Feb 22

My Ringtone: Scotland the Brave

blackwatch-pipers


“Scotland the Brave” (Scottish Gaelic: Alba an Àigh) is a Scottish patriotic song. It was one of several songs considered an unofficial national anthem of Scotland.

My cellphone ringtone is Scotland the Brave. At any event or rehearsal, everyone knows it’s my phone, if one is ringing 🙂  I posted a bit about that here: http://maryoblog.com/2015/08/

Below, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards pipes and drums perform Scotland The Brave, The Black Bear and Highland Laddie on the esplanade of Edinburgh Castle. In typically inclement Scottish weather, the Pipes and Drums were performing to mark the release of their second album Spirit of the Glen: Journey. Part of this album was recorded when the regiment was on active service in Iraq.

 

 

 

A view of the amazing Scottish country taken from across Scotland.

 

 

I had no idea that there were lyrics and I’ve never heard anyone singing them but here they are:

Hark when the night is falling
Hear! Hear the pipes are calling,
Loudly and proudly calling,
Down thro’ the glen.
There where the hills are sleeping,
Now feel the blood a-leaping,
High as the spirits of the old Highland men.

Towering in gallant fame,
Scotland my mountain hame,
High may your proud standards gloriously wave,
Land of my high endeavour,
Land of the shining river,
Land of my heart for ever,
Scotland the brave.

High in the misty Highlands,
Out by the purple islands,
Brave are the hearts that beat
Beneath Scottish skies.
Wild are the winds to meet you,
Staunch are the friends that greet you,
Kind as the love that shines from fair maiden’s eyes.

Towering in gallant fame,
Scotland my mountain hame,
High may your proud standards gloriously wave,
Land of my high endeavour,
Land of the shining river,
Land of my heart for ever,
Scotland the brave.

Far off in sunlit places,
Sad are the Scottish faces,
Yearning to feel the kiss
Of sweet Scottish rain.
Where tropic skies are beaming,
Love sets the heart a-dreaming,
Longing and dreaming for the homeland again.

Towering in gallant fame,
Scotland my mountain hame,
High may your proud standards gloriously wave,
Land of my high endeavour,
Land of the shining river,
Land of my heart for ever,
Scotland the brave.

Feb 15

Happy Presidents’ Day!

Today is President’s Day, a combo of holidays for George Washington’s and Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays, making a new Monday holiday.

These days people don’t seem to celebrate much except for having car and furniture sales.

When I was a kid, we lived in a small town (Pawcatuck, CT and Westerly, RI are sister towns, virtually interchangeable with each other).

Our combined town celebrated George’s birthday with cherry pies.

All the kids went around to the stores, and even bars!, and collected Table Talk pies.

I would come home with piles of the pies – which I loved and is still my favorite today.

As far as I remember, no one did anything for Abe’s birthday 🙁

I have mentioned this quirky event to several others and nobody has heard of giving away cherry pies like this on any holiday.

But everyone I’ve asked wishes that it still happened!

Feb 14

International Book Giving Day

book-giving-day-infographic

 

Some of you may know that I’m involved in Little Free Library (LFL) and is a library on my street under the auspices of the O’Connor Music Studio.

When our son is home for a visit, we always go out on a hiking trail with the dog, Mimi, and sometimes my mom.  On one occasion, we saw a LFL in the middle of a trail and thought someone made it themselves.

Then there was another another one…

DS knew I was fascinated by this whole idea and ordered one for me for Christmas in 2016.

I have found one other in our neighborhood, outside the swimming pool.

 

 

In the meantime, don’t forget to celebrate International Book Giving Day today.

 

From http://bookgivingday.com/

You’ve heard about International Book Giving Day. You love the idea. You’ve got some great quality books. What next?

This fabulous infographic (above) has been created by Jo Ebisujima – Jojoebi, one of the IBGD team, to help you solve that very quandary.

Share your plans on social media using #bookgivingday

Feb 14

Happy Valentine’s Day

greetings-valentines-day-animated

 

Have a special day today!

 

 

 

 

Feb 12

Happy Chinese New Year!

 

Our wonderful daughter-in-law is Chinese, so we are celebrating, too.

This is the Year of the Ox.  The Ox (牛) is the second of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac related to the Chinese calendar, and also appears in related calendar systems. 

Countries that observe Lunar New Year often offer three to seven days of public holidays but celebrations aren’t complete until the 15th day of the first lunar month, also known as the Lantern Festival. (Lunar New Year in 2021 lasts from February 12 to February 26.)
 
Families tend to have different sets of rules and traditions, but most will bless each other with auspicious words like “san tai gin hong” or “shen ti jian kang” (wish you good health).
 
During normal times, when people aren’t in lockdown, they’re expected to visit relatives and friends during the festival — except for the third day of the month. Day three of Lunar New Year (which falls on Valentine’s Day this year) is named chi kou, or red mouth. It is believed that arguments are more likely to happen on this day so people will visit temples and avoid social interactions.

 

 

 

Feb 11

Washington Pipe Band Plays For Sean Connery

Washington Pipe Band Plays For Sean Connery from Toby Dodd on Vimeo.

 

This video just came up on my Facebook feed this morning but I hadn’t seen it before.  Even though Washington is misspelled, this is still a fantastic performance for Sean Connery in 1999.

 

 

Sean Connery was honored at the Kennedy Center for lifetime achievements. The music consists of the Washington Pipe Band, Alasdair Fraser, Davidson School of Scottish Dance, Mairi Campbell and Dave Francis.

Jan 27

Happy Anniversary, 2021!

Another anniversary rolls around, the 48th, to be exact.  

I always like to check out this picture of our wedding expenses.  We have it framed and sitting on our mantle.

Tom paid $50.46 (blood tests and wedding ring!) and my costs (I made my own dress) were $29.25.

We were lucky.  My dad was the minister at the Barre (MA) Congregational Church so he didn’t charge us to perform the service.  The women of the church provided the reception in the parsonage.  My mom chipped in the flowers.

Well worth the cost!

Barre Congregational Church

Our honeymoon was in upstate New York so Tom could look for a job.  My only memories of that trip were the snow coming in under the door of our motel and Tom not getting a job.

After that, we drove back to Boston where we rented the bottom floor of my mother-in-law’s house.  In Dorchester, many of the homes were triple deckers and families could have one, two or three floors.

This isn’t where we lived, but a very similar look to her house.

We got all moved in and painted everything (we decided to paint my sewing room a cheery yellow.  The walls just sucked in the yellow paint and we had to use many, many coats). So, Tom got a job in Washington, DC.

So, we packed up and found a small apartment in Alexandria, VA.

That apartment was so small…when my parents came to visit, they slept on cots in the living room with their feet under my newly-acquired piano.

Then we moved to Holmes Run Parkway (also in Alexandria), Silver Spring, MD, Wilmington, DE, and finally settled in Fairfax, VA.

Eight years ago to celebrate our anniversary, Tom had a heart attack.  I wrote a lot about that here: https://maryomedical.com/2017/01/27/giving-thanks-day-3/

I am hoping for a nice, quiet day today!

Jan 20

Fun with Palindromes

 

Happy Palindrome Day! For 10 consecutive days, from 1-20-21 to 1-29-21, the date is read the same forwards and backwards in the month-day-year format.

Today, 1-20-21, is the first palindrome-number Inauguration Day in American history!

 

Jan 06

Yummy! National Shortbread Day!

Shortbread is a classic Scottish dessert  traditionally made with:

  • 1 part white sugar (I use powdered)
  • 2 parts butter
  • 3 parts flour (I usually use rice flour)
    And a bit of salt

Shortbread is so named because of its crumbly texture which is caused by its high-fat content, provided by the butter.   “Shortening” is its related word that refers to any fat that may be added to produce a “short” (crumbly) texture.

Prepared often during the 12th century, shortbread is credited to Mary, Queen of Scots in the 16th century.  As it was expensive to make, the sweet cookie was reserved as a luxury for special occasions.

Note on the video – I “rejected” most because they have all kinds of weird ingredients like cranberries, nuts, maple syrup.  Yuck!

 

A bit of a memory adapted from https://maryoblog.com/2015/09/16/scotland-edinburgh/

After sitting and resting for a while, we headed back down the castle hill, the Royal Mile and down the street towards our hotel.

On the way back, a hoodie outside a store caught my eye. While we were looking at it, a guy asked if he could help find my size. He had just been walking up the street but he was the shop owner. We went in and found something even better, with a matching one for Tom. I ended up also buying a cap and some other stuff. While I was looking around, I realized this was the same store where we’d bought the junk food for dinner the night before. I had been so tired/hungry that night I hadn’t even noticed that they sold hoodies, tshirts and stuff.

The shopkeeper spent a lot of time with us, looking in the back for the matching sweatshirts in the correct sizes. When he was done, he threw in a package of Walker’s shortbread for free! I wish I could remember the name of this shop so I could give it a good review on Trip Advisor. We save all our receipts, so hopefully I can find that name.

We continued on our way and a guy with sequined gold dress came running out of a doorway. I sure hope he was part of the Fringe Festival!

We got back to the Edinburgh City Hotel to get our car and I found I’d become mayor. 🙂

mayor-edinburgh

 

So, that really made my day. LOL

The drive back was pretty uneventful. We had some of the shortbread and I have to say it wasn’t nearly as good as mine.

When we got back to our place, I found out why.

We saw those tent people by the side of the road again. Gypsies? I couldn’t get a picture again. I’ll have one more time to try this on Saturday. They’ve been there at least 5 days. Surely, the police have seen them.

Back to our place!

It turns out that Walker’s uses whole wheat flour and I use rice. They use sugar, I use confectioner’s sugar. Other than that, the ingredients are the same. The flour, butter, confectioner’s sugar and a bit of salt.

Walker’s is definitely not bad, just different.

shortbread

My shortbread mold

Shortbread used to be my standard Christmas gift for local people but they mostly can’t eat shortbread anymore due to the butter, the sugar and the salt. <sigh>

When I was a kid, my dad’s congregation had a lot of Scottish members. One of the worst insults that could said was “She makes her shortbread with margarine“. What an epithet!

Dec 31

From Scotland: The First Foot

 

In Scottish folklore, the first-foot is the first person to enter the home of a household on New Year’s Day and a bringer of good fortune for the coming year.

Although it is acceptable in many places for the first-footer to be a resident of the house, they must not be in the house at the stroke of midnight in order to first-foot (thus going out of the house after midnight and then coming back into the same house is not considered to be first-footing).

 

It is said to be desirable for the first-foot to be a tall, dark-haired male. A female or fair-haired male are in some places regarded as unlucky.

The first-foot usually brings several gifts, including perhaps a coin (silver is considered good luck), bread, salt, coal, or a drink (usually whiskey), which represent financial prosperity, food, flavor, warmth, and good cheer respectively.

 

 

 

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