Home, Holidays, Friends and Fun Times.

Wow, it's hard to believe that we have been in Scotland for 4 months already.  
(And it's been 6 weeks since our last Blog, oops!) 

Well, in the past 6 weeks we took a road trip down to England to visit our English friends that we met while they were living in Florida.

It was great to see familiar faces so far away from home. 

Tony and Angie own an Inn and Pub 
in Higham

The Crown Inn
The village of Higham and the cottages that house the Crown Inn date back to the 11th Century and William the Conqueror.  

Friday night we had a great dinner in the restaurant, and a few pints in the pub with roaring fires and some of their friends.

Saturday we got up and went for a walk around the beautiful English countryside across the road from the inn.  It was a beautiful walk, aside from the fact that we almost got attacked by some crazy cows and a young bull. 

                                     

 We had such a great time visiting with them and meeting new friends that we are going back again next weekend for their Christmas party and their 1 year anniversary of owning the inn. 

Around the House

We still have been working on projects around the house.

We added a fireplace surround and finally found the clock we have been looking for to finish the living room.

The bookcase we stained and fitted to store our game systems in the upstairs lounge 

Upstairs Lounge  

Couch folds flat to provide extra bedding for additional guests.

Next project is staining this old pew from a Scotland church to match the other furniture in the dining room.

As a few of you have pointed out I haven't posted any pics of the kitchen so here are a few. 

 

Thanksgiving

It was very strange to be in a place where they don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but we made the best of it.  John had to work on Thursday and 1/2 a day on Friday.  

I cooked all morning on Friday so we could have our Thanksgiving dinner when he got home. 

Have you ever seen a 10 lb turkey? 

Kinda looks like a chicken in this pic.

A mini feast for 2. 

 Around Helensburgh

We are getting settled into our new town and are having fun exploring and finding our favorite restaurants, stores and pubs.  

 Helensburgh had a Winter Festival that included a parade, Christmas tree lighting ceremony, music, a Christmas Market, Santa dash, Fireworks and other various events for 
2 weekends in a row. 

We could watch the Fireworks from our upstairs window. 

We attended a party in the neighborhood last weekend and got to meet most of our neighbors.  We had dinner and drinks with a really nice couple and got invited to coffee, drinks, dinners and lunches with some of the others.  We are looking forward to getting to know them and making some new friends. 

In other news
As of November 27th, we are no longer Florida Homeowners.
 We made many great memories there 
and will always cherish "Our First Home."

Planning to visit?  

We are working on putting together a calendar of visitors, trips and events, so if you think you want to visit us next spring/summer please let us know of your dates so that we can be sure to fit everyone in. 

So, get those calendars out and passports ready. 

We hope to see you all soon!

Cheers!

Home Sweet Home

 It has been a very busy month as we moved into our new home.  We were very lucky to find the house that we did, as it is much bigger than we thought we would have here.  It's definitely nice to have all the space after spending 2 months in hotels and a very small 1 bedroom flat. We have been busy unpacking, arranging, re-arranging and getting settled in.  We have spent most of our weekends doing the unpacking, gardening, shopping, and various household projects to make it feel like HOME.


 The Lochinchard House
(yes, our house has a name)

 We are enjoying the fruits from our garden
Apples, Plums, Blueberries and Grapes

We are also enjoying beautiful roses from over 20 bushes in the rose garden.

The house was partially furnished with some neat antiques.
 Yes, the Grandfather clock chimes every hour.

We have a beautiful view of the garden from the dining room.
We found a dining table a local charity shop and ordered chairs online to go with it. 

                       

The Sunroom

It's a great place to enjoy coffee in the morning, afternoon tea or a glass of wine in the evening. 

(A great inspiring place to paint also.)

The Livingroom with a coal fireplace. 

After living in Florida for over twenty years, we had to re-learn how to build a coal fire.

The Guest Bedroom is ready for visitors to enjoy.

You can start making your reservations now.

The Master Bedroom

It was great to sleep in our bed after almost 2 months

we replaced the lights above the bed with updated fixtures

along with others throughout the house. 

We took a day off from house stuff and headed to Kilcreggan for an Ale Fest

where we were entertained by a local blues band named "Harmonica Lewinsky"

We were entertained on the bus ride home with an impromptu sing-a-long by the locals.

 We then ended up in the local pub with them for a nightcap. 

For another night out we hopped the train to Cardross to try our hand at Pub Quiz.

We found out that we are not very good with UK trivia, yet. For instance one question was "What is the name of the drink mixing champagne and OJ?" Oh we got this one... NOT. Note to all: they have no idea what a Mimosa is as they call it a Buck's Fizz.  

 However, We did win a round, Of course it was the Brain Teasers round and had nothing to do with our knowledge 

of the UK.  

We met some nice people and were invited to come back to play again. 

Grocery shopping has also been an adventure here. We have been able to find most things we need, except American style crispy bacon for John and flavored coffee creamer for CJ, but we are making do and trying new things.

We have gotten a kick out of some of the names of the products and thought we would share some with you.

and even if it says Chicken broth... its really chicken soup with rice and veggies.    

Moving has been quite the adventure and unpacking was just as exciting, not knowing what we would end up with.  The movers packed everything they saw, including garbage cans with the garbage still in it. (good thing it was only paper)

We found various items that were to suppose to go to storage (Lamps, summer clothes, crafting supplies)  and 

are missing a few important items, that we assume are in storage instead of here. 

(remote controls for both TV's, and CJ's favorite Scarves)  

Although the unpacking is now finished, we still have a few more rooms to put together, curtains to buy, garage to organize and furniture to sand and stain, but it is feeling more like home everyday.  

Sending much love to all of our family and friends, we hope to see you all soon!

John and CJ