The Glorious, Long-Awaited Return

SHE'S BACK.

The new computer arrived in the mail today [ many thanks to my family in Durham] and, well, it is a liquid hot tornado of Intel processing and RAM. I don't know how to sum up the last two months, but I think a short list will suffice:

- work
- riding the train
- work
- work
- a brief moment where I thought I might have to move to London and live in a hovel
- work
- work

So I didn't take the London job. It was a tumultuous decision, fraught with apprehension and what-if's, but I'm confident in my choice and am thrilled to announce that it means I will be coming home for the entire month of September!

In honor of my return to the blog, I will simply jump right in to the day-to-day of living in rural Fife and commuting to Edinburgh. Things are a lot different from my life in St Andrews these days, but I'm enjoying it out here. I especially love my work at the auction house, and I'm sad that I'll have to leave at the end of August. Ok, so today:

David and I went on a walk this morning, a "wee walk" he suggested over pancakes and bacon. We drove to the outskirts of Cupar to a place called Moonzie, parked, and walked up a short hill called The Mount. It was a gentle winding path up with lots of wild raspberries along the way. I ate a bunch and took some more home in a jar to make jam. I love how raspberries feel when you pull them off the little nub on the vine. Everything about it says EAT ME. So, I did. And how.

There was a little hidden loch about halfway up the hill that David calls Loch Potato because some anonymous farmer has been dumping his seed potatoes into it for years. We crashed through the woods to find it, and sure enough there was a HUGE pile of sodden potatoes right by the bank. They had all shot out roots over each other in a desperate attempt to get to the waterline. Weird.

We got to the top of the mount and explored the massive tower built there as a monument in 1826 to a Laird who fought in the Napoleonic wars. I stood on top of the cairn and David took my picture. We walked back down, and David was delighted to see a bird called a Yellow Hammer (great name) flit past. He says the way to remember what their song sounds like is to imagine they are singing just-a-little-bit-of-bread-AND-cheese. I wish I could describe the way he said it, but it was freakin hilarious. Sure enough, that's what it sounds like.

I'm still getting the new machine squared away for my incredibly specific usage, so after I get OCD-ed out on the file storage I will post some pictures from the walk and others.

Right! Love and miss you all, but I'll see you in FIVE WEEKS. Yes.

PS: I guess I should say that I've decided to stay in St Andrews to do my masters degree in the School of Art History. I am planning on moving to Edinburgh and working part time in auctions and commuting to St Andrews once a week for discussion, etc. I'm very, very excited about my research proposal, and it turns out that the postgraduate committee is too. Double Yes.

... guess I'll have to change my blog header to "Two Years at the University of St Andrews" ?