Midges and Memories

As I sit here scratching the last remains of the midge bites I acquired two weeks ago despite being covered with Avon's Skin-So-Soft® while sitting outside on the phone (no reception inside the B&B) trying in vain to resolve a rental car problem, I am getting ready to settle back into the routine of normal life. I start with a new Integrationskurs on Tuesday which will go until the end of January, and although many families are getting hyped up for summer and vacations they'll take, we are finished with ours for the year.

M and I just returned from Scotland, where we met my two children and my son's girlfriend for a 12-day trip to the Isle of Mull and Edinburgh. The internet connection on the island was sketchy at best, and I had no time for blogging anyway.

There were many highlights and funny moments during this trip, and it was wonderful to spend time with the kids again. I had visited my daughter in Philadelphia last spring, but I hadn't see my son in two years. It is always nice to get back to Mull again, which we've all but vowed to do every two years from now on. The wild, rugged, natural place is good for the soul. Our souls, anyway.

the view from our self-catering flat in Glengorm Castle

We did some of our favorite activities and hikes on the island as well as some new ones, and it was a good week. Despite the rental car issues (we were towed back to Edinburgh despite multiple phone calls to the rental company to tell them the car's dash was warning us the car would not start in 300...200...150...miles) we had a fabulous trip, which ended with a day in Edinburgh and a day visiting the Great Polish Map of Scotland and two castle ruins east of the city.

Returning to a heat wave and dry spell in Germany makes us miss Scotland all the more. It's crazy to see on the photos that a mere week ago we were bundled up and soaking wet. No wonder our rhododendron bushes are looking weak and sad.

We returned with only two sleeves of Jacob's Creme Crackers, which we will carefully ration over the next few weeks, a deliciously-scented bar of Isle of Mull soap and candle, a calendar for next year, no new whiskey glasses but two new slate Mull coasters, more notecards that I won't use because occasions important enough to write on them don't come up, and four new books (five, if I count Ravished by a Highlander, which two of our travel companions gave to me after they read it).

The laundry is done, but the memories are still thick and I'm not quite ready to think about real life just yet. M is back at the office, but I've got a few days of recovery time before I'm back to work (part-time, at a job I love - not exactly a hardship).

Ahhh....Scotland.