North Waltham is “a village and civil parish in the borough of Basingstoke and Deane in Hampshire, England.” With one school, one store, one church and two pubs, it is a very ordinary and properly-proportioned English town (except that neither of the pubs show live soccer matches!) What distinguishes North Waltham is that one of…
Read MoreSpeaking English in London
For the past 6 months we’ve been functioning primarily in French & Spanish while trying to decipher Turkish and Arabic. Does that sign say Open or Closed, Push or Pull? Is this baking powder or baking soda? Is the yoga teacher telling us to lock our knees or clench our bums? It’s been exciting to…
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