Dear Regular Readers (and everybody else *waves cheerfully*) –

You will have noticed a dearth of blogs these last two weeks. Jack and I took a small group to Scotland to tour around enjoying the history and the folk arts. I didn’t keep up with the blog then for two reasons: to concentrate on the making sure our little band of travelers had a good time with all their needs met; and because my doctor and chiropractor said “you really need to rest your wrist.”

So I did. Call it a Sabbath rest; call it a sabbatical. At first I called it weird. As most of you know, when I’m not writing I’m crocheting. So the concept of two weeks in which I neither typed nor stitched was an interesting experiment in self-discovery. Who am I when I’m not being who I normally am?

Turns out, this brief “change is as good as a rest” time was great for both body and soul. More of that later. For now please know I’m starting a one-a-day until we’re caught up with all the tiny scribbled notes on bits of paper and napkin I brought back so each of you could share the tour with us. It was fun. Inspiring. Exhausting in a good way. The kind where you go to bed at night and think, “Yep used up all my energy today making other people happy and had a good time doing it.”

In preparation for the posts to come, meet our crew:

Alan, bus driver – Alan was the founding member of Battlefield Band. He knows a lot about history and occasionally broke into song as we passed towns whose names resonated with ballads he knew or songs he had written.

Zahnke, party of 3: Let’s start with Fiona, the matriarch at 90 years of age. She used a walking stick. That was it. Any suggestion she might want to you know, take it easy, skip an attraction, was greeted with her patented withering stare. Which works better because she’s like 4’11” so it burns all the skin off from your chin up. Then there’s Lulu, Fiona’s daughter, a puppeteer who lives in Majorca. She brought Mr. Fox and Ratsputin on the trip. They did a lot of scene play as we careened across the countryside. And the third Zahnke isn’t actually just a Zahnke, but has a hybrid last name I can’t spell. Gareth is Fiona’s grandson and Lulu’s nephew. He runs a farm in SWVA and as the tour progressed, if you couldn’t finish your three-course-nightly hotel dinner, just tilt the table toward Gareth. He was always ready to take one for the team.

Maria: I’ve known Maria since college, when we car pooled together to University of Tennessee Knoxville. In the past ten years Maria dealt with a life-altering brain tumor, followed by the death of her husband, best friend, and mother in rapid succession. Maria can, as she describes herself, quiver like a tuning fork with anxiety, and she can also come out with some awesome thoughts about life, scenery, and humor. You will never meet a more observant person.

Harry and Andrea: the other married couple on the trip, enjoying their “retirement” years. Although seasoned travelers, this was one of their few overseas vacations. Also, please be aware this sweet couple who launched three boys into adulthood are not quite as, ehm, straight-laced? Predictable? as one might wish to assign them to be. Harry’s dry wit and Andrea’s “I’m not sure about this but let’s do it because it sounds like fun” sense of adventure kept us all laughing.

Cassidy: First time overseas. First time on an airplane. First time having a cup of tea. First time having a Guinness. First fish supper. We stopped counting firsts after awhile. This kid (early 20s) was racking them up. We got in the habit of looking up–when we stopped for petrol near a hill with a trail, or took lunch breaks in a place with a cathedral–to find Cassidy waving at us from whatever the highest point was. A fast walker, a quiet thinker, and a barrel of fun, Harry summed up Cassidy well: You could drop that girl in boiling water and she’d still be happy.

So with Jack and Wendy at the head of this happy band of travelers, look for adventures over the forthcoming days, along with a few observations on humanity in general and Scottish humanity in particular.